Winter in Portland isn t exactly cabana weather. At Eem, though, it s easy to pretend. In response to state-mandated restrictions on indoor service, and the coming rainy season, the lauded Thai restaurant installed individualized dining pods last fall at the intersection of North Williams Avenue and Failing Street plywood and corrugated plastic structures co-owner Eric Nelson refers to as nuggets of paradise. Built and designed by Sitthisak Nuii Phoonkwan, the contractor behind each of Eem co-owner Earl Ninsom s joints, the Thai-inspired pods are intimate and made for single parties. The restaurant invested about $10,000 in the infrastructure with longevity in mind. We didn t put [the pods] out there as a lifeline for fall. Nelson says. We put them out as a lifeline for January.
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Inauguration Day Extremist Threat Mostly Fizzles in Oregon as Biden Administration Takes Power Some anarchist protesters smashed windows of the Democratic Party of Oregon headquarters in Northeast Portland. Damage to Democratic Party of Oregon offices on Jan. 20, 2021. (Chris Nesseth) Updated January 20 Oregon saw a largely peaceful transfer of power on Inauguration Day, with the only civil unrest before nightfall coming in the form of about a hundred masked anarchists and other leftist protesters smashing windows in Portland.
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Whether Serving Out of a Cart Window or Cardboard Boxes, Gumba Is One of Portland’s Finest Pasta Parlors No meal in 2020 provided more of a “this feels like we are in a restaurant” frisson than Gumba’s beet, cabbage and endive salad, pappardelle with braised beef sugo, pan-roasted steelhead trout, and eggplant olive oil cake. Gumba (Chris Nesseth) Updated January 13 As a food cart, Gumba punched above its weight, serving fresh pastas, handmade burrata and ambitious snacks that made you want to linger at an outdoor table. Now it s a brick-and-mortar in a time of takeout only but you ll still want to break out the candles, placemats and cloth napkins once you get the food home: No meal in 2020 provided more of a this feels like we are in a restaurant frisson than Gumba s beet, cabbage and endive sal
Updated January 13 Before the pandemic, Portlanders had long embraced the hygge lifestyle. The Danish concept of finding comfort in all things cozy is practically knitted into our DNA see our obsession with wrapping even street signs in crocheted scarves. But after spending months cooped up inside, now is not the time to burrow into a woolen blanket. Our pandemic winter demands that we abandon hygge in favor of a different European approach to these dark days: friluftsliv. The Scandinavian term roughly translates to open-air living, and GlüBar makes it easy to whip yourself into a state of outdoor bliss. Inspired by the outdoor Christmas markets in Northern and Western Europe, Imperial Bottle Shop & Taproom s new curbside pop-up makes patio drinking in the dead of winter not only feasible but downright jolly, pouring hot beverages such as mulled wine and beer.
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Oregon Prison Inmates Were Evacuated From Wildfires Onto the Home Turf of Their Former Gang Associates “Hey, dude, don’t eat the food. The white dudes in the kitchen are putting stuff in the food.” Oregon State Penitentiary (Chris Nesseth) Updated January 13 It had been a long night, and Derrick Jermaine Jay wanted a cup of coffee. That was a bad idea. On the morning of Sept. 9, 2020, Jay awakened on the floor of the Oregon State Penitentiary. He and the 250 or so other men who had slept on the floor around him didn t get the best night of sleep. They had arrived in the middle of the night after standing outside the prison under a blood-red sky for hours as ash rained down.