Get free admission to Harvey’s Comedy Club with Forkfly! Harvey’s, located at 436 NW 6th Ave, presents some of the brightest comedians in a comfortable atmosphere with a full food and drink menu. Bring a friend who mentions Forkfly and they can get in free too. Check out Harvey’s page on the Forkfly site: http://forkfly.com/merchants/harvey-s-comedy-club.
Forkfly Daily Deal: Harvey’s Comedy Club
November 30, 2010
Trendy Tuesday: Gluten Free Treats at New Cascadia
You may have noticed a trend of gluten free products in grocery stores and at bakeries. I find this new trend of gluten free products fascinating, because when my mom was diagnosed with celiac disease in 1994, no such market existed. At the time, doctors believe only a small portion of the population suffered from celiac disease or gluten intolerance. In recent years they have realized that many people have a mild to severe allergy to gluten, and a market for gluten free bread and treats has emerged.
My mom has done an admirable job for more than a decade of steering clear of bread, beer, cake and cupcakes, pasta and the innumerable other everyday foods that contain gluten. The next time she comes to Portland, I’m going to have to take her to New Cascadia Traditional Bakery, where nothing on the menu will be off-limits, thanks to this ingenious bakery’s entirely gluten free operation.
Owners Chris and Teresa of New Cascadia both suffer from gluten intolerance, and they established their bakery to meet the needs of others with Celiac disease and gluten allergy. To make their bakery and products completely gluten free, special care has to be taken to avoid any gluten contamination. Even if the in-store operation has no risk of contamination, it’s possible the ingredients they use could have been milled on machines that also milled wheat flour or barley.
The steps they take to avoid contamination include verifying and sourcing all ingredients, buying grains from Bob’s Red Mill produced on gluten free equipment, and maintain a well-informed staff who understand the needs of their customers and the protocols that will deter contaimination. At New Cascadia, they also incorporate more than the standard rice flour, tapioca and other non-gluten flours. They use nutritious, hearty alternatives like quiona, teff, coconut flour and more.
Once these practical elements are considered, we can move on to the treats! New Cascadia offers bread like baguettes, their “Portland Sourdough,” seeded bread, pizza crust and the indulgent cheddar parmesan bread. Basic stuff, but extraordinary to a person who’s been denied such simple pleasures. Bagels and hamburger buns round out the list of basic bread products. I can recall many a burger eaten by my mom with a fork and knife, bun pushed aside. These buns will solve that problem!
Most of the breads are vegan (for those with dairy and egg allergies), and all are soy-free.They also have a line of vegan sweets. Cakes are made to order — place your order 48 hours ahead of time to have a beautiful gluten-free cake for your birthday or event. As for pastries, New Cascadia offers tarts, cupcakes, pies, cinnamon rolls, and cookies. Cookie flavors include certified gluten free oatmeal, chocolate chip hazlenut, snickerdoodle and vegan chocolate chip!
New Cascadia Traditional Bakery is located at 1700 SE 6th Ave at SE Market, one block down from Hawthorne. Whether you have a gluten allergy or not, these treats are worth trying!
Written by Forkfly intern Eleanor R. Brown
Forkfly Daily Deal: Emerald City Smoothie
November 29, 2010
Buy one smoothie and get the second
one for free!
You West Siders are going to like this one. I’m a diehard East Side girl myself, but this tempting offer may have me in Beaverton before the week is over. Emerald City Smoothie, which originated in Washington in 1996, now boasts 60 franchises in 7 states. The nearest location in our neck of the woods is in Beaverton. The cups and straws (and the to-order smoothie concept) may call to mind another smoothie company, but Emerald City definitely has its own unique approach to their product.
Emerald City Smoothies are made to fuel your workout, to help you build muscle after a trip to the gym, and to keep you lean and healthy with balanced, nutritious ingredients. This company has cleverly allied itself with the fitness market and fitness products. As much as it’s a good concept that allows them to stand out, it’s also great for us consumers, who don’t always know who to trust when it comes to nutritional foods that sync with our workout regimens.
As you can see from the menu on the left, taken from the Emerald City Smoothie website, they’re not just talk when it comes to the utility of their smoothies. Each smoothie falls into one of the categories based on how much protein, fiber, sugar and which booster it contains. Many of the smoothies can be made with lower fat and lower sugar. The element of the website that really gains my trust is that each smoothie option comes with full nutritional information. They count their 24 ounce containers as one serving, instead of trying to hoodwink the customer by reporting fewer calories “per serving,” as if anyone is about to keep half a smoothie in their fridge for the following day.
Some Emerald City Smoothie locations reside within gyms, conveniently available as a post-workout re-fuel. The Beaverton location, though, is a stand-alone store, which means they have room for not only the smoothie counter but also a space to sell fitness products like protein powder and other supplements, ready-to-drink beverages like Muscle Milk, and healthy, high-protein and low-fat snacks. With all these products on hand, I imagine they also have a knowledgeable staff who can direct you to whatever will meet your needs.
Check out Emerald City Smoothie in Beaverton at 11703 SW Beaverton Hillsdale Highway. Don’t forget to access your Forkfly coupon for your buy-one-get-one-free smoothie! Emerald City Smoothie can be found on Forkfly, along with their deal, here, and the company website is here. Also, check out their fun list of nutritional facts!
Written by Forkfly intern Eleanor R. Brown
Forkfly Daily Deal: Gracie’s Resturant
November 24, 2010
Get 10% off your entire bill at Gracie’s Restaurant!
Gracie’s is a beautiful SW Portland restaurant with classic American food and old-school Hollywood sensibilities. They offer brunch and dinner 7 days a week, and their menus have an amazing variety of consistently delicious-sounding dishes. Take a look at their tempting brunch menu. I love those Eggs Benedict varieties! With Gracie’s great Forkfly deal, you can treat yourself to these delicacies for 10% off your entire meal.
Gracie’s is located inside the Hotel deLuxe and has a companion bar, the magnificent Driftwood Room. The Driftwood Room opened in the 1950s and they have maintained their noir aesthetic. Today the Driftwood Room complements Gracie’s with its sultry cocktail bar, the perfect destination after an elegant dinner at Gracie’s. Both establishments and the Hotel deLuxe were recently “revived” to ensure they will maintain the feeling of “a magnificent bygone era.” Gracie’s has a charisma that will enhance your dining experience — an experience that will be pretty excellent in the first place, judging by those great-looking menus and your 10% discount.
Find Gracie’s at 729 SW 15th Ave in Portland and online here. Gracie’s Forkfly page and deal can be found here. Treat yourself with this great deal before it expires!
Green Friday with Portland Pedal Power
Join Portland Pedal Power and Seven Planet for Green Friday, a sustainability-oriented event with green merchandise, geocaching, a food drive and more!
Portland Pedal Power, a bike-powered delivery service with connections to restaurants and retail stores, can deliver all manner of food and goods, and their partnerships help their affiliates to be more sustainable and locally minded. This organization is also active in the Portland community and involved with events like their upcoming answer to Black Friday, dubbed Green Friday. In partnership with Seven Planet, which is the first green general store chain in the world, Portland Pedal Power brings you a shopping event that will leave you feeling better about the state of your soul and the world than maxing out your credit card at Nordstrom ever does.
From 10 am until 6 pm, Seven Planet on NW 4th and Couch will headquarter the event, while geocaching activities go on around NW. Seven Planet, which began in Idaho, sells organic, sustainable, locally sourced and fully “green” apparel, groceries, health and household products and more. Their products look great, but as you would expect, this stuff is more expensive than what you would find at Fred Meyer. But their amazing 20% discount on everything in the store during the Green Friday event makes it so worthwhile to do some shopping there. Bring in 5 nonperishable food items to donate for the Oregon Food Bank and receive an additional 10% off your purchases, for maximum savings of 30%!
This event is about more than shopping, though. Through the promotional material one can tell how excited Portland Pedal Power is about Friday’s geocaching activity. Geocaching is a treasure hunt using GPS and social media, so if you follow Portland Pedal Power and Seven Planet on Facebook and Twitter, you can see the clues they will publish throughout the day. Be the first to find two Pedal Power bicycles and win prizes! Find Seven Planet on FB here and Portland Pedal Power here.
Have an excellent Thanksgiving tomorrow, and if you feel like shopping on Friday November 26, make it to Seven Planet where you’ll find great savings on high-quality, sustainable and local products. Seven Planet is located at 412 NW Couch St in Portland and the event takes place from 10am to 6pm.
Written by Forkfly intern Eleanor R. Brown
Forkfly Daily Deal: 50 Plates
Forkfly Fridays-$5 Pacific Calamari during Happy Hour!
It is extremely difficult to get good American comfort food, the way your mother or grandmother makes it, from a restaurant. Many coffee shop diners might try to pull off some sort of overly salty chicken fried steak concoction or meatloaf made from cheap ground beef, but it always lacks that “I’ve been slaving away in the kitchen for hours” taste.
50 Plates wants to bring that happy feeling back to your tummy with American classics with a contemporary twist. They prove that you can get the classics you love at the highest quality possible without scrimping on taste. Their menu includes well known favorites like mac & cheese, chowder, grits, ribs, fish & chips, and of course a hefty burger with fries. Their version of mac & cheese is way fancier than anything you’ve probably ever had: rigatoni, chicken, fennel, cheddar, parmesan. Yummy! And their fish & chips include potato crust, asparagus, bok choy, and malt vinegar, how interesting does that sound!
Like many Portland eateries, 50 Plates does what they can to be sustainable. Chef Patrick Miller and his culinary team have made a commitment to focus on Oregon’s agricultural rhythms as they design their menus, to use organic ingredients when possible, to use meats that are naturally raised, and fish that is responsibly caught. 50 Plates appreciates the meaning of locally grown, sustainable, and humanely raised food products.
Stop on by their location in The Pearl District at 333 NW 13th Ave, and be sure to use their Forkfly deal here to get Pacific Calamari for only $5 during Happy Hour.
Forkfly Daily Deal: Acadia Bistro
November 23, 2010
$10 Off Any Purchase of $50 or More!
During these cold winter months here in Oregon, most of us crave the warmth and long for a trip down South. You might not be able to physically afford the trip to escape the cold, but that doesn’t mean you still can’t at least enjoy a taste of the South right here in Portland. Acadia Bistro, located at 1303 NE Fremont St., specializes in traditional New Orleans cuisine that will keep you warm all winter long.
Acadia’s menu changes frequently, which is very refreshing in my opinion, and so you never know what delights you have in 
store for you each time you visit. Their Fall sample menu includes Southern favorites like hushpuppies, crawfish, Louisiana barbecue shrimp, okra, chicken sausage gumbo, fried cat fish, and jambalaya. They also have an impressive wine and cocktail list, with cool names like Pantorium, Problem Solver, and Abominable Rodeo. They even have a Secret Drink Menu for those who are brave enough to ask for it. Show up on a Monday and you can celebrate Acadia’s version of Mardi Gras. Get entrees for $9.95, and a three course dinner for only $17.95.
The biggest event of the year for this New Orleans Bistro is their annual Reveillon Dinner on Christmas eve. Their chef prepares a three course menu with a cocktail of choice for $30. Take a look at this year’s menu!
Reveillon Dinner 2010
-House made Huckleberry Bounce or Eggnog Donohue
-Selection of biscuits and scones
Choice of First Course:
-Pheasant confit salmis (pheasant confit in pastry!)
-Spiced Seckle pear and pecan salad with Fourme d’Ambert blue cheese
Choice of Entrée:
-Black strap molasses house cured country ham with cider braised red cabbage and roast turnips
-Blackened Drumfish with a blue crab & almond menuire and fingerling potato hash
Dessert :
-Spiced fig cake with brown sugar ice cream
Tables fill up fast for this event so reserve your table soon! And be sure to save some money by accessing their Forkfly deal here.
Trendy Tuesday: Shopping Locally at Kazoodles Toys in Vancouver
Thanksgiving is still to come (just a couple days!), but the Christmas music is already playing 24/7 on the radio. With about a month to go to those various gift-giving holidays, it’s time to start thinking about what to buy for the people you love. We all enjoy presents, but what’s more fun than picking out a toy for a child in your life and watching them open it with rapt appreciation? At Kazoodles Toy Store in Vancouver, you will find unique, fun gifts for the kids in your life.
Kazoodles was opened by Bob and Mary Sisson in 2006 to fill a niche market they had detected in the Vancouver area. They wanted to find safe, quality, unique toys for their grandkids without having to come to Portland, so they made it happen. Earlier this year, they opened a sister store. Kazoodles is independently and locally owned, scoring it big points with those who look to avoid supporting big corporations with their holiday dollars. Current social-awareness movements like No Corporate Christmas make independent retailers like Kazoodles especially trendy and attractive places to do your holiday shopping.
Let’s take a look at some of the great toys they offer!
The first thing that caught my eye, this “faux bow” by Marky Sparky, may seem like a reckless choice, but Kazoodles strongly emphasizes safety in the toys they sell, and this product won the Astra Best Toy award for Best Active Toy of 2010. The bow is recommended for those eight and older, and costs $24.99. I know kids who spend so much time in front of a screen, anything that gets them moving (even to shoot things) is a good thing in my book.
If you feel otherwise, Kazoodles has a lot more to offer, too!
This next product is a splurge at $169.99, but I am a sucker for dollhouses. Playmobile has the best sets and accessories, with lots of detail to make the scenes versatile and fun. This Furnished School Building will keep boys and girls entertained for hours during long cold days inside. And I certainly won’t judge if you choose to join the kids and play with it. Those figures are just too cute to leave alone.
For a creative activity that will captivate a budding artist, get the Create Your Own Pop-Up Books kit for $19.99. The kit includes blank books, markers and design ideas to get your young friend started on her pop-up masterpiece. These three recommendations barely scratch the surface of Kazoodle’s huge, excellent selection. Look at their website to see tons more great gift options, and search by age, activity or brand.
Even better than browsing on the website is browsing in the store, so check out Kazoodles at their original location, 575 W 8th St in Vancouver, or at their new location, 13503 SE Mill Plain Blvd, #B-3, also in Vancouver.
Forkfly Daily Deal: Touche Resturaunt and Bar
November 22, 2010
Buy one wood-oven-cooked pizza and get a second one for free at Touche!
I had never checked this restaurant out until I Googled it just now to write this post, and wow, this place looks amazing. Not only does the dining room boast a beautiful interior with a winding staircase, soaring ceilings and stylish columns, there’s also a more casual bar upstairs with pool tables, amazing lighting and a great view.
Yeah, I’m sold, and we haven’t even gotten to the food yet, or the other great things this restaurant is up to. The buy one get one free deal on the pizza from their wood-burning oven provides a great chance to try two of the amazing varieties listed on their menu. This is no Domino’s; the pizzas are made with gourmet ingredients — think prosciutto, not pepperoni (although there is a pizza with prosciutto AND pepperoni). With provolone and fontina cheeses, fresh herbs, sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts and more, these pizzas will feel less like a guilty gut-bomb and more like an wholesome entree. Everything else on their menu looks equally tempting, and the Happy Hour menu offers the same delicacies at insanely low prices.
The gorgeous billiards bar upstairs has six pool tables, a full bar and offers the full dinner menu. You can rent this space for parties and I can think of no better way to entertain a big group of friends than a private bar with billiards. Touche Restaurant has a great respect for those in the food service industry, and pool table rentals are free on Sundays and Mondays to those with an OLCC card. So many of us Portlanders have paid the bills with food service gigs that it’s really need to see a restaurant acknowledge our hard work, and I bet that awareness within the restaurant management helps keep Touche’s employees happy, too. Also, every Wednesday Touche offers half-price entrees for those with OLCC cards.
The kitchen is open late at Touche, until 2 am every night, so think of them when you’re craving some late night snacks on the town. They’re also affiliated with Portland Pedal Power, another favorite Forkfly merchant. Portland Pedal Power is a delivery service that brings you products from a wide variety of restaurants and retail stores by bicycle. We here at Forkfly love to order lunch from them and it’s great to see Touche embracing such a ecofriendly and locally supportive delivery option.
Grab a friend and go get some pizza before this offer expires on November 30! Take a look at their deal here on the Forkfly website: http://forkfly.com/merchants/touche-restaurant-bar and pull the coupon up on your mobile phone when you get to Touche. The restaurant is located at 1425 NW Glisan in Portland. See you there!
Written by Forkfly intern Eleanor R. Brown
PDX Weekend Happenings: November 20-21
November 19, 2010
Welcome to your weekend! I’m sure it’s as glad to see you as you are to see it. Certainly two of our recommended events would love to see you this weekend to support their causes. The Swashbuckler’s Ball is a fundraiser party for the Portland Pirate Festival, an annual event that needs some help to take place this year. The Monaco Cup, where you will be plied with food and beer, benefits the United Way, a community-oriented coalition of charitable organizations. Finally, get your craft on at SCRAP, where they hope to provide some inspiration for homemade, non-consumerist holiday gifts.
The Swashbucklers Ball
What: Don your finest pirate costume and come to this benefit for the Portland Pirate Festival to enjoy Caribbean food, drinks, raffles and pirate-y fun.
Event Details: 21 years of age and older; tickets $14 in advance and $18 at the door; buy tickets online here.
When: Saturday, November 20 from 7pm to midnight.
Where: The Melody Ballroom, at 615 SE Alder in Portland.
SCRAP’s Holiday Bazaar
What: SCRAP is a store in NE Portland that sells donated odds and ends at low prices to promote creativity and reuse of materials. Their Holiday Bazaar is a gathering of crafty-minded people perusing local craft vendors, craft tables, listening to live music, eating food from carts and joining in the “killer” raffle.
Event Details: This event is free!
When: Saturday, November 20 and Sunday, November 21 from 10am to 6pm both days.
Where: At SCRAP, 2915 NE MLK Blvd in Portland.
The Monaco Cup
What: A fundraiser for the United Way that pits 6 local chef-and-brewery pairings’ creations against each other.
Event Details: $20 admission includes 6 small plates and beer pairings. Attendees get to vote to determine the winner of the Cup. Buy tickets here.
When: Sunday, November 21, from 3pm to 6pm.
Where: At the Hotel Monaco, Portland’s premier craft beer hotel, located at 506 SW Washington St in Portland.
Written by Forkfly intern Eleanor R. Brown
