Spotlight on Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon has been getting a lot of national attention lately. This is the lovely rooftop view from The Nines Hotel, in downtown Portland recently featured in NY Magazine's Travel Section, you can see the full article here.

Last year an IFC series debuted called Portlandia, starring Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, which was filmed entirely in our fair city! And of course, it made fun with what makes Portland so unique, our quarky citizens.

Here is a photo from Portland's Pie Off ! A very cute pie contest, staffed with officials called Pie Commissioners, and judged by local Portland pie experts and bakers. After the winners have been decided everyone eats the pie entries, and there isn't a scrap of pie left at the end! It couldn't get more wholesome fun than this, and I hope they do hold another one soon!



Portland Farmers Markets are becoming a real tradition here! Lilly's Hummus began at the main market in downtown Portland by Portland State University, and without the enthusiastic feedback from our customers, we would never have proceeded to broaden our horizon! So for that, we are grateful.

Portland Reigns!

Photo by Susan Seubert

"This Oregon city gets almost everything right: It's friendly, sustainable, accessible, maybe even a model for America's future."

National Geographic Traveler sites Portland as the innovative, forward-thinking city to beat, and we agree! Here is a link to their article.

Portland Food and Neighborhoods

Photo by Jeff Jones on Flickr.

Whether you want to know more about the city you live in, or are just considering moving to Portland, Oregon, there is a lot of information on the web available to you. Here are a few online resources;

Neighborhood Notes is a great resource, full of Portland news and events, categorized by Portland's 95 individual neighborhoods!

Portland Food & Drink contains restaurant reviews, some restaurant menus and press releases, and areas for feedback from Portlanders, making this site a place to peruse invaluable real-life restaurant experiences!

Bike Portland is a daily news source covering the Portland, Oregon bike scene! Bicycles are a favorite form of transportation for many Portlanders, so this site can be very helpful.

Our PDX - The ramblings of wacky Portlanders!

NW Kids - Resource guide to Portland's family-friendly events and activities.

Willamette Week - Portland's weekly news, arts, and culture paper.

Just Out - Portland's GLBT news source.

Portland, Oregon - Frugal Town, USA!

Photo by Vintage Roadside on Flickr

A travel piece in the NY Times recently came out, titled Frugal Portland.

".... Portland is overflowing with great, affordable restaurants. In dozens of meals, I don’t think I was ever truly disappointed with a single bite, nor did I ever leave hungry, nor did my friends and I ever spend more than $25 a person. In fact, if I had any regrets, it was that I felt duty-bound not to repeat a restaurant visit no matter how much I liked a place and wanted to return."

Yes, Portland is a frugal town - and we're people that expect a lot of bang for our culinary buck. Having grown up in (Portland) Oregon, the first state to enact the bottle bill, and having had a curbside neighborhood recycling since the early 1980's, you get a sense of the value of raw materials, renewable/reusable and otherwise. Heck, we even recycle house paint!

When first formulating the flavors, and determining the size of the container of hummus, it never occurred to us to pack it in less than a 12 ounce recyclable container, anything less and we would have received complaints from our Portland customers. After it reached the first hand full of grocery stores we were surprised to learn that most of the hummus being offered today is packed in a small, 8 ounce container.

But along with size, quality must be equally important. Hand-roasting fresh vegetables such as red bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, and smoked tomatoes, does take longer, but we are of the belief that crafting food is a gratifyingly creative experience, and we're in pretty good company along this way of thinking here.