Cafe Yumm!

For the sake of the uniqueness of Portland I tend to steer clear of chain restaurants, but it would be untrue to say that I NEVER visit them. It would also be untrue to say that they serve bad food just because they are a chain.

Cafe Yumm! sits in the heart of Portland State University, and serves a variation of foods based around rice and beans.

I got the chicken bento bowl. A little background on Bento: traditionally a Japanese cuisine, Bento is a meal consisting of rice, some sort of meat, and vegetables. Fancy word for "this is what I make for dinner every night, man." But Cafe Yumm! serves up a nice little bowl of Bento, for sure.



My dad got a smoky bean soup, which was also quite delicious. All in all: affordable, pretty quick, and and interesting array of meals. Check it out!

Bridgeport Ale House

"Ha ha, what were we thinking?"

My friend Michelle and I get bored sometimes, and dress up and go pretend we are trendy Portlanders instead of transplant retail clerks. We really are trendy Portlanders.

I am really impressed (so far) with the microbreweries that populate this fair city. Thus, whenever I am presented with the "oppourtunity," I try to patronize them. In the non-school marm definition of the word.

Hawthorne St. is a difficult place to navigate when you're both hungry and indecisive. Eventually hunger wins and you point and click and end up insanely happy. Luckily, I pointed and clicked on Bridgeport. They are the lovely masterminds of such things as Cafe Negro, Hop Czar, and Blue Heron.

I want to lay out a disclaimer for the photo below: yes, there were only two of us. No, we're not actually alcoholics. It's the indecisive thing again.




Bridgeport offers this sample of all their house ales as one menu item, which is really a cool thing. However, the cups are not, like, shot glasses. So bring more people, or you'll end up wasting a lot of it, which is a sad thing. Our sampling came with Cafe Negro, Hop Czar, Stumptown Tart, Blue Heron, and a few others.

They also have an amazing hummus platter. The olives are to die for.

Papaccino's

Another frequent flier. I love this place. They make great coffee, they make awesome breakfast sandwiches, they have a cereal bar, they have a fireplace, they have crossword puzzle books, an open air human observatory (also known as outdoor seating), a ladies knitting group, local art, aaand, they are one of the sponsors of the Woodstock Farmer's Market.

So, whether you're looking for some (fairly) quick, delicious food, a good cup of coffee, or a chair to fall asleep in on your lunch break and miss your clock-in time, Papaccino's is the place to go!

The lovely sandwich you see gracing the top of this entry is a sausage, egg, and cheese bagel. Hot off the grill. Mm.

Pizza Roma: frequent flier

Since it's so close to home and my workplace, I go to Pizza Roma frequently. Between that and Papaccino's, I decided to start up a "frequent flier" line of blogs for the places that I go to the most.

I love Pizza Roma because there is always something different. Always something with vegetables, always something tart - artichokes, for example, and something garlicky, something for ravenous carnivores, and of course: tons of cheese for lactose tolerant folks.

This, for example, is something delicious with chicken and mushrooms and garlic and such. Probably cleverly named Garlic Chicken. :)