PNW Relocation Blog

My workweek got too busy, and with another online class on Thursday from 6-8pm, I ended up pausing Pizza Week adventures until the weekend (no Day 4 or Day 5 Pizza Week observance for me). So I picked up on Saturday for Day 6 of 7, to try Old Town Brewing's offering, La 'Zagna. Per Pizza Week: What It's Called: La 'Zagna What's On It: Mornay Sauce base with mozzarella, meaty Bolognese, and ricotta, topped with fresh basil and shredded Parmesan What They Say About It: Spring’s the last chance to desecrate your body with too much cheese before you get working on your summer abs. Our La ’Zagna slice has Mornay sauce, meaty Bolognese, basil, and, of course, mozzarella! Ricotta! Parm! Hurry in and wolf down a slice before someone says “detox” and ruins your day. I grabbed this as a late lunch with being out and doing errands.  Originally I was going to check out Von Ebert Brewing's offering at their NE Cascades Parkway location (which was right in the same shopping c...

Day 3 of Pizza Week ended up being a quick grab n go from Fino's, an Italian place in the Kenton neighborhood in North Portland. It's worth noting for me that with my move late last summer to the city of Vancouver, in the state of Washington (a whole 8 miles away from my prior place, in the Central Eastside neighborhood in Portland), I'm finding pizza week a little more difficult to make happen every day.   Today was a struggle -- I picked this place to do during lunch because I had an online class going 6:30 - 8:30pm, and I did think it was going to be a quick midday trip over and back (only 4 miles one way). Unfortunately when I went to leave late into the lunch hour, after my first stop a few blocks away to get some gasoline, I found upon entering the freeway to head across the bridge over to Portland that traffic was at a standstill leading up to the bridge.  Not sure what was going on, or how long it was going to take to clear up, but knowing I had a 2pm meeting I di...

Day 2 of Pizza Week ended up being a twofer, although originally intended to be a threefer, for pizza slice eats. My Portland State U friend was my accomplice in what ended up being an Alberta St. slice journey this evening, for a few slices, a few brews and catching up. After busy work day I finally got signed off by ~6:15pm, and was out the door by 6:30pm to pick up PSU friend and head over to Alberta St.,  On tonight's docket were slices at each Paladin Pie (a food cart, on the same block as Great Notion Brewing), Wild Child (newly opened just a few months ago, maybe 2 blocks up from Paladin Pie) and Via Chicago (on the same block as Wild Child, and next to Salt & Straw). It was a surprise to drive by Via Chicago and find a line almost halfway down the block.  We immediately decided on account of that, Paladin Pie would be up first.  So, we parked on a sidestreet just off the block that Paladin Pie was, and made our way to their cart in the little corner pod there....

So, for 2023 there are a total of 36 places participating in Pizza Week here in Portland. Having blogged my 2022 pizza week journey for my first year living in Portland, I aim to keep it going here in 2023. For Day 1 (Monday), it was a busy workday and I ended up not stepping foot out of my place until around 7pm to grab my first Pizza Week slice for a quick dinner. I'd narrowed down the places I'm interested in this week from the 36 offerings down to 12, and tonight's slice was to be from Atlas Pizza, on NE Killingsworth St. This Atlas Pizza location's offering is called Thai Hard 2 (note: each Atlas Pizza has a different specialty slice offering this week, for 3 locations total). Per Pizza Week: What It's Called: Thai Hard 2 What's On It: Curried peanut sauce, chicken, roasted red peppers, red onion, mozzarella, cashews, scallion What They Say About It: Killingsworth is BACK to Thai Harder with another fusion this year! Creamy house-made curried peanut sauc...

Sandwich Week Day 7 (of 7) was intended to knock out one of the most appealing of the Sandwich Week offerings: The High on the Hog offering from Laurelhurst Market, on East Burnside (about 1.5 miles from my place, directly up Burnside Ave. from where I live). Laurelhurst Market was only offering their special during lunch service, and both my Portland State U friend and I had each noted this previously as a sandwich of interest. Neither of us had been to Laurelhurst Market but had both read/heard good things, so all aligned for this to be a do-over of the Friday evening Sandwich Week attempt.  All went to plan Sunday midday for arrival at Laurelhurst Market, on a scorcher of a heat wave day no less, to have their Sandwich Week offering on their outdoor covered patio. So per Sandwich Week, the High on the Hog breakdown: What's on it?: Spiced & smoked pork loin, radicchio, giardiniera, Italian salsa verde, and crispy fried onions on a toasted bun. The Inspiration: We aim to b...

With top billing on today's docket being to address my broken truck window, I bowed out of my 8-10am volunteer shift this morning at Lan Su Chinese Garden, and instead... slept in until a bit after 9am.  Turns out I was a bit hung over from the night before. I got it together ultimately and ended up lining up a window replacement service appointment for Monday morning.  With that set up for Monday, other tasking of the day was to get my truck somewhere to vacuum out all the broken glass, and grab a Sandwich Week sandwich for lunch. With the oncoming heat wave this weekend and expected high of 93 today, I wanted to get the heavy activity out of the way before it got too hot.  Ended up landing on that I would go to a nearby Washman Car Wash that has self serve vacuum stations, then once done head across town to Phil's Meat Market and Delicatessen, to get their Croque Philip Sandwich Week special for lunch. Vacuum duty went accordingly to plan, and before 12:30 I was headed ...

I ended up with ambitious Sandwich Week plans for Day 5, to head out to the Foster-Powell neighborhood (over 4 miles away) and try the offering at Bar Maven.  My Portland State U friend was to join me and we were also going to check out nearby Assembly Brewing, then head back toward my neighborhood and hit Ecliptic Brewing Moon Room. However, plans went awry once I actually got out to my truck to leave for said adventure.  Turns out somewhere in the past 24 hours, someone had broken into my truck by completely smashing the driver's door window.       So... ended up cleaning that up as best I could for the evening, and plan to try to get window fixed the next day, as well as go vacuum out vehicle somewhere.  I park in an open city lot across the street (and down 3 flights of stairs) from where I actually live, so not practical to do detailed clean out in the open lot. Friend ended up ubering over and helped out, and we cleared out most stuff from the truck...