Food & Drink ...   More

Food & Drink Given the difficulty of operating a restaurant in this food-crazy town, we're constantly amazed when an eatery survives, let alone thrives.  Which is why we take a brief moment to mark the 30th birthday of Alexis Restaurant, the Greek establishment that brought deep fried squid and old world charm to Portland.  The restaurant founded by the Bakouros family has not been without adversity.  ...   More

News It's official. Kenny & Zuke's Sandwichworks, the offshoot of the duo's successful downtown Jewish deli, has opened at 2376 NW Thuman Street. And, damn, they serve some tasty meat-on-bread. A trio of WW staffers strolled down to the new sandwich-centric spot (our office is only a few blocks away) for a hefty meatball hero ($8.75), lightly spiced Chicago Italian beef ($8.25) and a "Super Torta ...   More

News What's goin' on with McCormick & Schmick? Former WW staffer and gossip maven about town Byron Beck reported on his blog Wednesday afternoon that the Portland-based seafood empire will close its big First Avenue and Oak Street location on Thursday. M&S also owns downtown staples Jake's Famous Crawfish and Jake's Grill. Beck writes: UNHAPPIEST HOUR: I've just heard that Thursday, April 9, will ...   More

News Updated with more info: It's really happening! Tomorrow, Friday, May 1, Burgerville will start serving local wine and beer at its Salmon Creek location in Vancouver. That's right—order a Widmer Hefeweizen to go with your pepper bacon cheeseburger. Genius! (We've got a call in to Burgerville to find out when Portland might start getting some sudsy action too). According to the Burgerville ...   More

News A major shakeup over at Micah Camden's Northeast Portland empire: We've heard that Chef Greg Perrault is leaving D.O.C., the Killingsworth 'hood supper house that he created with Camden in 2008. "Yes, Greg's leaving," Camden confirmed via phone from San Francisco. "He's done an amazing job. He wants to go work on a farm, he wants to go butcher for a while. I can't stop him. " Camden says ...   More

News Willamette Week's 2009 Restaurant Guide is out today, inside every issue of this week's paper. We had a blast, as always, putting the guide together, and noticed a few things along the way that didn't make it into the guide. First, turnover. The following restaurants that were in last year's guide have either closed or undergone such drastic changes that they might as well have: 23Hoyt, Alberta ...   More

News Valentine's Day is approaching, whether you want to admit it or not. The silver lining of this cheesy consumer lovefest? It gives local restaurants an good excuse to cook fabulous prix fixe meals with fun themes (scroll down to the Heathman to see what I mean). Take charge of your fake holiday plans and reserve a table for you and your beloved (or, alternately, for you and a group of hungry friends ...   More

News As we reported in last week's Scoop column, there are two restaurants moving into the former home of It's A Beautiful Pizza on Southeast Belmont Street: Hall of Records, a combination record shop and bar, and Cognito, a collaboration between owner Wayne Sabbak, who also owns the property, and chef Jeffrey J. Kingman. Kingman gave us a call to correct an error in our original item (he's spent recent ...   More