Right at the Fork is supported by:

Zupan's Markets: www.Zupans.com Oregon Dungeness Crab: www.OregonDungeness.org  RingSide Steakhouse: www.RingSideSteakhouse.com Portland Food Adventures: www.PortlandFoodAdventures.com 

It’s been 20 years since Carman returned to her 90-year-old family ranch, transforming the land and business with regenerative practices. Inspiring her collective of nine independent farms and ranches across the Pacific Northwest, Carman Ranch have now been practicing them for decades. As a result of their efforts, the company is now the first to carry the Regenified™ seal on its grass-fed, grass-finished beef as a result of their ecological practices.

  We discuss some of the challenges and joys of her career, as well as life in Wallowa County.

We celebrate the opening of Oregon Dungeness Crab season with a visit with the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission's Executive Director, Tim Novotny.  We will talk about what makes dungeness crab so beloved, what some of the challenges are for commercial crab fishermen, good years, bad years, some of Tim's favorite crab dishes and more.   About Tim: Tim Novotny joined the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission in 2017 as communications manager, with a master’s degree in public relations and more than two decades of experience in journalism and marketing. He has lived in Coos Bay since 1999 and became news director of KCBY-TV in2000, later writing for The World Newspaper in Coos Bay from 2012 through 2015, often reporting on the commercial fishing industry throughout his journalistic career.

Prior to his arrival in Oregon, Tim worked as news director of KKVI-TV in Twin Falls, Idaho, and later was an assistant news producer at WMTV in Madison, Wisconsin. Born and raised in Joliet, Illinois, he later headed west and got his degree from Boise State University.

In December, he became just the third executive director for the commission since 1990 - following Nick Furman (1990-2012), and the recently retired Hugh Link (2012-2022).

He is also a long-suffering Chicago sports fan, happy to reminisce anytime about the glory days of Ditka, Payton, and Jordan.

 

Right at the Fork is supported by:

Zupan's Markets: www.Zupans.com Oregon Dungeness Crab: www.OregonDungeness.org  RingSide Steakhouse: www.RingSideSteakhouse.com Portland Food Adventures: www.PortlandFoodAdventures.com 

We catch up with Eric Finley again in the second of our Where Are They Now series. Eric owned Chop Butchery during his Portland years, which ended in 2018.  Eric was previously featured on our podcast in 2014, episode #18.  Eric talks about his reasons for leaving Portland and the journey that landed him and his family in Bentonville, Arkansas.  We also talk about what saved his life, his sobriety, along with what he misses in Portland, and what he doesn't.  We foray into a frank conversation about the food industry, and how it has changed for the worse and for the better.   We really enjoyed talking with Eric, and surely wish to have him on again to share his stories and viewpoints with us again.   Right at the Fork is supported by:   Zupan's Markets: www.Zupans.com Oregon Dungeness Crab: www.OregonDungeness.org  RingSide Steakhouse: www.RingSideSteakhouse.com Portland Food Adventures: www.PortlandFoodAdventures.com

Upon his Beard nomination for Best Chef NW last year, we were honored to have Jonathan Jones on our podcast. Now that the second JBF nom has come his way, and after moving his Salem restaurant's location, we thought it would be worthwhile to revisit our interview with Chef Jones from March of 2022.

Jonathan Jones of Salem's Epilogue Kitchen and Cocktails makes his first podcast appearance with us just after his recent 2022 James Beard Foundation Best Chef Northwest nomination.    He asked us if we could focus on the positive, and for sure we did that, discussing what the nomination means to him, his paths from southeast Pennsylvania to Wisconsin and Vermont to Oregon to garner such an accolade, along with some of the people who helped inspire and instill in him what it took to be not only a great chef, but a responsible restaurant owner and active citizen.

Jonathan espouses appreciation for all the places he's lived, and especially for those things that make him satisfied with his and his wife's choice to move to Oregon.    We do spend some time on his  activism, partly manifested in encouraging reading with the library maintained at Epilogue, as well as the energy required to put forth to be an active person.  We talk about what he has learned in promoting the interests of the underserved, and what changes he expects in the marathon of spreading understanding of the meaning and need for the Black Lives Matter movement .   

We really enjoyed this talk and hope you supplement listening to this episode with a visit to Epilogue Kitchen and Cocktails in Salem to meet Chef Jonathan in person.

Zupan's Markets: www.Zupans.com Oregon Dungeness Crab: www.OregonDungeness.org  RingSide Steakhouse: www.RingSideSteakhouse.com Portland Food Adventures: www.PortlandFoodAdventures.com 

 

Chef Lisa Schroeder of Mother's Bistro has had a very challenging few years.  The most recent upset was when her bank wouldn't honor refunding the money on checks written to her bank account number under someone else's name, simply because she didn't report the problem soon enough.  This comes on the heels of a tumultuous few years after 23 years in business  In 2018, she went through the process of moving Mother's to its new location not long before the pandemic hit.  Her location, in the middle of downtown where meth use is prolific, isn't the only challenge. She's required in her lease to be open 7 days a week, since her restaurant serves the hotel in the same building.  Lisa talks to us about the outlook for her business in the face of rising costs and new Portland dining and working patterns as well as restaurants as a whole, wherever they may be.   Lisa is one of Portland's most outspoken restaurant owners, and she's always a great interview.  

Right at the Fork is supported by:

Zupan's Markets: www.Zupans.com RingSide Steakhouse: www.RingSideSteakhouse.com Portland Food Adventures: www.PortlandFoodAdventures.com 

Joel Gunderson comes by RATF to talk about his second venture with Chef Aaron Barnett, Heavenly Creatures. Joel talks how the pandemic has reshaped hospitality, and also resets  Portland back to something that resembles the spirit of 2010, when he and Barnett opened Restaurant St. Jack. Joel reminisces about meeting Aaron while partying and how Aaron encouraged him to familiarize himself with wine so they could open a restaurant together in Portland. Joel has since uncorked wine programs at 11 restaurants in Portland, shaping a storied career that's got many tasty years ahead of him. 

Support Tommy Habetz and his family as he recovers here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/helping-brookie-and-the-kids 

 

Right at the Fork is supported by:

Zupan's Markets: www.Zupans.com RingSide Steakhouse: www.RingSideSteakhouse.com Portland Food Adventures: www.PortlandFoodAdventures.com 

We start out 2023, Right at the Fork's 10th season streaming with in-depth interviews with the players in the Portland food scene, with a new series called "Where Are They Now?"  Sarah Hart, formerly of Alma Chocolate, joins us this time as a seasoned Psychotherapist.  She left the business when she sold Alma to Moonstruck Chocolate a few years back.  Sarah was immersed in our food scene with her alluring chocolate shops and retail business, as well as being a fixture at the Portland Farmers Market for years.  She found the business unsustainable after years of toiling away, and decided it was time for something else.  Sarah talks about her childhood in Missouri, years in Portland and what she thinks of the changed landscape now, both food-wise and socio-economically.  We also hear about some of Sarah's favorite haunts.   Sarah's practice can be found here:  https://sarahharttherapy.com/   Two prior interviews with Sarah on Right at the Fork can be found here:   http://rightatthefork.com/shows/tag/Sarah+Hart  

Right at the Fork is supported by:

Zupan's Markets: www.Zupans.com RingSide Steakhouse: www.RingSideSteakhouse.com Portland Food Adventures: www.PortlandFoodAdventures.com 

Our most frequent guest Gary the Foodie joins us to round out a year where he hasn't traveled to other cities as much as he has historically, so we'll hear about his favorite Portland spots and what he's looking forward to going forward.  We will discuss his objectivity toward his friends' restaurants, namely Gregory Gourdet's Kann and Ryan and Elena Roadhouse of Nodoguro.   We move on to Gary's disinterest in traveling and the seemingly scuttled plans to move out of the Portland area.   We'll also break some news to some listeners about Feast Portland.  Spoiler alert!! Baseball talk at the end.  

Right at the Fork is supported by:

Zupan's Markets: www.Zupans.com RingSide Steakhouse: www.RingSideSteakhouse.com Portland Food Adventures: www.PortlandFoodAdventures.com 

We talk to Erik Hernandez, and his journey from Los Angeles and the Far East working on brands like K-Swiss and Adidas to Portland, where he connected with his wife, his former intern, at her Studio Noyes to develop a Portland-based footwear brand, Mise Footwear, geared toward chefs and those who work in kitchens.   We hear Erik talk about how he started out contacting Portland chefs to get their feedback and trust as they began building the brand.  After going into production during the pandemic, Erik and his team had to navigate supply chain issues to get the initial orders on the feet of his first customers.  Among other topics covered are some of the issues around celebrity sports stars endorsements and their input into their branded shoes.   MISE launched preorders in December 2021 and is now shipping in the US via their website misefootwear.com.    

Right at the Fork is supported by:

Zupan's Markets: www.Zupans.com RingSide Steakhouse: www.RingSideSteakhouse.com Portland Food Adventures: www.PortlandFoodAdventures.com 

Geoff Latham of Nicky USA, whose business keeps him in the heart of the Portland food world, talks about the insane tribulations of running a business in the Southeast Industrial District and how business neighbor Salt & Straw's Kim Malek's reasoned and public thoughts of moving the company's headquarters away from Portland finally sparked action from city leaders.  Geoff will take us through what it feels like to worry about employee and family safety while paying taxes in a city that has had no plan to protect its citizens and businesses from intense vandalism and other crimes.   We also hear from Geoff about some of his favorite spots, new and older.   www.nickyusa.com  

Right at the Fork is supported by:

Zupan's Markets: www.Zupans.com RingSide Steakhouse: www.RingSideSteakhouse.com Portland Food Adventures: www.PortlandFoodAdventures.com