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This Week in Food News: Riot Ribs Dissolves, Street Disco Makes Pizza, and Botanist Takes Over On Deck Sports Bar Patio
Portlanders are looking at a warm weekend and (cautiously) one without tear gas to spice up their lives. Finally we can go back to getting our spice from delicious cuisine and not from police brutality and federal overreach! Too spicy? We’ve got at least one thrice-spiced option in this week’s Mercury Food News round-up!
• After announcing their intentions to transfer ownership of Riot Ribs—the mutual aid barbecue stand located in Lownsdale Square Park—to police accountability group Don’t Shoot PDX last Friday, Riot Ribs abruptly changed direction and announced via Twitter on Monday that they would instead “dissolve on the ground operations.” In a statement released on Tuesday, Riot Ribs alleged that a volunteer had set up alternate Twitter and Cashapp accounts and was soliciting donations in an attempt to run Riot Ribs on their own. Riot Ribs also began posting redistribution receipts of their accumulated donations to other mutual aid groups in the Pacific Northwest. Furthermore, several Riot Ribs volunteers were already underway with an operation to create a satellite, mutual aid free food pop-up that would tour to other Black Lives Matter protests. Those volunteers are operating under and tweeting from the moniker Revolution Ribs. Riot Ribs is dead. Love live Revolution Ribs!
• Former BarFly writer Christine Heeley penned this touching goodbye to long-running bar review site for Willamette Week. Heeley says BarFly began as a zine on “founder Jen Lane’s kitchen table in 1997,” before it grew into an entertainment business, ferrying readers around in party busses to the spots BarFly deemed best. “Jen was passionate about supporting local businesses, especially the small and obscure ones,” Heeley writes. “And over time, she grew BarFly into something much bigger than a bar guide.”
• Since early July, pop-up snack bar Street Disco has been serving up a variety of tasty creations and natural wines from Southeast Portland’s White Owl Social Club. With the menu changing daily, only Taco Tuesday and Lamb Saturday were for sure. Yesterday they announced the addition of Pizza Friday. Despite that gorgeous patio, Street Disco is only doing delivery and online ordering, so plan accordingly.
• We all wondered who the prime outdoor patio real estate of Northwest Portland’s On Deck Sports Bar would go to. PDX Eater reports the truly excellent news that subterranean bar Botanist has taken over the deck, hoping to turn it into “a sort of open-air food hall.” Botanist begins serving tapas and pina colada slushies today. Also in a soft open on the deck is Havana Cafe—a brand new Cuban food endeavor from former Mi Mero Mole chef Pablo Portilla.
• After much cast iron cornbread anticipation, Reckon, the fried chicken and biscuits pop-up from Culture co-owner Cameron McNulty and Culture kitchen lead Dominic Finzo, finally opened yesterday. Operating out of the Culture pick-up window on SE Hawthorne, Reckon is only offering takeout and delivery for now, but McNulty and Finzo hope to open their own brick and mortar spot. PDX Eater profiled the pair at the end of July, discussing cultural appropriation in food culture, their respective cultural backgrounds—Finzo is mixed race and McNulty is biracial—and Finzo’s fried chicken recipe, which involves 24-hour buttermilk brining and three applications of spice!
• After a soft open last week, Tight Tacos are open once more and serving up tacos, burritos, and Thirsty Papas (nacho fries) to be enjoyed on the Zipper building’s patio or taken to a secondary location for delicious consequences.
• We know you love your patios, Portland. Just reopening today, SE Hawthorne wine bar and restaurant OK Omens is back and has a little shaded space to serve you from.
• Not enough patio news? More open patios can be found in the Mercury‘s Patio Pages. We’ve also been rounding up all the info on restaurants offering dine-in and outdoor dining here.
• Hey, we love you! We want you to eat something. So make sure to send us all your food news and tips: food@portlandmercury.com.