So many good eats at Grizzly Tattoo's opening party!

Wow, what a party! My boyfriend Tyler Adams’ new North Williams Ave. tattoo shop — Grizzly Tattoo — opened with a bang a little over a week ago and a lot of you were there, and then some. Hundreds came out to celebrate and I’ve included a few peeks into the night below. (I only took a few photos at the very beginning because it quickly got too crowded. I also wrote about the party here.) Awesome!

We reached out to neighborhood businesses for food and drink donations and holy bleep they rose to the occasion. (Tyler tattoos a lot of food and drink folks in town.)

On the food and drink donation front we had Yaquina Bay oysters on the half-shell hand delivered by EaT Oyster Bar owners Ethan and Tobias; chicken liver sherry mousse, poached almonds, pickled cuke and more from Tasty n Sons, a keg of lager from Hopworks BikeBar, pulled pork sliders and traditional sliders from Che Cafe food cart, all sorts of sweets from Pix Patisserie and Jaime Henderson, secret loveliness from The Bye & Bye, mini pies from Loly LeBlanc, delicious mustards from Creaux Creole Mustard and the list goes on. Wow.

I also made a few things myself — a gallon of pickled asparagus (from our neighbor’s friend’s farm), a gallon of pickled beets and two tapenades — one with anchovies and one vegan. Oh, and Faulkner Short’s photography will be up in the shop for several weeks so stop by and check it out. There are some really nice photos for sale.

Thank you to everyone who donated! Thank you to everyone who came out for the party! Thank you Portland! Go Grrrrrizzly!

Thank you so much for donating food and drink to Grizzly Tattoo's opening party!

More deliciousness from Grizzly Tattoo's opening party!

A few minutes into the party. Got too crowded to take pics shortly after...

I called dibs on the first tattoo at Grizzly Tattoo so Tyler gave me these feathers. Black and blue. Love it.

Grizzly Tattoo
www.grizzlytattoo.com
3949 North Williams Ave.
Portland, Oregon
503.265.8146
tyler at grizzly tattoo dot com
Check out Tyler’s tattoos

My boyfriend Tyler Adams is opening a new Portland tattoo shop — Grizzly Tattoo — on North Williams (next to Hopworks BikeBar in the newly constructed EcoFlats building) and he’s celebrating with an opening party this Friday, June 3rd 7pm till late that you and all your friends and family (and their friends and family…) are invited to! Hope you can come out and help us celebrate with food, drink, music, a photography show by our friend Faulkner Short, musical styling by our friend Rale Sidebottom and a tattoo giveaway.

Hopworks Urban Brewery has been generous enough to donate a keg of their delicious lager for the event, and Tasty n Sons, The Bye & Bye, Pix Patisserie, Che Cafe food cart and Jamie Henderson are being the best neighbors in the world by donating some of their delicious food. So come on out and eat, drink and be hairy with Grizzly!

I’m so happy that Tyler is in the same neighborhood as the lovely folks at Tasty n Sons, Pix Patisserie, Lodekka double decker dress shop (they’re having a party on Saturday, June 4th!), EaT Oyster Bar, Che Cafe food cart and then some.

Here’s to Grrrrrrizzly! Grrrr!

Grizzly Tattoo shaping up. I took this photo last Friday -- a week before the opening party THIS Friday! No sleep till Grizzly!

Mr. Grizzly

Grizzly Tattoo
www.grizzlytattoo.com
3949 North Williams Ave.
Portland, Oregon
503.265.8146
tyler at grizzly tattoo dot com
Check out Tyler’s tattoos

Celilo Restaurant's (in Hood River) morel and fromage blanc topped crackers were super tasty.

Taste of the Nation truly gets bigger and better every year. We had a fantastic time eating and drinking all sorts of amazing things from Portland area chefs and food/drink folks at this year’s Taste of the Nation at Luxe Autohaus. (Always made much better by the fact that 100% of the proceeds go toward local child hunger relief.) If you don’t know about the event you can read more about it here and here. We paced ourselves a lot better this year so that by the end (and we stayed until the very end — as in tables being folded) we felt full but not roll-out-the-door full.

It’s hard to pick favorites but I think it’s good to give credit where credit is due. SO here are my top five favorite things that I ate at this year’s Taste of the Nation (not to mention all the delicious wine, beer and bubbly) followed by photos…

Top five bites at this year’s Taste of the Nation in no particular order…
La Calaca Comelona’s rainbow chard wrapped masa with pork in a red sauce
Biwa’s braised pork and house pickled vegetable lettuce wraps
Bamboo Sushi’s Oregon albacore carpaccio
Fifty Lick’s coconut lemon saffron sorbet
Davis Street Tavern’s cold carrot fennel soup with sorrel salsa verde

Screen Door's mini chocolate and peanut butter pies were really good. Especially when eaten right after their...

Smoked meatloaf and whipped potato bites topped with crispy shallots. Yeah, pretty genius side-by-side.

Biwa kicked ass as usual with their braised pork lettuce wraps with pickled veggies.

Fratelli was set up right next to Biwa with some yummy rockfish crudo that got topped with yuzu foam seconds after I took this photo.

No, he did not get stuck in the ice cream cooler. 50 Licks' coconut lemon saffron sorbet is incredible.

Andina had a lovely spread of marinated fish in a aji colorado al batan sauce, fava bean salad and okra rellena stuffed with braised oxtail. Top that why don't you.

We hung out with friends until the lights-out end. Another fantastic Taste of the Nation with 100 percent of proceeds going to local child hunger relief organizations. Cheers Portland!

Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation
Monday, May 2nd, 2011
5-9pm
LUXE Autohaus
410 NE 17th Ave.
Portland, OR 97232
Stay tuned for next year’s Taste of the Nation
www.portlandtaste.org

Red Wattle piglets...

In October I got an invitation to attend one of two Oregon Culinary Institute dinners that I’ve been looking forward to ever since. Both dinners sound great but by process of already-have-plans elimination I’m going to the first one next Tuesday night.

What exactly am I talking about? Here’s some info…

Tuesday, November 9th, 7pm @ Oregon Culinary Institute — Suds & Swine five-course fundraiser dinner with beer pairings from Upright Brewing to benefit Chefs Collaborative. MENU & TICKETS.

Wednesday, November 10th, 7pm @ Oregon Culinary Institute — Wine & Swine five-course fundraiser dinner with wine pairings from Chehalem Winery to benefit Ecotrust’s Farm to School program. MENU & TICKETS.

Tickets for each dinner are $75.

Oregon Culinary Institute chefs at Heritage Farms Northwest.

A little background…

In May, OCI purchased three Red Wattle hogs from Heritage Farms Northwest in Dallas, Oregon. Red Wattles are a breed of hog listed on Slow Food USA’s Ark of Taste. According to Slow Food USA, “Red Wattle pork is exceptionally lean and juicy with a rich beef-like taste and texture.” Mmm.

The breed is named for its color and distinctive wattles that hang from either side of its neck — similar to the wattles of some goat breeds. Since May two of the pigs have been pen-raised at Sweet Briar Farms in Eugene and the other pasture-raised at Heritage Farms Northwest. All OCI culinary students were invited to participate in the project.

On November 9th and 10th OCI Chef Instructor Josh Blythe and a crew of students will prepare five-course dinners with each dish featuring side-by-side comparisons of the pasture- and pen-raised pork. OCI Baking and Pastry Chef Instructor Salvatore Hall and his students will prepare dessert. Each course will be tailored to the beverages served that night.

Wealth Underground Farm, an organic CSA farm located on Newberry Rd. off Skyline Blvd. in Portland, is providing produce for both dinners.

All events surrounding this project, leading up to and including the final dinners, are being filmed and edited into a final video production by Actual Industries.

Learn more about the dinners here.
Learn more about the pig project here.

About Oregon Culinary Institute:

Established in 2006 as a division of Pioneer Pacific College, Oregon Culinary Institute offers a complete, practical and affordable culinary arts education where students can earn Associate of Applied Science degrees in Culinary Management, Baking and Pastry Management, and Restaurant Management. The school also offers diplomas in Culinary Arts, Baking and Pastry Arts, and Restaurant Management, Students may also earn a Sommelier Diploma at Oregon Culinary Institute in cooperation with the International Sommelier Guild. OCI’s student-run fine-dining restaurant serves lunch and dinner, most Mondays through Fridays. Reservations are recommended.

In the walk-in until next week's dinners...

ATTENTION: My boyfriend, Tyler Adams, no longer co-owns Fortune Tattoo. Visit his North Portland shop — Grizzly Tattoo — which opened June, 2011! For more info. visit www.grizzlytattoopdx.com, 503.265.8146, tyler at grizzly tattoo dot com. Grrrrrrrizzly!

Big night for Fortune Tattoo. So big folks spilled into the space next door...

Last Friday’s Fortune Tattoo grand opening party was awesome — thanks to a lot of you! We knew it would be big but we had no idea how big. Thanks to everyone who came and made it such a special night for shop owners Tyler Adams and Ms. Mikki. And thank you to everyone who donated food, drink, music and elbow grease to get the shop sails up.

I’m posting some photos here — mostly of the food and drink for reasons you all should understand — but if you didn’t make it and want to check out the new shop get in there. Fortune is located between Foti’s Greek Deli and Southeast’s Fire On The Mountain and just a few doors down from EastBurn so if you’re craving any of that stop by Fortune en route. Here are some party pics…

There will be more Fortune parties if you missed this one...

The party spilled into this space nextdoor to Fortune for food, drink and music...

Bluehour's Kenny Giambalvo donated all sorts of fantastic food and stopped by for awhile too.

Thanks Kenny! Amazing...

Toro Bravo's John Gorham also donated a bunch of delicious food...

Got early shots of everything and glad I did because the food was amazing and went fast. Thanks John!

Domaine Serene couldn't have been more generous with their kick ass pinot noir.

And MacTarnahan's rocked with THREE kegs of donated Amber Ale and Hum Bug'r Porter poured by good friends.

Wouldn't have been a Fortune Tattoo party without fortune cookies...