Skip to main content- TACO TIME: Good news for everybody who isn’t addicted to Twitter. Portland’s tasty Koi Fusion Korean taco truck, which usually alerts hungry fans to its location around town via social media, has stomped the brakes and set up a permanent hub called KoiFusion@1 in the subterranean space underneath the Northwest Lovejoy Street OfficeMax, last home to chichi meat-market bar Solo. Owner Bo Kwon says the spot offers the cart’s roster of spicy short rib and bulgogi K-tacos plus high-class cocktails and Korean fried chicken, the only place we know of in Portland serving the dish so far. Former Carlyle and Portland City Grill chef Joe Anderson runs the kitchen. The under-the-radar taco bar is open now; find the mobile truck’s route at koifusionpdx.com.
- KNIGHT JOURNEYS FOR HONOR: It’s Oregon’s “Bring Your Dad to the Oscars Day” this Sunday, March 7, when Laika president and CEO Travis Knight hits the red carpet with his pop, Nike tycoon Phil Knight. As they root for the film Travis animated and Phil funded to win the Best Animated Feature statuette, the Knights will be joined by Coraline producer Claire Jennings and director Henry Selick (who has split from the Portland cartoon studio).
- KIDDIE CASTLE: This week in odd business news, a “7,500-square-foot indoor play structure” called PlayDate PDX is set to open this May in a Slabtown building in the shadow of the Fremont Bridge. Odder still? PlayDate has applied for a beer and wine license. Private party, anyone?
- METALHEADS: National music contests often surprise and confound us, as was the case with the Scion-sponsored No Label Needed Contest at popular rawk blog Metal Insider. See, we’d never heard of Portland’s own Proven, a hardcore outfit up to gain mentoring from the members of Shadows Fall, time in the recording studio, a photo shoot and an all-around facelift if it should win the contest. We weren’t familiar with Proven’s high-speed, Pantera-esque riffage. Nor did we know the joys of its double-kick drum action or constant growl-screaming. But now we’ve grown kind of fond of them. So maybe you should vote for the hometown boys to win big. Just go to metalinsider.net/nolabelneeded. Voting ends Friday, March 5. IMAGE: Courtesy myspace.com/provenmetal
- GIRL WITH THE PIFF AWARD: The Portland International Film Festival topped off its 33rd run by announcing the Audience Choice Awards on Sunday, Feb. 28. Sweden’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (which wasn’t screened for critics) took the narrative award, while The Topp Twins (which baffled AP Kryza) was the most popular documentary. Listen to WW’s movie critics debate their radically different choices at wweek.com.
WWeek 2015