Breakfast in Bridgetown

I had a fun visit recently with the food writer at the Portland Mercury, and he wrote a nice story from it. You can read it right here. Anybody want to guess where the picture was taken?

This one isn’t breakfast-related — I occasionally do other things — but is interesting. I wrote an article for the Oregonian about the trail up Beacon Rock, and it finally ran in the paper this weekend. You can read it online here.

The first person who told me about Isabel was my friend “Janette.” I am not using her real name out so I can more honestly describe her. She’s very attractive, extremely fit and healthy, ambitious, upbeat, and all-around striking. And yes, I have a crush on her.

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I just spoke with the nice folks at New Seasons Market, and they are going to be carrying the breakfast book, as well. It’ll probably be a bit before they show up there, but it’s still pretty cool!

I am, starting today, going to try getting caught up on some recent breakfasts – not that there’s been a clamor, or even a single request, for new write-ups, but just because it’s what I like to do. Besides, there will one day be a second edition, and I might as well start working on it.

Last Sunday, the Breakfast Crew – Shari, Jerry, Alice, Beth, Rick and me – went to a new place called Belly Timber, 3257 SE Hawthorne, serving brunch weekends 9 to 2. If you don’t want to read the rest of this review, just take this home with you: Belly Timber is tasty, pleasant, reasonably priced for what it is, and not crowded. So go.

Otherwise, if you’re interested in more …

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I just sold five copies of Breakfast in Bridgetown to the nice folks at Looking Glass Books in Sellwood. And what a lovely store! It looks like a trolley on the outside, but it’s really large and has a cool garden and fountain in back.

And earlier this week, Made in Oregon picked up 32 of them — just in time for the Channel 6 spot!

My friend Jane was nice enough to send some pictures of me on her TV set:

Skip ahead to the video clips here and here.

Just about the only thing stranger than being on television is actually seeing yourself on television. And today I’ve had both of those experiences.

I was at Besaw’s Cafe about 4:45 a.m. and spent two hours down there so I could be on KOIN Channel 6 four different times … for about two minutes each. In between times, I was admiring the energy level and complexity of what TV people have to do — all with voices from the station in their earpieces — and then suddenly the light comes on and you’re on TV, with a beautiful person sticking a microphone in your face and asking you a question you didn’t know was coming, then she spins off to somebody else and does the same thing, and then she has a conversation with people that you can’t see or hear, and then it’s over, the light goes off, and you’re sitting around again. It’s beyond nutty.

But I sure do appreciate it, and I hope it serves everybody well, Besaw’s included. They came down there way early, cooked for us, and were nothing but pleasant, as always. So go down to Besaw’s and tell ‘em you saw them on TV and want some prosciutto scramble or oatmeal pancakes.

And if you want to watch two of the segments, they put two of them on the website, one here and the other here.

Just read it on Portlandfood.org. Anybody have memories they want to share, good or bad?

I used to eat there early on days when I was leading a hike for the Mazamas out of Gateway Transit Center. I’d take the Dreaded #72 from my place on Alberta to Elmer’s, fill up on protein, and then train it out to Gateway. I’ll miss it, but not much. Besides, I have a car now …

This weekend is the big local book event: Wordstock. It’s a festival of the book, with all sorts of writers and workshops and speeches and discussions … and a giant Book Fair where you can buy books!

I hope you’ll come say howdy to me in booth #931. It’s labeled Menasha Ridge Press on the map, because I am sharing the space with them. But that’s even better news, because in addition to Breakfast in Bridgetown, we will also be selling lots of local-interest outdoors titles done by Menasha, which also owns Wilderness Press and Clerisy Press.

I will be a in a panel discussion, called “The Future of Publishing,” on Sunday at 11 a.m. I will be the voice of the small (very small) independent press. Should be fun.

With Wordstock fast approaching, Willamette Week sent out fun questionnaires to many of the writers coming to town, and they printed the feedback in the paper and on the website. It’s a fun read. And yes, I’m in the Web version. At first I was annoyed at not being in the paper, and then I accepted it; who am I to insist I belong in the same space as William Least Heat Moon? So it’s a honor to be part of the thing at all, and I will go back to trying to get over myself.