Up until the beginning of 2009, Patrick was unable to really enjoy Sundays - he was always working them. Friends, don't boohoo quit yet for the guy - he's had a pretty incredible schedule where in exchange for Sundays he had Thursday/Friday/Saturday and every other Wednesday off. So, yea...it wasn't quite an issue. However, recently his schedule changed and he now has Sundays to enjoy - and boy, do we try to enjoy them!
Today's post will be fairly brief. Slept in, went to Noah's for a bagel. Heather took a nap. Patrick went to the book store. Then we headed back downtown to our new favorite hood - Mississippi. We were hoping that Lupa would be open and we could enjoy a glass of red and one of her homemade chocolate chip cookies but alas - no dice, she was closed! So we spent some time walking the street and enjoying the local crowd and then headed over to another enjoyable neighborhood - Hawthorne.
Recently Pastaworks on Hawthorne opened up a little bistro next to it called Evoe. FANTASTIC - local chef, Kevin Gibson of Castagna fame stands behind the open kitchen, serving up French-inspired bistro items all made from the fresh items available at it's neighbors shop. We've been here once before and find it to be the perfect Sunday spot. Situated against one of Portland's livelier and more interesting backdrops - Hawthorne, we are able to enjoy a few glasses of wine, take in the local scenery and enjoy Kevin's incredibly fresh nibbles. Today we shared a Parisienne....baguette with french butter, mustard, brie and sliced ham and a bowl of sausage filled pasta in broth. Neither of us have ever had pasta served like this before and I'm not doing a great job of articulating it but it was sooooooo good. A few glasses of Sauvignon Blanc and full bellies, we headed back towards the car but got sidetracked by Ben & Jerry's and the smell of freshly made waffle cones. A shared double scoop later, we were heading home for an evening of Indian food and Amazing Race - yes, we like reality tv - again, we can't help it!
Happy Sunday folks!
Sunday, March 22, 2009
March 21, 2009
We drank too much...it's true - why lie? Not going to be something to blog about every weekend, but for this maiden voyage into the bloggers world, it's the truth - we drank too much! Therefore, our Saturday didn't get started until almost 11 am. I know, sounds like we are a couple of college students who attended a frat party and couldn't drag our arses out of bed before lunch...kind of true, except our evening was way better than a college frat party.
It's 11 am and we are heading to Panera for some lunch and a cookie. Have you had the Panera chocolate chip cookie? It's too die for, and somehow H always lucks out with the fresh-out-of-the-oven variety that are still warm and melty as she breaks it apart. A sandwich, soup and cookie later and we are headed home so H can relax and read her book and P headed to the local Barnes and Noble to sift through the new magazines. Here is where we will introduce "Grumpy Bookstore Guy". He is usually at the book store on Saturdays when P (and sometimes H accompanies) goes to read the mags and drink a coffee. GBG thinks that the bookstore is a library and HATES (no, seriously) anyone and everyone who does something as minimal as turns their pages too loud, to (dare you?) speak to the person to your right. However, apparently GBG wasn't at the bookstore yesterday so P had a nice time.
Back at the house we decide to go see an afternoon movie. "I Love You Man" looks like a good Saturday afternoon funny to take in and so we do. Folks - the movie is funny, really effing funny and we (or, mostly H) laugh out loud for most of the movie. Yes, their is a slow spot in the middle but it is surprisingly original and not filled with predictable plots and dialogue.
After the movie it was back home for an afternoon nap. Refer to the opening line of this blog if you're wondering how we could be tired already. Then it was time to decide on dinner. Considering our big night out from Friday, neither of us were in the mood for a late evening. We settled on heading back downtown to Heather's favorite Lebanese joint - Karam. People - listen to me, the place is the bomb. The lamp shwarma plate with hummus (add some feta) is incredible. The hummus is just garlicky and lemony enough to balance out the meat that has mamrinated over night and served with their fresh out of the oven puffed pita bread. Awe-inspiring yumminess. Patrick went for one of their Lebanese stews, served with rice, eggplant and some meat patties - also scrumptious but nothing compared to the shwarma plate.
After recovering from our Lebanese food coma, we headed home to watch Twilight. Yes, we did not mention this part of the morning but Patrick (bless him) reminded me that the teen-flick was coming out on video this morning and drug me to the video store to rent a copy. He is such a great guy! I will not go into it, but I do love the series. I read it, loved it and will not be (completely) humiliated at feeling so. Regardless, the movie was pretty good and even Patrick is looking forward to seeing the plot develop and grow as the next movie comes out. But don't hold your breath - he will not be picking up the novels any times soon.
It's 11 am and we are heading to Panera for some lunch and a cookie. Have you had the Panera chocolate chip cookie? It's too die for, and somehow H always lucks out with the fresh-out-of-the-oven variety that are still warm and melty as she breaks it apart. A sandwich, soup and cookie later and we are headed home so H can relax and read her book and P headed to the local Barnes and Noble to sift through the new magazines. Here is where we will introduce "Grumpy Bookstore Guy". He is usually at the book store on Saturdays when P (and sometimes H accompanies) goes to read the mags and drink a coffee. GBG thinks that the bookstore is a library and HATES (no, seriously) anyone and everyone who does something as minimal as turns their pages too loud, to (dare you?) speak to the person to your right. However, apparently GBG wasn't at the bookstore yesterday so P had a nice time.
Back at the house we decide to go see an afternoon movie. "I Love You Man" looks like a good Saturday afternoon funny to take in and so we do. Folks - the movie is funny, really effing funny and we (or, mostly H) laugh out loud for most of the movie. Yes, their is a slow spot in the middle but it is surprisingly original and not filled with predictable plots and dialogue.
After the movie it was back home for an afternoon nap. Refer to the opening line of this blog if you're wondering how we could be tired already. Then it was time to decide on dinner. Considering our big night out from Friday, neither of us were in the mood for a late evening. We settled on heading back downtown to Heather's favorite Lebanese joint - Karam. People - listen to me, the place is the bomb. The lamp shwarma plate with hummus (add some feta) is incredible. The hummus is just garlicky and lemony enough to balance out the meat that has mamrinated over night and served with their fresh out of the oven puffed pita bread. Awe-inspiring yumminess. Patrick went for one of their Lebanese stews, served with rice, eggplant and some meat patties - also scrumptious but nothing compared to the shwarma plate.
After recovering from our Lebanese food coma, we headed home to watch Twilight. Yes, we did not mention this part of the morning but Patrick (bless him) reminded me that the teen-flick was coming out on video this morning and drug me to the video store to rent a copy. He is such a great guy! I will not go into it, but I do love the series. I read it, loved it and will not be (completely) humiliated at feeling so. Regardless, the movie was pretty good and even Patrick is looking forward to seeing the plot develop and grow as the next movie comes out. But don't hold your breath - he will not be picking up the novels any times soon.
March 20, 2009
Before I start, I will let you know that there are no pictures for this weekend. Again, this idea just came to me! But in the coming posts, I plan to include many fun and descriptive pictures to accompany these posts. And trust me, it is a travesty that I do not have them to include from this weekend.
Heading downtown at 4pm on a Friday and hoping that traffic will play game with what's in mind. We are heading to Andina for their amazing happy hour. $5 cocktails people, you cannot beat that! That's right, every cocktail on their menu is a measly $5 from 4 - 6pm. Although we have both been to Andina before for their fantastic dinner menu, Heather only recently sat through happy hour and is now delighted to be pulling Patrick through traffic in order to enjoy it together.
We are bar people, as in - we sit AT the bar. You have just GOT to love your local bartender. Dry witted and annoyed by the many people slugging in after a long day only to take advantage of the cheap drinks and eats and leave a recession inspired tip...however, that is not us. We love our bartenders and are sure (after a few happy hour cocktails) that they too share our admiration. H started with the RON-YKI-ON, a roasted ginger infused silver rum shaken with grapefruit juice, lime juice and cane sugar, served with a cardamon sugar rim. Patrick was boring (in H's opinion) and went for a classic mojito. We also shared a happy hour portion ($2/2 skewers) of Andina's marinated chicken kebobs served with scrumptious huacatay-peanut sauce and a small plate of Heather's favorite - Yuca rellena. For course #2, P had a glass of Albarino and H went for their extremely fresh Pina Colada. Course #3? Pina Colada #2...what can we say? That is some good Pina!
Leaving Andina, we decided to head to the eclectic Mississippi neighborhood which hosts one of our new favorite wine spots - Lupa wine bar. This wine bar is fantastic, full of extremely reasonably priced wines from every region, a knowledgeable and sexy wine mistress, great food, good people and an overall ambiance not to be missed. We had an incredible bottle of Burgandy and a few glasses of Cava.
Next stop on the weekend train of fun was our most favorite cocktail spot - Teardrop Lounge. Co-owners, Danielle and Ted really know how to mix an inspired, spirit-filled drink. We have been stopping by their spot regularly since they opened in 2007 and love not only the cocktails, but the bartenders, servers and food as well. This is a place not to be missed. You cannot and will not find a lounge of this caliber in all of Portland. From their homemade tonic water to their special ice cubes, this bar is the place to be - and we were there. :) However, this is where the night starts to get fuzzy...a few drinks from Teardrop and we are making our decisions to finish out the night in our favorite neighborhood dive bar - Rococco's. Typically, we like to head into this trashy spot for some stiff drinks and pinball but we were treated with a surprise for Friday night - live band! And let me tell you, the Rococco's clientele were in rare form Friday night. The band was actually great - Tom Petty, Springsting and a little ACDC, can you go wrong? I think not. We spent about 45 minutes laughing with (ok, maybe at) the other concert goers, enjoyed our drinks and found our way back to our car and to the Burger King drive thru. Yep kids...our extravagant night found us going through the king's castle for some chicken tenders and a burger before passing out and starting all over the next day. Seriously though...it was fun!
Heading downtown at 4pm on a Friday and hoping that traffic will play game with what's in mind. We are heading to Andina for their amazing happy hour. $5 cocktails people, you cannot beat that! That's right, every cocktail on their menu is a measly $5 from 4 - 6pm. Although we have both been to Andina before for their fantastic dinner menu, Heather only recently sat through happy hour and is now delighted to be pulling Patrick through traffic in order to enjoy it together.
We are bar people, as in - we sit AT the bar. You have just GOT to love your local bartender. Dry witted and annoyed by the many people slugging in after a long day only to take advantage of the cheap drinks and eats and leave a recession inspired tip...however, that is not us. We love our bartenders and are sure (after a few happy hour cocktails) that they too share our admiration. H started with the RON-YKI-ON, a roasted ginger infused silver rum shaken with grapefruit juice, lime juice and cane sugar, served with a cardamon sugar rim. Patrick was boring (in H's opinion) and went for a classic mojito. We also shared a happy hour portion ($2/2 skewers) of Andina's marinated chicken kebobs served with scrumptious huacatay-peanut sauce and a small plate of Heather's favorite - Yuca rellena. For course #2, P had a glass of Albarino and H went for their extremely fresh Pina Colada. Course #3? Pina Colada #2...what can we say? That is some good Pina!
Leaving Andina, we decided to head to the eclectic Mississippi neighborhood which hosts one of our new favorite wine spots - Lupa wine bar. This wine bar is fantastic, full of extremely reasonably priced wines from every region, a knowledgeable and sexy wine mistress, great food, good people and an overall ambiance not to be missed. We had an incredible bottle of Burgandy and a few glasses of Cava.
Next stop on the weekend train of fun was our most favorite cocktail spot - Teardrop Lounge. Co-owners, Danielle and Ted really know how to mix an inspired, spirit-filled drink. We have been stopping by their spot regularly since they opened in 2007 and love not only the cocktails, but the bartenders, servers and food as well. This is a place not to be missed. You cannot and will not find a lounge of this caliber in all of Portland. From their homemade tonic water to their special ice cubes, this bar is the place to be - and we were there. :) However, this is where the night starts to get fuzzy...a few drinks from Teardrop and we are making our decisions to finish out the night in our favorite neighborhood dive bar - Rococco's. Typically, we like to head into this trashy spot for some stiff drinks and pinball but we were treated with a surprise for Friday night - live band! And let me tell you, the Rococco's clientele were in rare form Friday night. The band was actually great - Tom Petty, Springsting and a little ACDC, can you go wrong? I think not. We spent about 45 minutes laughing with (ok, maybe at) the other concert goers, enjoyed our drinks and found our way back to our car and to the Burger King drive thru. Yep kids...our extravagant night found us going through the king's castle for some chicken tenders and a burger before passing out and starting all over the next day. Seriously though...it was fun!
Why blog?
We have fun...a LOT of fun, don't you? However, how many times have you gone to work on a Monday morning and been posed the question "What did you do this weekend?" only to completely forget some of the best stories, more interesting meals and tantalizing tales? This is, of course, because you are filling your weekend with so many wondrous adventures that it is difficult to remember them all. That's why WE are here. We want to remember what we did this weekend - and EVERY weekend.
Sixty...nay, 50 years from now, this could be our best link to the past. I'm not one to boast a great memory, so this may literally be the only way to remember and differentiate a sizzly steak at El Gaucho from a charcutterie plate at our local deli.
This idea, to blog, well it came to me during the ride home from one of our new favorite Sunday spots. I started thinking about what a great weekend we had had and was going through vignettes of stories in my mind only to realize there was SO MUCH TO remember.
So, although this is mostly an avenue to cronicle our own memories we hope that you will read, enjoy and share your own.
Cheers,
Patrick & Heather
Sixty...nay, 50 years from now, this could be our best link to the past. I'm not one to boast a great memory, so this may literally be the only way to remember and differentiate a sizzly steak at El Gaucho from a charcutterie plate at our local deli.
This idea, to blog, well it came to me during the ride home from one of our new favorite Sunday spots. I started thinking about what a great weekend we had had and was going through vignettes of stories in my mind only to realize there was SO MUCH TO remember.
So, although this is mostly an avenue to cronicle our own memories we hope that you will read, enjoy and share your own.
Cheers,
Patrick & Heather
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
