New Pill Hill Potbelly Completes Madison Street’s Sandwich Corridor

DSC_0004
DSC_0010
DSC_0009
DSC_0021
DSC_0008
DSC_0011
DSC_0013
DSC_0016
DSC_0020
DSC_0023
DSC_0002
DSC_0001

Behold! The new Potbelly on First Hill! (Photo: Peter Majerle)

Balloons and sandwiches for everyone! (Photo: Peter Majerle)

An assortment of Washington area ephemera decorates the dining area. (Photo: Peter Majerle)

Post your lost cat on the First Hill Happenings board! (Photo: Peter Majerle)

Here's what will happen if you eat too many Potbelly sandwiches! X-rays add to the decor, because of all the hospitals nearby (Photo: Peter Majerle)

Let's take part in the Potbelly experience! First stand in line. (Photo: Peter Majerle)

Then hippies will make your sandwiches! (Photo: Peter Majerle)

Enhance. (Photo: Peter Majerle)

Hard at work. (Photo: Peter Majerle)

Ta da! (Photo: Peter Majerle)

Two thumbs up! (Photo: Peter Majerle)

Fits right in. (Photo: Peter Majerle)

Finally, Madison is complete. (Photo: Peter Majerle)

DSC_0005 thumbnail

It’s hard to walk around the First Hill stretch of Madison and not buy a sandwich–nearly every establishment on the strip has some sort of meat with bread. Added to the mix a couple weeks ago is a new Potbelly sandwich shop, the fifth to arrive in the Seattle area.

Located below the apartments in the Coppins Well building, the newest addition is well-positioned to serve the employees and visitors of Swedish, Virginia Mason, and the Polyclinic. If the line at Jimmy John’s is too long (or you just want your sandwich toasted), cross the street! Life is easy and the cheap sandwiches plentiful along Sandwich Corridor.

City Council’s Two “No” Votes on Arena Justify Their Lack of Love

Apropos of nothing, a still from Grumpy Old Men.

On September 24, 2012, the Seattle City Council voted 6-2 to authorize Mayor McGinn to “execute a Memorandum of Understanding” with King County and ArenaCo, the last being the entity that, led by Chris Hansen, hopes to build a basketball arena in SoDo.

The Council’s Tom Rasmussen managed to miss out on this hotly debated vote. Richard Conlin and Nick Licata supplied the No votes. Both have now written explanations of their reasoning, with Licata seemingly of two minds about the deal. Concluding his analysis, Licata sounds more like a Yes: “In summary, I believe this proposal is a good one; it meets a high bar for public accountability. It is a rather solid tree in a forest of not such sturdy timber.”

But judging the proposal not simply on its merits, but on the other priorities of the city, Licata ultimately decides a new basketball arena is not Job #1. (He does not, however, suggest any alternative use of municipal bonding authority that the arena’s construction would forestall.) But fair enough.

This formulation, in contrast, is something of a drive-by: “They see someone purchase private land and in a couple of years get the city to buy it from him for double the price he purchased it for.” Since the purchase price has yet to be negotiated, it is premature to use the cap on the purchase price as the purchase price itself.

Conlin’s argument is pricklier from the outset. He says that though the revised agreement may do more to shield the city from downsides, it’s by no means clear that “we will wind up benefiting from it, or that it is a good use of the City’s time, resources, or financial capacity.” (In both Licata and Conlin’s arguments there is a tendency to elide the fact that basketball fans are also citizens.)

Conlin, who studied history as an undergraduate, sounds like a history major still when he argues that, “Only since World War II has it become customary for local governments to be primary funders–and the current trend may be away from public finance.” For one, that “only” refers to about 70 years. And his trend furnishes one example: the Golden State Warriors.

Licata and Conlin are, essentially, dismayed by a public-private partnership that they see as making off, somehow, with city monies. They sound particularly aggrieved by the new arena’s “self-funding” mechanism, where taxes paid by arena-goers would be directed to paying its debt. As politicians, both demonstrate the ability to annex notional revenues, and to cry out in pain at the thought of their hypothetical loss.

Speaking of notional revenues, both refer to “income” from Key Arena, which they half-rightly see as a white elephant. (“Half-” because it is a 50-year-old white elephant regardless of what happens with a new arena, though the two insist there’s a causal link. The more hard-headed wonks at Seattle Transit Blog are ready to knock it down, which is probably the best thing.)

Conlin claims the Key “made $310,000 on $6.6 million in revenues” in 2011. This is very similar to the “profit” the city looted from the Monorail for years, while foregoing essential maintenance and improvements; Key Arena’s infrastructure is in no better shape. Properly speaking, the Key’s depreciation wipes out any consideration of profit from operating expenses. Licata meanwhile mourns the $100 million in taxpayer money already spent: He could take comfort in realizing that works out to, over the Key’s lifetime, just $2 million per year.

Feast Portland, a Week Later: Reflecting on a Bounty of Food and Philosophy

bounty-scene-640-4108
bounty-clams-640-4050
bounty-pies-640-4059
bounty-elixirs-640-4067
bounty-sausage-640-4020
bounty-salt-640-4469
bounty-saltandstraw-640-4075
bounty-xocolotl-640-4442
bounty-moonstruck-640-4424
bounty-stumptown-640-4436
bounty-exhibit-640-4070
bounty-qui-640-4484
bounty-cosentinodemo-640-4092
highcomfort-incanto-640-4885
highcomfort-ox-640-4649
highcomfort-freitagchef-640-4578
feast-speakerbrooks-640-0399
feast-brocklam-640-0402
feast-pokpokdemo-640-4527
feast-pokpok-640-4560
dinner2-squab-640-388
imperial-poblano-640-3603
dinner2-foie-640-4415
feastdinner1-3-640-325
feastdinner1-4b-640-332
feastdinner1-menu-640-371
nightmarket-pokpok-640-4359
nightmarket-departureall-640-4150
nightmarket-aviary-640-4229
feast-lardo-640-4116
coffee-crowd-640-4009
coffee-aero-640-3994
sandwich-staple-640-3709
sandwich-beast4-640-3834
sandwich-irving-640-3690

The scene at the Oregon Bounty Grand Tasting.

One of my favorite bites from the Grand Tasting: Wild Coos Bay butter clam with foie gras, pickled chanterelles, micro wasabi greens, micro bull's blood greens, bonito flakes, and miso broth. (Prepared by Rick Martinez at Finn's Fish House in Seaside.)

Sampling of pies by Grand Central in Portland. ("Moded" on-site with ice cream from Ruby Jewel.)

Delicious Hott Sauce straight and in sample dishes from NW Elixirs.

The most captivating display at the Grand Tasting was by Sybaris restaurant in Albany, Oregon. Here is some house-made smoked elk sausage with huckleberry mostarda, elk bresaola chip, and camas-acorn cake with smoked elk tongue.

Display from Jacobsen Salt Co. at the Grand Tasting.

A rare sight: No line for Portland's Salt & Straw ice cream. Reason enough to attend Feast Portland!

Nice flavors from Xocolatl de David in Portland.

Moonstruck Chocolate Company (Portland) serving up some adult confections.

Plenty of Stumptown coffee to keep people going.

A look inside the Grand Tasting.

Paul Qui prepares for his cooking demo at the Grand Tasting.

Chris Cosentino of Incanto (San Francisco) does a cooking demo at the Grand Tasting.

Speaking of Cosentino, here's his pork skin spaghetti puttanesca for the High Comfort event.

One of my favorite dishes at High Comfort: cereal of maple pork corn flakes, smoked berry marshmallows, and toasted hazelnut milk from Ox in Portland.

Amanda Freitag of the Food Network cooking up potato pancakes (with Carlton Farms bacon, roasted tomato, cipollini jam, and beer reduction) at the High Comfort event.

At the Whole Foods Market Speaker Series, food writer Karen Brooks captivates the audience while the guitar player watches.

Still at the Speaker Series, writer Francis Lam interviews chef Sean Brock of Husk and McCrady's in Charleston.

Andy Ricker demonstrates how to make pad Thai while David Thompson of nahm restaurant looks on and provides humorous commentary.

After Ricker's demo, a sampling of his pad Thai.

Back to Cosentino, he teamed with Vitaly Paley for the Dinner Series, and here's his whole roasted squab (head split in half) with lardo, squash, and hazelnut bread sauce.

Paley just opened Imperial in Portland, and for his collaborative dinner with Cosentino served this potlatch pilaf-stuffed poblano pepper with cherry tomato, grilled corn relish, and walnut cream. (I actually had this dish for lunch at the restaurant, and shot it there.)

From Cosentino/Paley, foie gras crudo, pickled chanterelles, and doug fir.

From the Aizpitarte/Patterson collaboration for the Dinner Series, an inverted fromage blanc tart with fennel and wheatgrass.

Same dinner, shot halfway through eating the dish: coquillages, palmier, beurre manzanilla.

The menu for the Aizpitarte/Patterson meal.

At the Night Market, Pok Pok's khao kha muu, which is literally "rice with pork leg" that has five spice flavor.

Gregory Gourdet of Departure (Portland) presides over his five creations for the Night Market.

Aviary's (Portland) grilled fish balls with sweet soy and bonito flakes at the Night Market.

As if there wasn't enough food, here's a box of sandwiches (and a kale salad, as if to make things healthy!) from Lardo.

Stumptown experts educate the crowd about coffee-making while Oliver Strand of festival sponsor Food and Wine magazine looks on.

A demonstration of the AeroPress for coffee-making.

Ethan Stowell came down from Seattle for the Sandwich Invitational and presented his pork belly porchetta sandwich with Bosc pear and onion mostarda.

Winner of the Sandwich Invitational: Beast's (Portland) maple-glazed pork belly with pickled watermelon slaw on a housemade semolina roll.

Cuban fritas sandwich (made with chicken liver, Kobe beef, pork tenderloin, and veal) from Irving Street Kitchen in Portland is a standout at the Sandwich Invitational.

bounty-scene-640-4108 thumbnail
bounty-clams-640-4050 thumbnail
bounty-pies-640-4059 thumbnail
bounty-elixirs-640-4067 thumbnail
bounty-sausage-640-4020 thumbnail
bounty-salt-640-4469 thumbnail
bounty-saltandstraw-640-4075 thumbnail
bounty-xocolotl-640-4442 thumbnail
bounty-moonstruck-640-4424 thumbnail
bounty-stumptown-640-4436 thumbnail
bounty-exhibit-640-4070 thumbnail
bounty-qui-640-4484 thumbnail
bounty-cosentinodemo-640-4092 thumbnail
highcomfort-incanto-640-4885 thumbnail
highcomfort-ox-640-4649 thumbnail
highcomfort-freitagchef-640-4578 thumbnail
feast-speakerbrooks-640-0399 thumbnail
feast-brocklam-640-0402 thumbnail
feast-pokpokdemo-640-4527 thumbnail
feast-pokpok-640-4560 thumbnail
dinner2-squab-640-388 thumbnail
imperial-poblano-640-3603 thumbnail
dinner2-foie-640-4415 thumbnail
feastdinner1-3-640-325 thumbnail
feastdinner1-4b-640-332 thumbnail
feastdinner1-menu-640-371 thumbnail
nightmarket-pokpok-640-4359 thumbnail
nightmarket-departureall-640-4150 thumbnail
nightmarket-aviary-640-4229 thumbnail
feast-lardo-640-4116 thumbnail
coffee-crowd-640-4009 thumbnail
coffee-aero-640-3994 thumbnail
sandwich-staple-640-3709 thumbnail
sandwich-beast4-640-3834 thumbnail
sandwich-irving-640-3690 thumbnail

It’s been a week since returning from the four-day festival/feeding frenzy known as Feast Portland, and I find myself reflecting on the easily lost words that followed the colon in the title: “A Celebration of Oregon Bounty.”

The program guide described Portland and Oregon as “living food festivals,” and that feeling was apparent throughout the long weekend. Aside from the festival happenings, attendees found themselves surrounded by a wealth of culinary options, including quality coffeeshops, bakeries, breweries, restaurants, and—separating Portland from Seattle, at least for the time being—pods of food carts.

The bounty of eating and drinking places in Portland and outlying areas is due to the bounty of building blocks in the state of Oregon. The land provides a wide array of fruits and vegetables, including grapes for the wine industry and hops for the breweries. That same land is suitable for raising animals to produce organic chicken, beef, and pork. Meanwhile, the waters are a source of crab, salmon, tuna, and more.

But while there’s a sense of abundance, many in the state and country go hungry. Hence, the proceeds from Feast Portland will benefit Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon and also Share Our Strength, a national organization aimed at ending childhood hunger.

In this spirit, huge numbers came from the immediate area and afar to attend the festival, which was so well-organized that it felt far from a first-year effort. The biggest of the events were the two afternoon Oregon Bounty Grand Tastings. In the heart of the city, the Grand Tastings turned Pioneer Courthouse Square into a smorgasbord of food and drink, a gathering place to talk with winemakers, brewers, artisans, and other vendors—and to taste what they had to offer. Participants also enjoyed book signings and a chance to see chef demonstrations by the likes of April Bloomfield, recent Top Chef Masters winner Chris Cosentino, and former Top Chef winner Paul Qui.

The first three evenings featured additional major tasting events. The Sandwich Invitational (my report here) offered an opportunity to try 15 sandwiches of varying types. Next was a Night Market (my report here) that was a celebration of global street food. And finally there was a High Comfort (my report here) event in which chefs were asked to create “comfort foods pushed out of their comfort zone and into an elevated and rarefied realm.”

As if that’s not enough eating, Feast Portland also served up a Dinner Series with several intriguing teamings of chefs each night. Included was a 10-course, 5-hour dinner by Inaki Aizpitarte (Le Chateaubriand in Paris) and Daniel Patterson (Coi in San Francisco and Plum in Oakland), which I documented here.

And then there were seminars and lectures. Some seminars were hands-on, like a chance to do pig butchery, while others were more informational, like a coffee-making class—though most were followed by tasting opportunities. Most fascinating and impressive to me was the Whole Foods Market Speaker Series. Seamlessly orchestrated with music and slides, this event featured a diverse range of interesting speakers (and speaking styles) examining the current food scene in Portland and beyond, and looking at what the future holds. The Speaker Series reinforced the notion of bounty, and challenged us to report about it and partake in it responsibly and appreciatively.

The four days were thought-provoking, inspirational, and thoroughly filling—in mind and stomach. I feel lucky to have attended, and already have next year’s dates (September 20-23) in my calendar with hope that I’ll be available to return. (I also hope we’ll have something like Feast Seattle someday!) For now, check the slideshow above for a closer look at the Feast Portland festival.