Right at the Fork

This episode was originally release in January 2023.

 

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. 

Right at the Fork is supported by:

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

Lindsay Goodrich has been on quite a journey since he joined the Proud Mary team in Melbourne years ago.   He followed PM Owner Nolan Hirte to Portland to bring a very unique Melbourne cafe / coffee experience to the USA, and navigate a new territory, finding success and lines out the door in due time.  Once established, this thing called the pandmemic hit, which coincided with plans for Proud Mary to expand to Austin, TX.  Lindsay helped build that and then settled into life in Boise, Idaho with his new bride, from where he oversees operations at PM's American locations.     We talk about how to have the best experiences at the cafes, the differences between Melbourne, Portland and Austin, and what the plans for further expansion might or might not be.   

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 

Coming up on the one year mark since opening Skywater Fine Wines, Neil Thompson joins us to talk about that adventure which started with the extreme challenges of running his Park Avenue Fine Wines in downtown Portland, before finally hanging up the towel there and moving west to brighter pastures.    He and his husband Hans opened two businesses between them, including Skywater Tea House a few months after the wine shop opened, to the delight of many local folks in Hillsboro that appreciated their businesses in their neighborhood.  Neil tells us about the evolution of both businesses, what they've learned, and what's working as a base for their exciting expansion plans.    For more background on Neil and Hans personally, you may want to click on this link from November of 2021  http://rightatthefork.com/shows/2021/11/11/294-neil-thompson-park-avenue-fine-wines?rq=thompson

 

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 

Chris Schultz, CEO of Portland's iconic brand Voodoo Doughnut, joined the company in 2017 to bring his 30+ years experience in the restaurant industry to the company. Prior to taking over the leadership of Voodoo, he helped Mod Pizza expand nationwide and before that, worked at Starbucks during its rapid expansion.  Since coming aboard, he's helped Voodoo expand into new markets and weather a pandemic.  We talk about bringing Voodoo and its Portland ethos to new markets, what the criteria is, and how it's been accepted.  Chris drops hints at new locations and also announces a new paintjob for their flagship store, taking place as we spoke.   We get to know a bit about Chris, too.  Where he eats in Portland, what he thinks of Blue Star, as well as his love of the Pacific Northwest after transplanting here from Southern California 20 years ago.   We interviewed co-founder Tres Shannon just before he brought Chris on to run the company in 2016.  One of our favorite episodes:  https://rightatthefork.libsyn.com/85-tres-shannon-voodoo-doughnut   https://www.voodoodoughnut.com/  

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 

On the news that Lisa Schroeder was named the Oregon Small Business Person of the Year for 2023, we felt it necessary to bring back our conversation with Lisa from January of this year.

 

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 Oregon Dungeness Crab: www.OregonDungeness.org  RingSide Steakhouse: www.RingSideSteakhouse.com Portland Food Adventures: www.PortlandFoodAdventures.com 

You can't deny positivity that comes from talking to Rodrigo Baena, co-owner and founder of Favela Brazilian Café in Southeast Portland. Rodrigo opened Favela with his wife, Dunya De Souza, in 2019 as a place not just for Brazilian immigrants to gather and celebrate the country's culture, but for everyone and anyone in the community to come together.

Since opening, Rodrigo and Dunya have opened a second location on Belmont, as well as a food truck.

Hear about Rodrigo's journey from Brazil, to England, Italy and India and eventually Portland, and what he utlimatly wants Favela to be in the community.  Plus, where does Rodrigo like to eat when not at Favela. 

 

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 

With news of new restaurants coming to PDX in the next two years, we return to our conversation with Bryan Deckert from one of our favorite places to eat when flying from Portland. The interview comes from August of 2022.

 

Bryan Deckert has been running the busy Country Cat restaurant at PDX since it first opened its doors.  Along the way it's garnered BEST AIRPORT RESTAURANT honors twice, and is a model for the many new local brands making airport experiences better. 

Bryan talks to us about what goes into running such a busy, quirky operation with different hours and structures, especially through the pandemic.   We also touch on Bryan's earlier days at Pazzo, where he was in charge of making dignitaries, like Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley, happy.

 

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 

Adam Evans recently embarked on a writing career with his first book. "Why The Customer is NOT Always Right" takes a different perspective on dealing with bad customers from his experience of more than 20 years in the hospitality industry as an owner and operator in Florida. He uses his unparalleled access to his group of over 30K quality hospitality employees across Florida to provide staff for all occasions.  He's had lots of experience with all sorts of employees and customers. 

Check out Adam's book on Amazon here.

 

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 

Gary Okazaki, our most prolific and worldly guest, joins Chris to discuss his recent lists of best cheap dishes in Portland.  You'll definitely hear about some places that will be new to you!  As part of this discussion, we talk about the increasingly expensive cost of entry to eat out these days, and yes, you guessed it, TIPPING!  The topic has been in the national news lately, and while we don't solve anything, Chris was glad to know he's not alone in his personal frustration with encountering tip lines to get a donut.  He's not cheap (full disclosure: he's writing this)--he offers a solution.   Gary also reels off his top 5 pizza spots in PDX.  Not really any surprises there, but most importantly, we think, is that the landmarks still hold up after so many new places have opened over the past 7 or 8 years.   Gary is always a fun conversation and can be found at @GarytheFoodie on Instagram.  

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 

Dina Avila, one of Portland's most prolific photographers in the food industry, joins Chris to talk about her craft and her life.    We talk about her childhood food influences, how misery in Hawaii caused her to move to Portland and take a job at Whole Foods, and how she forayed into full time work as a photographer.  We'll hear what she's reading these days, how the pandemic caused her to rethink her priorities, and where she may be in a few years.   dinaavila.com @dinaravila  

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