Breakfast in Bridgetown

If a 10-day tour of Tuscany, focusing on food and wine and hiking and culture and history, sounds good to you, click here.

If I wanted to be lazy, I’d just go with … “What he said.”

But here’s a better effort.

When I set out to write Breakfast in Bridgetown, it was because it brought together four of my favorite things: food, people, stories and writing. It started as just a cool idea, then became a business idea, and now what I like to call a Vast Breakfast Empire.

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I always get a kick out of seeing my book mentioned in the paper. In this case, Oregonian food writer Grant Butler was nice enough to call Breakfast in Bridgetown “indispensable.” Thanks! Read his full preview of the PBS breakfast show here.

Yes, “Breakfast Special” will air this Wednesday, July 14, on OPB at 8 p.m. The featured restaurants in Portland are Helser’s and Tin Shed. And here is the story of the taping, from my perspective.

I confess I can’t wait to see it — although my enthusiasm is dulled a bit by the thought of my face appearing on high-definition TV sets all over the country. I am also bummed that I am out of books. I can already hear myself telling publishers the cautionary tale entitled, “Don’t let yourself run out of books right before you appear in a national television documentary on the subject of your work!” Egads.

If you’re looking for books: There was one left at Amazon.com on Monday; same at Powells.com. I’ve also seen them in stores at Powell’s and at New Seasons. And some of these places might still have them, as well. Otherwise, we all might have to hang on for the second edition, due in October.

Enjoy the show!

This afternoon, April 1, from 3 to 8 p.m., they’re having a sale at the Portland Eagles Lodge, SE 49th and Hawthorne. There’s something of a website about it here. They charge a buck to get in, but it’s all a fundraiser for various charities.

I will be selling all of these items. Buy any two $15 books for $25. I take cards, too!

Breakfast in Bridgetown ($10)

60 Hikes Within 60 Miles of Portland — new 4th edition for 2010! ($15)

Best Tent Camping: Oregon (2009 — $15)

Day and Overnight Hikes on the Oregon PCT ($10)

Happy Hour Guidebook and Wine Country Guidebook ($15 each)

Woman’s Best Friend, a collection of stories by women about their dogs

Come on down this Saturday, March 20, to buy some books and say hello at Skidmore Market. You might know that as “part of Saturday Market,” but it’s actually two completely different markets that  sit across the tracks from each other.

My Stumptown Scribes booth will be set up in the food court, and I’ll be sharing it this week with the lovely Jackie of Scrumptious Suds. Market is open from 10 to 5:30.

I am selling signed, updated copies of Breakfast in Bridgetown for $10, and I also have hiking and camping books I wrote, plus the Happy Hour guidebook, the Wine Country guidebook, and several other fun titles.

I am an assistant organizer for the PDX Breakfast Club on Meetup.com, and I thought I’d let everybody know that (A) there is such a thing, with almost 300 breakfast lovers, and (B) we’re going to check out Tasty and Sons next week. It’s free to join the group, and you get to meet all kinds of cool folks. And folks like me.

Details are here.

This Wednesday, from 6 to 8 p.m. I’ll be doing my first of many markets in 2010: The Sip and Shop Social Club at SE 49th and Hawthorne, in the Eagles Club. Should be a good time.

I’ll be selling Breakfast in Bridgetown for $10 — signed, and with a list of updates since publications — plus several other locally-written titles, including:

• Best Tent Camping: Oregon by me
• Day and Overnight Hikes on the Oregon PCT, also by me
• Portland Happy Hour Guidebook by Cindy Anderson
• Oregon Wine Country by Cindy Anderson
• Woman’s Best Friend (women writing about dogs) by Megan McMorris
• Cooking Italian by Joe Bianco.

The booth is called Stumptown Scribes, and for more information check the soon-to-be-redone website, StumptownScribes.com. And yes, I take credit cards.

See you there!

Here at Breakfast in Bridgetown, we’re all about breakfast and writing. So it makes sense that our second contest would be … writing about breakfast!

Here’s the deal: We want to hear your best Portland breakfast story. That might not be the best meal you ever ate, or even the worst, but it will be a good story.

Give us up to 500 words, and we’ll judge it on two categories: how good is the story, and how good is the writing? The judges for this contest are:

• Paul Gerald, author and publisher of Breakfast in Bridgetown: The Definitive Guide to Portland’s Favorite Meal, and the host of the PDX.FM radio show of the same name.
• Mindie Kniss, frequent guest on the show and organizer of the PDX Breakfast Club on Meetup.com. She’s an editor at two lit magazines and an integrative life coach; see KnissCoaching.com.
• Dieselboi, the Lead Cartivore of FoodCartsPortland.com.

We’ll be taking submissions until the end of the day on Friday, January 29th, and we’ll announce the winner during the show on Friday, February 5th.

How to enter? Best is to email it to me, Paul@BaconandEggsPress.com.

And what does the winner get? The winning submission will be included in the second edition of Paul’s book – with credit and everything! We’ll even throw in two signed copies of the book when it comes out … sometime.

Mindie and I discussed this contest towards the end of Podcast #10 on January 8.

Alright, all you breakfast-eating literary types – go to it!

This Friday, October 23rd, at 2 p.m., please cruise over to PDX.FM and listen to a hiking show called Hike Yeah. (It will also be available later as a podcast, which I’ll post a link to)

On that show, you will hear my internet radio debut, as a guest to talk about hiking and my books, 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles of Portland and Day and Overnight Hikes on the Oregon PCT.

Also during that show, you will hear a very special announcement, which I am not going to divulge right now, because I’m not ready to, but if you’re curious, a couple of the links in this post will point you towards it.

I am quite sick today, so no clever details. Just a link to the Fair’s website — beware the huge download — and a note that I got a great location, the corner of NE 25th and Alberta. Come on out and say hello! Selling time is 11 to 7.

My friend Megan McMorris will have a new title, as well: P.S., What I Didn’t Say, making its world debut at the Stumptown Scribes booth. Here’s  what Megan wrote about it:

From BFFs to Frenemies, from The One Who Got Away to The One You Wish Would Go Away, P.S.: What I Didn’t Say gets at the good, the bad, and the ugly of female friendships, all in an “unsent letter” format. The letters in this collection will make you laugh out loud, sob quietly into your cereal, and above all make you appreciate, celebrate, and examine the females in our lives

The book has a website and …. amazingly …. a video book trailer with her own music! What a cool chick.