PIGGIE AND MARKET: Eric Bechard, the chef of McMinnville’s Thistlewho was famously arrested for brawling over the birthplace of a pig
used in a chef competition in 2010, is opening a restaurant in
Southeast Portland. A sample menu includes pickled elk tongue, stinging
nettle and wild garlic soup, and birch syrup pie with soured milk. The
restaurant is so far unnamed, but Scoop thinks “Tussle” has a really nice ring to it. >>
It looks like Portland’s got yet another brightly lit burger-bar
outpost that has its name emblazoned in stark white across blazing red
walls. Except this time, it’s called Slow Burger (2319 NE Glisan
St.). The Slow Bar spinoff has finally started serving the bar’s popular
loaded-to-the-gills burgers in Kevin Cavanaugh’s high-concept food
court, The Ocean. >> In other food news, downtown’s Market has closed, the second straight flop for formerly invincible local restaurateur Kurt Huffman. >> Rae’s Lakeview Lounge
is slated to open on Black Friday at 1900 NW 27th Ave., in the space
that formerly housed Aki Pan Asian Cuisine. It’s billed as “a classic,
metropolitan lounge grounded in old-Portland roots, both food and
cocktails are scratch made, affordable, and approachable.”
PORTLAND MAKE FILM TODAY: Before David Sedaris was Crumpet the Elf, he came to the Beaver State to pick apples. And true to his tendency for misadventure, he ended up hanging out with a fanatical Christian and selling stones carved in the shape of Oregon.
Sedaris captured that experience in the essay “C.O.G.”—which is now
being made into a feature film and, according to our favorite gadfly,
Byron Beck, currently shooting in Portland. Start prowling for those
mid-tier celebs, including Glee’s Jonathan Groff (spotted at the Pearl District’s 24 Hour Fitness), True Blood’s Denis O’Hare and Battlestar Galactica’s Dean Stockwell.
SIGN UP: The
Hollywood Theatre wants your money to put up a new marquee. The
historic arthouse has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to
replace its current, 30-year-old signboard. The theater has already
raised more than $50,000 in donations and in-kind support, but it still
needs $55,000 by Dec. 18 for the new marquee, which will be designed in
the style of the 1926 original. Executive director Doug Whyte also hopes
a fancy and flashy marquee—the Kickstarter video promises lots of neon
and hundreds of bulbs—will help the Hollywood thumb its nose at the five-story housing complex being constructed next door.
CORRECTION: Last
week’s review of rival Southeast Portland sandwich carts (“Shut Up,
Lardo,” Oct. 31, 2012) incorrectly identified the kind of fat Lardo uses
to cook its fries. It uses a mixture of canola oil and high-grade rendered pork fat. We regret the error.
BECHARD
