Scoop: Gossip Sees Fluoride in the Moon.

1. BOURN TO BE WILDER: Raquel Bournhonesque, co-director of Upstream Public Health—the lobbying group best known for its recent campaign to fluoridate Portland’s water—plans to open an eatery deep in Last Thursday territory, in the former location of Troolie craft shop at 5501 NE 30th Ave. Bournhonesque says Wilder Bar Cafe is named after her “love for the wilderness. It’s a reminder to keep things organic, keep them wilder.” The cafe will focus on locally sourced ingredients and housemade food items.

1. DIGITAL STORM: The digital transition has been plowing forward for several years, but Hollywood studios are expected to shift fully to digital distribution by the end of 2013—which means several local theaters are campaigning for funds to keep their screens alive. The Academy Theater, in Portland’s Montavilla neighborhood, last week launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise $75,000 to help purchase and install three new digital projectors. Meanwhile, Newberg’s 99W Drive-In is part of a nationwide campaign to save drive-in theaters. That project, run by Honda, will donate digital projectors to the five drive-ins that receive the most votes. If it doesn’t get one—supporters can also contribute to an accompanying Indiegogo campaign—99W may close. “The Hollywood studios helped out the first-run theaters and cineplexes in their conversion, but they’ve really offered nothing to smaller independent theaters and especially second-run theaters,” says Academy manager Dannon Dripps. “It’s definitely go digital or go dark.”

1. EMPTY NEST: Although the bar had its pre-opening party on its anticipated start date of Aug. 2, the new Buckman location of the burned-down Alberta Street bar The Nest (2715 SE Belmont St.) can’t open yet. “We’re waiting on the city,” says co-owner Michelle Gillies-Crockett. The bar’s owners recently discovered they still needed to obtain a number of permits after taking over from the previous tenant, Duke’s Landing, and don’t know when they can open. “I wish we were open now,” says Gillies-Crockett, “We have employees that are waiting to start work.”

1. SHRIMP RIPPER?:In the ever-broadening local sweepstakes to come up with the weirdest beer name, two new breweries appear to be neck and neck. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, gluten-free brewers Moonshrimp have filed for a brewing license. Moonshrimp is named for the brewer’s tendency to see a “shrimp on a cracker,” rather than a man, in the moon. Gnobilis Brewing of Gresham seems to be brewing beers of uncommon violence—an imperial Cascadian dark ale named Head Crusher, and a strawberry-inflected imperial hefeweizen called Breast Ripper.

WWeek 2015