We have a bevy of events coming up on the Daily Blender coverage calendar this year, but here are my picks for February and March:

South Beach Wine and Food Festival, Miami, Florida (February 23-26)
The ultimate Food Network/Cooking Channel mecca, this annual festival takes place along the sunny beaches of South Beach, with everyone from Scott Conant to Rachael Ray making their rounds. Oceanside soirees, tastings about town, and the massive Grand Tasting make up this weekend-long event, with sea and sun playing in the background. This year’s lineup includes the Best of the Best dinner at the lush Fontainebleau Miami Beach, a Farm to Table Brunch with our friend, chef Michael Schwartz, and Trucks on the Beach with ever-awesome Andrew Zimmern. On the heels of her new book release, you can also catch a seminar with the lovely Gail Simmons, whom I’ll be interviewing next month. Can’t make it this year? Neither can I. But at least we can peruse last year’s coverage…

Seattle Wine and Food Experience, Seattle, Washington (February 26)
Though I’m not making it to SOBE, I will be at the Seattle Wine and Food Experience this year. One of my favorites in the Pacific Northwest, the SWFE brings together a whole host of talented food, wine, and spirits folks in the greater Seattle area. You can read my coverage from the 2010 event here, with my pics and notes from this year’s event going live on Daily Blender the first week of March.

Taste of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia (March 8-11)
I can’t even tell you how much I love Australia. After my visit in 1997, I’ve spent the whole time trying to make my way back – and someday soon, I hope to. A country full of top-notch food and wine folks, it includes a handful of notable culinary events, including the Taste of Sydney. Taking place in the harborside city of Sydney, this weekend event delivers restaurant and wine tastings, cooking demonstrations, seminars on sustainability, and “The Beautifully Swedish Rekorderlig Cider Bar” (which sounds like fun to me).

IACP Annual Conference, New York City, New York (March 29-April 2)
Those in the know, know IACP. The International Association of Culinary Professionals holds a massive conference each year in a hip, happening city of choice (most recently Austin and Portland), bringing together media, PR people, chefs, restaurateurs, and more writers (journalists, bloggers, cookbook authors, etc.) than you can imagine. This year’s event is taking place in the Big Apple, with speaking engagements, tours, awards, and a ‘Book and Blog Festival’ featuring industry well-knowns like Grant Achatz, Dan Barber, Amanda Hesser, Marion Nestle, Ruth Reichl, Marcus Samuelsson, and Kim Severson. Although I have yet to join (the membership is sadly a bit pricey, which is ironic given the paycheck of most writers) I did have a grand time at the opening event in 2010.

I’ll have another Eating and Exploring the first week of April, highlighting my fave events happening in April and May – and there are quite a few of them!

~Jennifer Heigl

*Photo Credit: Jennifer Heigl / Daily Blender

Today, we’re kicking off a new feature on Daily Blender, with the inaugural Quick Spin – a series of condensed Q&As with food and drink folks kicking ass across the country, including restaurateurs, chefs, bartenders, vintners, distillers, farmers, producers, authors, and filmmakers.

I met chef Scott Popovic on my first visit to the Cayman Cookout in 2010. Scott and his always-effervescent colleague, Maggie O’Quinn, were absolutely delightful additions to an already spectacular food and wine weekend, and I was thrilled to see them both again on my visit to this year’s event. Based in the heartland of Cleveland, Ohio, Popovic oversees the culinary outreach of Certified Angus Beef, a division of the American Angus Association. He’s also one of my favorite “beef peeps”.

Q: What’s your role?
A: I’m the corporate chef of Certified Angus Beef, so I travel around and talk to consumers and chefs about the product, about high quality angus genetics, on behalf of the ranchers and farmers that produce the product.

Q: So are you creating recipes?
A: I do a lot of different things – create recipes, participate in events like the Cayman Cookout where I’m working with other chefs, talking about the product and explaining what the benefits are. Ultimately, I report to a Board of Directors that are all ranchers, so we’re here to help them. We’re a non-profit company, which really surprises people because you don’t really think of a brand of beef as being a non-profit. We’re not trying to make a buck – at the end of the day, we’re here to help everyone in the industry increase sales, from the retailers and restaurateurs to the distributors, all the way back to the farmers and ranchers.

Q: And your background? How did you end up as ‘beef peep’?
A: (laughter) Well, I am a chef by training. I went to Johnson & Wales and then spent three years cooking in South Carolina. I eventually moved back to my hometown of Cleveland, and worked at the Ritz-Carlton and Moxie before I headed to Vegas. I worked at Aureole under Charlie Palmer for a year, which was a great experience. I learned a lot, especially with his visions of modern American cuisine, taking into consideration how different cuisines affect the palate. I worked at N9NE in the Palms, and learned a lot about volume and how to quickly produce high quality product. I returned to Cleveland to be near family and took a job with my former mentor at Moxie, Doug Katz, when he opened Fire Food & Drink. I was there for a year before he said, “Scott, I love you, and you’re a phenomenal chef, but what are you doing?!” I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do after that – I was thinking about teaching – but I knew I didn’t want to be in the restaurant kitchens anymore, working 100+ hours a week, not being home, the daily pressures. A good friend of mine told me that Certified Angus Beef was looking for a corporate chef, and I applied, and boom-bang, here I am! I’ve been with Certified Angus Beef for a little over five years now.

Q: What are some of the challenges you’ve found in your role with Certified Angus Beef?
A: Really, just the education side. Unfortunately, we’ve kind of created our own competition. When we were started thirty years ago, there weren’t really any beef brands, and now there are over 100 brands of beef, over seventy of them with “angus” in the name. So it’s really just about explaining what sets us apart, the high quality of our product.

Q: What draws you back to the Cayman Cookout every year?
A: Well, aside from being in this beautiful, sunny place in the middle of January… (laughter)

The Cayman Cookout is a spectacular event. It’s very intimate. We do a lot of different events, from South Beach to New York Food & Wine, and they’re really, really big. The Cayman Cookout is more of a cozy event where you really get to know both the chefs and the guests. It’s our fourth year here as a sponsor, and even guests that live here on the island and only see me once a year remember me every year. It’s a great experience. The Caymanians are awesome. The staff here at the Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman are heads and tails above everyone else – they just do a phenomenal job.

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Have suggestions for who you’d like to see in the Quick Spin? Leave your ideas in the comments below, or shoot us an email!

~Jennifer Heigl

*Photo credit: Jennifer Heigl / Daily Blender

Seated at the judges table, as every year, chefs Eric Ripert, Anthony Bourdain, and Jose Andres were joined this round by Food & Wine editor Dana Cowin and Cayman Islands Governor Duncan Taylor. Chef competitors Maureen Cubbon – or “Mo”, as her fans chanted from the floor – and Eric St. Cyr, who had completed preliminary competition rounds in order to advance to the finals, took their spots on stage with chef Richard Blais emceeing the cooking frenzy. With a timer set (half hour? hour? I was eating, not looking at the clock) Cubbon and St. Cyr worked furiously with a staff of assistants to create a main dish. For some added fire, they were each asked to create a cocktail to pair with their dish as well, while nearly 500 brunch visitors snapped photos, chatted with their favorite chefs, and loaded up their plates. The lighthearted atmosphere of the room only brought more fun to the forefront.

I heart you, Cayman Cookout!

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Don’t miss all the Daily Blender coverage of the 2012 Cayman Cookout! Check out day one and two here and here, respectively. Stay tuned, as I’ll have a quick Q&A with Certified Angus Beef corporate chef Scott Popovic coming up at the end of January, along with my exclusive interview with chef Jose Andres (on the move, no doubt!) posting in early February.

~Jennifer Heigl

*Photo credit: Jennifer Heigl / Daily Blender

**What can I say? I heart the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism and the staff at the Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman as well. Thank you so very much for inviting me to cover this fantastic event for a second time.

The day started out normal enough. Relaxed and happy from what I can only describe as the best massage ever, courtesy of La Prairie and the Silver Rain Spa (and I fancy myself a massage connoisseur) I ventured across the hotel’s property to Periwinkle, the casual dining destination of the Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman. On tap for lunch, the Caribe luncheon with renowned French chef, Laurent Gras. With chef Eric Ripert joining in at the media table, the open patio full of guests dined on conch and caviar, Caribbean lobster, and wahoo while winemaker Hansjörg Rebholz discussed the Rebholz Estate wines chosen for the occasion. I enjoyed lunch and conversation with the loveliest couple from Newfoundland, and the final course, a melon consommé with coconut gelée and a lemon ginger sorbet, capped off the end of a perfect tropical afternoon.

The nighttime event included a succession of book signings, cocktails, and a main meal taking place at Camana Bay, an expansive, beautifully manicured retail venue. Guests of the Cookout had their choice of restaurant for dinner – Ortanique, Abacus, or Michael’s Genuine Food and Drink. With their Miami flagship reigning as my favorite meal of 2011, I chose Michael’s, and mingled with the pre-dinner crowd accordingly.

Entering the restaurant, chefs Michael Schwartz and April Bloomfield were hard at work manning the busy kitchen line for their ‘Genuine Bloomfield’ dinner, plates and white chef coats a wild blur behind the bar. After flashing my ticket, I was lead past a room of food and wine fames – Chef and Mrs. Laurent Gras, Mrs. Eric Ripert, Mr. and Mrs. Bourdain. Food & Wine magazine editor Dana Cowin took her seat next to publisher Christina Grdovic amid a scattering of local and national journalists. And I arrived at my table – where my placecard sat squarely between one for McKeeva Bush, Premier of the Cayman Islands, and another for Alden McLaughlin, Leader of the Opposition.

Aside from the prestige of my surprise tablemates, dinner was everything I had expected from Bloomfield, Schwartz, and the MGFD team. Dishes arrived in a timely manner – gruyere beignets, fried okra, wahoo crudo, slow roasted pork shoulder, and a seriously awesome rabbit and ricotta crespelle – while the conversation maintained a relatively non-political tone. Fellow guests from around the room dropped by periodically to greet the Premier as we made our way through the courses. Once dessert arrived – rich chunks of salted peanut caramel bar, a favorite of mine from pastry chef Hedy Goldsmith – I nearly breathed a sigh of relief for utilizing the right utensil at the right time, keeping up with the conversation, and not spilling a glass of wine on myself. A win definitely worthy of that second piece of caramel bar I snagged before departing.

As live music began in the courtyard, welcoming dinner guests for post-dinner desserts and cocktails, I made a beeline for the return shuttle, knowing full well I had yet another day of events to look forward to.

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Missed the first post of my Cayman Cookout coverage? Catch it here. You can also read up on my last visit to the Caymans, for the 2010 event weekend. Curious about my other fun Daily Blender adventures? It’s a good thing I’m writing a book…

~Jennifer Heigl

*Photo credit: Jennifer Heigl / Daily Blender

**Many thanks to the folks at the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism and the staff at the Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman for inviting me to cover this fantastic event – and for taking such great care of me.

Over the past four years, the island-bound winter event has brought together the crème de la crème for culinary demos and one-of-a-kind gatherings, offering a plush destination weekend for food and wine lovers. The roll call of the Cayman Cookout is masterfully assembled each year, with friends Eric Ripert and Anthony Bourdain inviting some of their favorite fellow chefs to join in on the fun. Also on the bill each year, chef Jose Andres, rounding out the event’s cornerstone culinary three Musketeers.

This year’s lineup also included chefs Laurent Gras, April Bloomfield, Paul Rogalski, Michael Schwartz, Francois Payard, Richard Blais, Dean Max, and Cindy Huston, along with Andrea Robinson, Ray Isle, and Farmer Lee Jones. Taking place at the oh-so-comfortable Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman – where Ripert has his name on not one, but two of the resort’s dining destinations – the majority of the events were held either onsite or at a restaurant nearby.

My schedule began at a restaurant nearby.

I visited chef Dean Max’s The Brasserie last time I was covering the Cayman Cookout, and was impressed with Max, not only by the dishes he prepared, but for his restaurant, a dining room of chic island decor with a large greenhouse and patio area just outside. In the greenhouse, and in every green space scattered throughout the restaurant’s parking lot, the chef and his team have planted fruits, vegetables, and spices. This year, he noted the restaurant’s acquisition of its own fishing boat, taking farm-to-table up a notch to gatherer/producer-to-table. The utilization of the limited space and resources available in order to manage as many aspects of the dining chain as possible. Impressive indeed.

Friday afternoon, event guests gathered for a Moet Chandon luncheon at the Brasserie, dining on conch tempura, pimento berry smoked pork, sea salt-crusted red snapper, spiny lobster cannelloni, and an apple banana mousse alongside pairings of Grand Vintage, Rose Imperial, and Nectar Imperial champagnes.

~Jennifer Heigl

*Photo credit: Jennifer Heigl / Daily Blender

**You bet your sweet bippy I was invited to cover this event – and I am grateful for it. Many thanks to the folks at the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism and the staff at the Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman for taking such great care of me.

Here on Daily Blender, I’ve been busy whittling away at the noise and honing in on what really makes this place a favorite destination for food, wine, and spirits enthusiasts. Focusing more on the heart and soul of what makes this community tick, I’ve had the opportunity to make new friends and explore new events, like the Kapalua Wine & Food Festival. In March, I was thrilled to be in attendance at the James Beard Award luncheon here in Portland as some of my favorite chefs were announced as semifinalists. Later in the spring, I made my way to New York City for Food & Wine’s 2011 Best New Chefs stylish soiree. And in the fall, I ventured to the mecca of food & wine – Napa Valley, California – for the inaugural Flavor! Napa Valley weekend.

Top stories holding your interest this year revolved a bit around beverages (or maybe it was just me) with the bartender backlash over the Pussers/PKNY trademark debacle as well as the expansion of Portland’s beloved Stumptown Coffee. Readers were also excited to check out the opening details of chef Jonathon Sawyer’s Noodlecat in Cleveland and the nod to Portlandia from spirits writer Brandon Wise.

My interview with New Orleans chef John Besh was perhaps my favorite of the year – an impromptu Q&A during the blustery Beaver Creek Master Chef Classic in Beaver Creek, Colorado. I was also thrilled to bring the rock-n-roll story of Oregon vintner Scott Wright to the Daily Blender community, and had such a great time touring the lush Evonuk Farms with Maui chef Isaac Bancaco before digging in to the Humuhumunukunukuapua’a farm-to-table menu.

In the new year, I’ll be kicking off the event schedule with the 2012 Cayman Cookout, with further adventures already planned in Indianapolis, Maui, and New Orleans and interviews with chefs José Andrés and Cathy Whims already on the Daily Blender docket for early spring. As new events, chefs, and restaurants seemingly emerge nearly every few minutes, you can be sure the food, wine, and fabulous coverage will continue to flow all the way through 2012.

In the meantime, be sure to check out my ‘Meet Your Mixologist’ profiles over at Societe Perrier, including Q&As with Australian mixer Matt Bax and Pernod Ricard main man Simon Ford, and remember to stay tuned for all the sandy, sunny Cayman Cookout coverage here on Daily Blender in mid-January.

And, as always, thanks so much for your love and support. Onward into our fourth year!

~Jennifer Heigl

*Photo credit: Jennifer Heigl / Daily Blender

In coordination with the week’s BarSmarts Live events, Meehan’s Stumptown celebration brought together some of the most talented bartenders from across the U.S., including Esquire’s David Wondrich, San Francisco’s Erick Castro and Boston’s Misty Kalkofen. A sort of graduate school for mixologists, BarSmarts is a certification program that starts with online quizzes and a home bar kit and ends in an exclusive live event, held in a different city each year. Born from a book proposal Meehan had to write for the final thesis of the national BarSmarts program, the book is chock full of recipes and drink details that even the most amateur bartender will love – and is certainly study-worthy.

But unlike the chemistry or PoliSci textbooks down at PSU, Meehan’s book is truly stunning. After all, Meehan is the mastermind behind PDT (short for Please Don’t Tell), a Manhattan speakeasy where the talking is soft and the cocktails are carefully crafted, accessible only through a funky old phone booth hidden away inside a hot dog restaurant.

And though Meehan has worked with pioneering mixers like Audrey Saunders of Pegu Club, and the book includes blurbs from David Chang, Dale DeGroff, Mark Bittman and Rachel Maddow, he has a quiet intelligence about him, as well as a refreshing lack of pretension.

“I was thinking about my brother’s book (Peter Meehan’s The Momofuku Cookbook),” Meehan told me during the party, “and how my parents, while very supportive, hadn’t even read the whole thing. I wanted to make a book that could be educational but also something people wanted to pick up off the coffee table and read through.”

“I was sitting on the subway and I looked up at this amazing flying fish illustration for the MTA arts series and knew that’s what I wanted. It had a great WPA feel, block prints and all. So I tracked Chris down and told him about my project… I knew it would be a great match.”

Like Meehan and his book, the release party itself was understated and smart, of course, with four cocktails carefully prepared by Wondrich and Portland’s own Jeffrey Morgenthaler, among others. Featured drinks included Meehan’s 2008 invention, the Green Deacon, a fuchsia-hued concoction with gin and grapefruit juice given a slight aromatic twist with an absinthe rinse, as well as Erick Castro’s The Statesman, a light gin mixture with chartreuse and a subtle hint of pear. Meehan’s 2003 invention and grownup tipple, the Apple Malt Toddy, was also on hand to warm party goers. My personal favorite, however, was David Wondrich’s Weeksi, a unique (much like Wondrich himself) whiskey concoction with a delicate addition of Lillet Blanc, which Wondrich joked, “…basically requires that I say the name with a French accent.”

As the night went on, the room transformed from electric to the more laid-back, speakeasy ambiance of Meehan’s world of imbibe, and I felt grateful to be far, far away from anything resembling a finals week.

~Kat Vetrano

*Photo credit: Matt Devincenzi

Joining the late morning interactive luncheon, I was a bit taken aback to see chef Scott Conant on stage when I arrived. Like many of the luncheon guests, I expected to see chef Michael Chiarello at the kitchen helm, but in a turn of unexpected events – namely an emergency appendectomy during the wee hours of the morning – Chiarello was understandably detained. Stepping in, chef Conant joined Bottega executive sous Ryan McIlwraith to ensure the luncheon went off without a hitch, with chef Masaharu Morimoto even hopping up on stage to croon a few notes for the crowd!

The fun really began after the stage demo, when guests were ushered across the way to the CIA kitchens to cook up one of the dishes for the luncheon. Dare I say I was certainly in awe entering the kitchen – the prestige and honor of stepping into such a historic culinary institution, throwing on a white coat, placing a toque on my head. Corralled into groups, each team was lead by a CIA student through the process. Our chef Brandon made sure to assist with everything from knife skills to sauteing, temping to timing – and a roasted butternut squash with mushrooms and burrata was made!

Full of butternut squash, spaghettini with rapini and romano, and a toasted-spice sous vide chicken, I made my way to my last session for the weekend before venturing back to Portland. Though I’ve attended a number of wine tastings, the “Power of Points” with wine man Ray Isle was really a wonderful, informal afternoon session. Joined by two local vintners, Isle offered a tasting of six wines in an effort to educate guests on how points are determined for wines and how much the ratings can vary between reviewers, imbibers, and vintages. Fascinating, particularly for wine buyers like myself who often make decisions based on wine points.

And thus my wine country extravaganza came to an end! Some people leave their hearts in San Francisco. I left mine in Napa Valley.

Many thanks to everyone who made it happen. Count me in for Flavor! Napa Valley 2012!

Missed my interview with chef Michael Chiarello? You can read it here! Don’t forget to check out my pics and stories from Day 1 as well!

~Jennifer Heigl

*Photo credit: Jennifer Heigl / Daily Blender

**Many many thanks to Flavor! Napa Valley sponsor Silverado Resort for hosting me during my stay!

And in the fall, no less!

It was the colorful countryside that met me upon my arrival this last Tuesday to the heart of northern California wine country. Vineyards in every direction, hills of autumn all around. I spent my first day in the area aboard the luscious Napa Valley Wine train, stepping back in time on the renovated locomotive and enjoying the view with a wine glass in hand. In the evening, I made my way to Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc, and emerged full of prime rib and fudge brownie sundae, a peaceful smile on my face.

My Flavor! Napa Valley adventures officially began Friday morning, with a culinary demonstration from Meadowood’s Christopher Kostow. Like most of the weekend events, the demo was held at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America at Greystone. Best described as a foodie’s Hogwarts, the castle-like campus nearly glows, oversized spoons and forks hanging from the stone walls, display cases filled with tools and history of both the school and the valley.

Kostow’s session featured the lauded chef offering tips on ‘mouthfeel’, or utilizing different textures effectively within a dish. With sous chefs on hand, he created a goat’s milk yogurt dish, with shiso sesame “rocks” and pickled plums. Even better, there was enough for everyone.

My favorite wines of the evening included Mumm Napa’s magnum of champagne, Flora Springs, Lang & Reed, Stags Leap, Marketta, Peju, and V. Sattui. All of the bites available were remarkable, including a fantastic golden beet salad, vegetable samosas, pulled pork, curry scallops, mini fish tacos, escargot, mini cheddar biscuits with ham and pepper jelly – and everything in between!

Tomorrow – my adventures on Day 2 of Flavor! Napa Valley – including an interactive luncheon that had us cooking in the CIA kitchens!

~Jennifer Heigl

*Photo credit: Jennifer Heigl / Daily Blender

**Many many thanks to Napa Valley Wine Train for inviting me aboard, as well as Flavor Napa Valley sponsor Silverado Resort for hosting me during my stay!

We began in one of their darkly romantic booths, sipping some of their house sodas, created by bartender Lee Watson along with some creative flavor input from The Original’s pastry superstar Sally Bowers.

With soda on topic, general manager Meagan Goode explained the overall inspiration to The Original. Back in the 19th century, the pharmacy/drugstore was the American diner’s predecessor – it was the place to be. Goode explained you could fill your prescription, grab lunch, suck down a soda and be on your way back to work, fast. The real stars of these pharmacies were the Soda Jerks – the creative geniuses behind the soda fountain. These masterminds were true professionals of their day, taking years to perfect the craft of soda and tonic making – which feels awfully reminiscent of today’s bartenders.

The sodas Watson makes would make the Soda Jerks proud. We tried the Bitter Orange Elderflower (elderflower a favorite flavor of Bowers’), a rich and sweet sarsaparilla, and my personal favorite, the pomegranate thyme which had a savory bite that’d make a solid stand-up to any strong liquor pairing. The sodas set the tone for the rest of the menu, which is, as Goode puts it is, “Rooted in the diner, but always kicked up a couple notches.”

We sampled the menu cocktails where these sodas were used, including the Bittersweet Sunset, a mixture of Aperol and Benedictine balanced by the floral notes in their Bitter Orange Elderflower soda. Yet the cocktail that best captured our current season was their classic Hot Buttered Rum. Watson starts with dark rum and finishes with a compound butter of ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon, which felt just right with the rain still smacking against a nearby window.

Chef Ryan Bleibtrey (formerly of Urban Farmer) kindly walked us through a meal that managed to highlight all of these hours, all accenting the hearty seasonal fare that gives comfort food its definition. Breakfast offered baked eggs in a smoked tomato sauce that was best spooned with grilled flatbread – no utensils necessary. The sauce, as Bleibtrey put it, “Manages to hit all the senses,” with its combination of red pepper flakes, bright citrus, and smoke from the tomatoes.

And then, I’m not sure if it was the weather or that Thanksgiving is a mere week away, but it did almost feel like a holiday meal (minus a drunk aunt or the kids table). The “turkey” of the night was the hefty braised pork shank in rich bordelaise, garnished with 50’s-esque duchess potatoes (or as the menu playfully titles them, potato frosting).

And while there were other proteins on the table, like Thanksgiving, the sides stole the show. Big enough to share for two, each of the side dishes are unique takes on traditional sides. The classic scalloped potato gratin was improved with a savory mushroom cream sauce, while the roasted squash was amped up with spicy harissa, miles away from your standard maple syrup marshmallow concoctions. After any rich meal, something refreshing is always nice to have on the plate, and the Spice Roasted Applesauce played that role well. The dish is topped with a crunchy basil apple slaw that replenishes you after all that heaviness – and readily prepares you for dessert.

And dessert is quite a big deal at The Original. Their towering pastry case (so big it has its own YouTube video) has everyday specials of pies, cakes, pudding shots (nicknamed the Cosby shot after Mr. Puddi’n Himself), and parfaits. Pastry Chef Sally Bowers joked that “We only have a small window where people want pumpkin pie before they get sick of it at their own Thanksgiving.” She served up her own silky version of the Thanksgiving pie, along with an airy sweet potato cheesecake. And following The Original’s love of excess, Bowers also shared two flavors of cake pops, as well as Almond Joy and pumpkin chai cupcakes that didn’t hold back on frosting or flavor.

So, that night, I learned two things. One, never believe there’s such thing as an “umbrella warranty.” And two, if horrible weather means a menu with cheese-curd stuffed pretzels and Amaretto pudding shots, I think I can stand a little bit more rain.

One element about The Original I’ve always liked is that no matter the time of day – whether it’s a leisurely brunch, a quick midday bite or late night imbibing and snacking – they’re always open (til 4 AM on weekends to be exact). Be sure to check out The Original Dinerant’s New Years Eve Party this year as well – $40 per person for a night in the retro luxe party loft from 10pm – 2am. The price includes dessert bar, two cocktails, champagne toast and a $10 donation to Ecotrust Food & Farms Program. You can make your reservations by calling (503)526-2666.

~Kat Vetrano

*Photo credit: Wendy Shortman