Aimee "ecogrrl" F.'s Profile

I wanted to like this.  But the service was lame and the food gave me a tummy ache.  Boo.

Great little early morning escape on a Saturday morning before all the Breakfast Folk emerge.  Walk in and the cinnamon roll aroma is near intoxicating, reminding me of that little place in Cannon Beach years ago.  Great service, very good espresso, and nice cozy little chair to sit in and read the paper.  Will definitely be back.

Five stars for the great cozy vibe and listening to Shirley Nanette or Centerpiece.  The appetizer specials are fairly good, but the drinks are quite expensive.  I love that they are sustainably focused.  Okay service.  Regular menu is way too expensive for the taste, unfortunately.  But I've been coming here for years and will continue to - nothing like Shirley singing 'Blue Skies' with a glass of wine and good friends around me.

I have a big crush on Anna Bannanas in St Johns.  Sunday morning bike rides in the sunshine ending up with a big fat mocha and a lox bagel with a seat on the cushy sofa and a book in hand, or meeting up with a friend in the window seating before a walk to Cathedral Park.  Nice people, great music, chill vibe, kid friendly without being kid crazy, and mmmm good espresso.  One of my favorites.

Tulip - my favorite flower, my favorite apple turnover.  Great family running the joint as well with good prices and yes, I agree, the best maple bar hands down.  Tulip makes me sentimental for the days when my dad used to take me to this little bakery for maple bars and eclairs on my one weekend a month.  Worth the bike ride or the #75 bus ride over to St Johns.  Bypass John Street Cafe and go straight for the good old fashioned sugar rush at Tulip. Yay Tulip!

While I rarely go this deep into Southwest (don't laugh, but when you are carfree in NE, you don't really adventure out to Hillsdale a ton), when I do head out there for their farmer's market on Sundays, I always stop by Baker & Spice.  The staff is fantastic, the food (both sweet and savory) is delish, and the coffee is great.  Even with the lines I'm usually able to get a seat, and while it is pretty wonderbread on this side of town, everyone seems to be in a pretty good mood who is there.  WIth the introduction of the King market near me, I don't get out there much (although the Hillsdale farmer's market I think is one of the best, the bus from NoPo only goes hourly on Sundays out there), but will give it a solid thumbs up.  Only downer? The scary parking lot - nothing worse than a soccer mom in an SUV not paying attention to pedestrians...

Sorry I'm going to have to agree with the naysayers for this cafe.  Unfortunately, I've had mostly negative experiences with the staff here as well being indifferent to borderline unfriendly/snobby.  When you order something anywhere and the person doesn't thank you for your business, or just stands there and looks at you when you walk into an empty or near-empty cafe (or doesn't even look), that's not good. What's sad is it's a great little neighborhood location and the pastries are usually pretty good.  I'm not keen on the coffee however - while they say it's Stumptown, this is the only cafe I know who serves it where it gives me a horrible stomach ache afterwards, several times in a row.  So service and coffee both being unappealing, unfortunately  I can't imagine myself returning.  This town has way too many good cafes around where they actually are nice to all of the customers.

While I had a fairly good meal at Acadia, midway through my time there I discovered they had foie gras on their menu (see below for an explanation if you don't know about what goes into creating foie gras). When I asked the waitress why, she had no explanation nor seemed to understand why that was such a big deal.

Shame on Acadia for supporting such a cruel and inhumane practice.  I will NEVER be back and am amazed at how many restaurants in Portland (Le Pigeon, Acadia, etc.) support this practice yet tout earth-friendly ingredients, etc.  Disgusting.

Foie gras, the French term for "fatty liver," is the product of extreme animal cruelty. It is the swollen, diseased liver of ducks and geese who are force-fed just up until the point of death before being slaughtered. Birds suffer tremendously, both during and after the force-feeding process, as their physical condition rapidly deteriorates. In just a few weeks, their livers swell up to ten times their normal size, and the birds can scarcely stand, walk, or even breathe. At this point, they are slaughtered, and their livers are peddled as a "gourmet" delicacy.

If only Kay's place wasn't so far from mi casa in NE...but it's much closer than Manna in Ashland!!!

Kay and her mom do a great job of keeping this place a nice little hole in the wall with down home cooking, great treats, and delish breakfasts (a bit big for me but the savory goodies are a killer substitute...).  And of course, Kay and her mom are fantastic human beings - always welcoming and sweet and genuine.  I'm glad this neighborhood has them and glad to see they are doing well!

I suppose I should go back and try the infamous burger, but I gotta say I was so unimpressed with the drinks that it's hard to conceive making a special effort to go back since it's a bar.  The pizza was pretty good but it was probably the worst mojito I've ever had (there's an art to muddling the mint in a way that it doesn't get sucked up and in your teeth in every sip as well...).  Nice staff but nothing in the vibe or the experience made me go 'ooh ahh'.  Bummer as there's not much else in that area.