violetta

You may recall a year or so ago I posted an entry about the new Park Block that was being planned at SW Park and Taylor in downtown Portland.  Included in the plan was a small, glass-enclosed restaurant space that had a lessee in place – and they planned to call the restaurant “Viola”.  Being a violist, that caught my eye, and even joked that violists might get a discount at happy hour or something like that.  Well, just days before the owner (owner of the now-defunct Roux, Dwayne Beliakoff) were to take over the space, there was an explosion and fire, and the plans had to be put on hold.  Today, happily, I discovered that there was a contingency plan: a mobile food truck that serves a scaled-down version of the eventual full menu to be available at the bricks-and-mortar location.  I had a great burger and fries, made fresh to order from only the finest local purveyors.  You might check it out next time you’re downtown, they’ll mostly be open at the lunch hour to start, eventually staying open later as different events take place around the park block.

badbeard hits the big time

Justin “Badbeard” Kagan, the Portland cellist neé coffee roaster and foodie extraordinaire, has been featured in today’s Oregonian courtesy of the O’s classical music critic David Stabler.  It’s a nice write up, and you can find it here.  Justin does a great job of explaining his coffee ethos, and that is worth sharing once more:

Coffee should make you think of coffee, not a hipster, fetishistic expression of some great unknown, and it can and should awaken one’s imagination.

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spella caffe II now open

Many of you are aware by now that I am a total coffee aficionado – I love coffee in most all of its forms.  Anyone who is a coffee lover also knows about Andrea Spella’s espresso cart on SW Alder and Park in downtown Portland.  Andrea is doing espresso in the authentic Northern Italian tradition, from hand-roasting the beans himself to pulling shots from his lever action Rancilio espresso machines.

Just in time for the wet doldrums of winter, Spella has opened a bricks-and-mortar location on SW 5th between SW Alder and SW Washington downtown.  It’s a cozy little location, a nice place to dash in on a break from work for a quality, hand-crafted espresso or bag of freshly-roasted espresso beans. Take the time in the new year to drop by and say hello and have some great coffee!

Andrea Spella at his new cafe in downtown Portland, Ore.Andrea Spella at the counter of his new cafe.

Spella Caffe II – SW 5th & Alder
Spella Caffe cart – SW 9th & Alder