"4G"
The daring Southeast Portland seafood restaurant tanks itself after a promising six-month run.
Posted by: Karen Brooks on Jan 17, 2011 at 01:15PM (PORTLAND MONTHLY)

Come February, Fin will swim with the fishes.

According to chef Trent Pierce, who confirmed the rumor, Portland’s first small-scale artisan seafood restaurant has been sold. The gutsy new wave fish house at 1852 SE Hawthorne Blvd will serve its last dinner on Valentine’s Day.

Owner Joan Dumas commented, “For personal health and relocation needs it is no longer viable for me sustain restaurant operations at Fin.” She says the building has not been sold, and is currently considering her options. Pierce had hoped to buy the restaurant after two years, and he plans to seek funding to open his own place—either a raw food bar or a gritty Italian osteria—possibly with some of his Fin comrades.

Fin swam into Portland’s comfort-food-loving market last July with ambition and adventure, breaking with old-school, large scale seafood restaurants like Jake’s. No salmon, no sturgeon, no lemon wedges, no bibs. Pierce hoped to hook us with the likes of barracuda, blue snapper, and butterfish. And he did a pretty convincing job, toying with fish and charcuterie and sending out unexpected plates marked by still-life beauty. His Hawaiian butterfish—immersed in forest-pungent porcini dust, then dunked brazenly in butter and bone marrow drippings—was one of the best dishes of 2010.

Still, the dining room felt jarringly disconnected from the kitchen, and the experience sadly did not ante up to the food and price tags. (Read my review of Fin in the February issue of Portland Monthly).

Pierce says Fin opened on a slim budget in Dumas’s former Sel Gris space, lost to a fire the previous year. “The sad thing is we’re making money now,” says Pierce. “That’s the bummer. It all boiled down to not enough dining capital.”

Catch Fin’s last wave through February 14, Tuesday through Sunday nights. A special multi-course menu will serve as the grand finale on Valentine’s Day.
I made a sales call to a national chain (steakhouse) restaurant, they must list calories by law.....

1) 4 course meal of lobster/crab cakes + cup clam chowder + mozzerella salad + big steak w/ veggie side's = 1900 calories

or

2) side of shoestring fries = 1870 calories

I had fries for lunch elsewhere, scary
dvr alert : hal roach studios tues in jan tcm
im ok w/ the american shameless / and episodes too for that matter
book graffiti
what ailes ya?
Droopy Out
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wikipedia
THE critics have weighed in from every conceivable angle, and the results seem to be unanimous. The 2008 vintage for Oregon pinot noir is superb.
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Few people know the fascinating history of tea growing and making. This intriguing documentary aims to change that by following renowned tea importer David Lee Hoffman as he scours the far-flung corners of China to find the richest teas on earth. Tea making is an art and tradition that goes back generations in the East, and Hoffman makes it his goal to bring to the rest of the world the exquisite teas produced by struggling small farmers.
all-time nyc eateries:

voice v. times

i want to ride my bicycle...
nice wall paper
Anyone got a good recipe for crab cakes?
jared beck
keenwa, but no mention of Quilmes
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...and I'm never going back to my old school.
Portland Monthly (on line)

Bunk Sandwiches’ pork belly cubano just might change your life.
Posted by: Karen Brooks on Jan 12, 2011 at 10:45AM

Not your average Cuban sandwich…

When is a classic something more than tradition and the personal poetry of taste memory? When it’s pushed to something greater—still recognizable but with a fresh stamp, a reworking that pushes texture in unexpected ways or adds a taste to record in the mouth’s hall of fame.

That’s the only way to describe the Pork Belly Cubano, a devilish spin on the Cuban workingman’s ham and cheese, at Bunk Sandwiches and Bunk Bar.

The sandwich got its 15-minutes of food-porn fame on the Food Channel’s “The Best Thing I Ever Ate” this past Sunday. Dimpled, bearded host Chris Cosentino boisterously called it “way, way better” than a regular Cubano. Even by hyped-up Food Channel standards, he’s not exaggerating.