Enjoy a meal, listen to music, meet new people – in the dark- and benefit the Lions Sight & Hearing Foundation.

The Blind Café is returning to Portland in October to share its unique blend of community awareness, sensory experimentation, delectable food, riveting music and benefit for the blind. Portland has been extremely supportive of The Blind Cafe, with a series of sold out events as more people learn about this unique experience. The Portland Blind Café returns on October 13th – 15th (6:30 pm check-in / 7:00 pm seating) at the Tabor Space in the Mt. Tabor Presbyterian Church  (5441 SE Belmont St.).

The Blind Café became an award winning event after receiving the Addison Mini-Grant Award from the Boulder County Arts Alliance for its Boulder Blind Café and recently expanded to Austin and Cincinnati. In every city it’s visited The Blind Café has received great press and connected with local communities. Rosh (Brian Rocheleau) the producer of The Blind Cafés had this to say, “We have such an amazing base of support here. Portland is willing to test boundaries and really embrace the unique experience we offer. It’s hard to articulate how great the people of this city have been. We love coming back to this town!”

The Portland Blind Café is a community awareness event, as well as a dinner and concert in the dark. There will be a delicious vegetarian/vegan meal prepared to delight the senses by Portland’s own Chef Ivy Entreken.

All the waiters will be blind and guests will have the chance to participate in a Q & A with the blind waiters about issues related to visual impairment. There will be heartfelt and moving poetry by Rick Hammond, an exploration of spatial awareness and darkness with guest speaker Gerry Leary, and a concert to indulge in unencumbered music listening. Guests explore their senses, free of visual distractions and build friendships and community in a completely extraordinary event.

For those who visit, it’s a night they will never forget… or SEE!

Working together they build community, make new friends and advocate for a better life for the blind and visually impaired.  A percentage of the proceeds from this event will be donated to support a local organization, the Oregon Lions Sight & Hearing Foundation.

Nancy Thompson had this to say about her experience in Portland, “I was one of the very lucky and grateful guests who shared the amazing experience of The Blind Cafe on Saturday night. What a truly informative and inspiring evening. [It] helped us push our boundaries just a little bit further, the food was delicious, a great mixture of people – all ages and interests, and the speakers and the music were spot-on.”

Marco Lam took his wife to the Boulder Blind Café for their date night and had this to say, “The feeling of being in the pitch dark and listening to beautiful music had an ethereal quality that was transcendent.  The experience of eating food without any visual cues heightened the sensory appeal of a well cooked meal.  I found the blind waiters’ quality of service excellent and the experience gave me insight into the challenges and strengths of their unique community.  It was easily one of the best dates I have taken my wife on all year…”

-more-

Event Details:

What: The Portland Blind Café

Where: Tabor Space in Mt. Tabor Presbyterian Church, 5441 SE Belmont St., Portland, OR

When:  Oct 13, 14, 15 (Thursday – Saturday), 6:30 pm check-in / 7:00 pm seating

Tickets: Available by calling 1-800-838-3006 and online at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/181249

Cost:    $45 general admission, $35 students/seniors, and sliding scale fee,

Group Rates available for parties of 8 + (call 720 495 7797 for rates)

Website: www.theblindcafe.com/portland-blind-cafe.htm.

I attended the 2011 Bite of Oregon this year and, as is the norm, I had a fabulous time.

Many of the stable restaurants were representing along with new ones and more Portland food carts than last year.

The cooking competitions on the Sysco stage were solid and exciting, with Amy Roloff from the Discovery Channel show, “Little People, Big World” making an appearance on Sunday to cook us all up a tasty fish dish. She was also manning her Amy Roloff Charity Foundation booth the rest of the day.

I took my video cameras down and got some great footage that I’ll be releasing very soon.

Ever been to the Bite Of Oregon in Portland’s Waterfront Park? Check out my video from last years:

Today, Quiznos and Groupon are teaming up again for a great deal at Portland and Vancouver stores and beyond.

For only $6, you can grab two subs or two salads at any participating U.S. Quiznos.

I know from past Quiznos specials, these do not stick around for very long.

It’s always the right time for a fresh sub sandwich.

I discovered a great, little place to eat with very BIG flavors in downtown Vancouver, WA.

It’s called Uptown Pasta and serves up some really tasty Italian cuisine.

Take a look:

To cover rising transaction expenses, both location of Floyd’s Coffee are now requiring a minimum $3 purchase if you plan to use your debit or credit card.  Best bet is to have cash on your person-age.  They’re still awesome places to plant yourself for coffee, doughnuts, and free Wifi.

Check out today’s Vlog below:

Food = good.  Oh, yeah, baby!  Portland being the mecca of culinary delights, there’s nothing as good as a discount at one of the staple restaurants in the city.

Today’s Portland deal is at Dan & Louis Oyster Bar at 208 Southwest Ankeny Street.  This special offer allows you $17 for $35 worth of dinner and drinks or $10 for $20 worth of lunch.  Not bad, huh?

Dan & Louis Oyster Bar has been around since 1907 and serving up scrumptious meals for the city of Portland all that time.  I remember going there as a kid with my parents and, even though I am not a big fan of oysters, loved their oyster stew, nonetheless.  Go figure!  haha.

Click this link to get the deal and then prepare your tummy for some very tasty Portland cuisine!

This last weekend was the fabulous 2010 Coffee Fair at the World Forestry Center in Portland.

Vendors from all over the area came to show off their coffee brewing expertise to all the caffeine junkies who decided to venture up to Washington Park and pay their admission.  Demonstrations, coffee cupping, all types of coffee making gadgets from old to new, and the black stuff flowed throughout the weekend.  And there was cookies!

Wade “Mr Mancakes” Pack and I decided to make the trip to get our coffee lovin’ on. Check out the video:

I have a lot of footage from our other exploits that day at the World Forestry Center that I’m still editing on. I should have that video to you soon.

Regards,

Tony

….And it was me.

My wife and I were headed into downtown Portland for the day and I wanted to grab a cup of coffee before it all started.  I suggested we stop at400 Cafe at SW 6th and Stark  I went it and poured a cup, fixed it up with cream and sugar, and took it to the cash register.  My wife took a seat to wait.

I got my wallet out to grab my debit card and noticed a small sign on the register telling me that I could not use my card unless I bought $5.00 worth of something.  Who I am assuming is the owner (a middle-aged Asian man) was standing behind the register, glaring at me and anxious about something.  I told him that I didn’t realize until just then that I had to spend more just to get my coffee.  I then told him thanks, but I was going to skip it.

He proceeded to berate me in front of other customers, exclaiming that there was no sign on the door that said he took cards of any kind and that, and I quote, “THIS IS NOT A NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION!”  I had no idea what that meant, but felt pretty humiliated in front of the few people in there at the time.

I took my wife and we left.  Needless to say that I will never be back at 400 Cafe and I will make sure my story gets out to enough people to save them from having to deal with this man.

I really had a fun weekend at the 2010 Bite of Oregon.  The weather was totally agreeable. The Bite had a couple new additions this year: a Dessert Pavilion and the Portland Food Cart scene was represented by five local carts.

Opening day, which was on Friday, August 6, I went by myself and just did some walking around, getting acquainted with all the vendors, and shot some video.  Since it was only the first day and pretty much right when it opened, there wasn’t a huge crowd there yet.  That’s always nice for me when I’m just trying to get things started.

I talked with a few  of the food vendors on video and then went over to one of the entertainment stages and got some footage of a steel drum band called the Trinidad Vipers.  You can check them out on their Facebook page.  When I make an event video of this sort, I tend to shoot a song from a band that acts as an audio overlay when I’m in the editing stage of putting everything together.  That’s what I had in mind when I shot the Trinidad Vipers.  I spoke with them, they consented to my using them in the video, and we exchanged business cards.  That was Friday.

Saturday, I took a day of rest.  I was simply exhausted from the previous week and needed some real down time. I know I probably missed some good stuff, but, hey, I can’t do everything!

Sunday, I took my wife to the Bite.  It was her first time ever and she seemed to really enjoy herself.  By then, the crowds were in full-force, but it was fine.  I did a bunch more video, especially with the chef demos and the Wine Pavilion.  We then just made our way around and I shot things here and there that I found interesting.  Chef Brian Boitano from the Food Network did a demo of a couple really yummy looking dishes, so we both sat and enjoyed that.  I also video’d the entire demo so that my daughter-in-law could see it. We also enjoyed some great blues tunes from Atomic Gumbo.

After a full day there, we grabbed something to eat and hopped back home.  I will be working on putting together the 2010 Bite of Oregon video this week and hope to have it up on the Uniquely Portland Oregon website and my YouTube channel soon.  I’ll let you know.

Tony

The annual Bite of Oregon is here again…and not a moment too soon!  This is a Portland Foodies dream and I’m thrilled to be covering the 2010 offering as I did last year. Come hungry for the entire 3-day event, August 6-8.

This year, The Bite promises it’s usual outstanding offerings of 120 menu items from Portland restaurants with our famous food carts getting into the act. The smells here absolutely make your mouth water, pulling you in every direction for a taste of local flair.

Food Network chef, Brian Boitano and Top Chef, Dave Martin, are center stage this year.  Our own Curtis Salgado will be joined by other talented musicians to entertain us all, plus the Beer Gardens, Wine Pavilion, Dessert Pavilion, games area and so much more will be open for everyone to enjoy. It’s really looking like the event of the summer and should be so much fun!

Hit the Bite of Oregon web site for the entire schedule of events and tickets.

Hit them up on Twitter and their Bite of Oregon Fan Page.

Hope to see you there!