Friday, May 20, 2011

eden love

sigh...yes, it has finally happened. someone else opened my dream store.

on the plus side, it's the lovely proprietress cindy, of flutter. and on the plus, plus side, it's four blocks away from my work!


eden is cindy's latest endeavour and it opened just today in the pearl. this store is an up-scale flutter, or perhaps even flutter's older sister. but the main thing, it's distinctly different than flutter.


cindy's inspiration came from a book about the 70s english fashion retailer, biba. she also said that the idea came to her while bedridden this last winter with pneumonia. it looks like she put her sick time to good use.

eden is just a lovely, lovely store. i have a feeling i will head over when needing some inspiration in my own store. she has an amazing collection of vintage housewares and apparel, not to mention a fabulous collection of books. i can just see my paycheck going bye bye right now.


i had to get a picture of this tongue in cheek (or shall we say chic) poster in the front of the store. oh that evil, evil mary jane!

eden is at 221 nw 11th ave
503.222.2285

Friday, May 6, 2011

olympic provisions

last night my friend and i decided to go check out the new olympic provisions west side that has just opened in the old carlyle space.


the decor is considerably different than carlyle's, you would hardly recognize the clean white industrial space.


nate tilden was kind enough to give us a tour of his new wholesale facility. i must admit, we felt really bad that the boys weren't there with us to see this. nate is really proud of all of their meat!


this is the last process of curing the salami. a controlled environment is perfect for the mold they need to finish off this amazing salami.


and here is their finished product. you can buy some to take home with you to have later. we really loved the spicy chorizo salami.


and i love, love, love roast chicken which is what we decided on for dinner. it was amazing, not to mention the accompanying potatoes that went with it.

their dinner menu is really simple but we had a hard time deciding on what we wanted, everything looked so good. we were sitting at the bar and could see everything the kitchen put up.

and nate was so nice to bring us their signature chocolate salami for desert. this consists of fudge with hazelnuts and pistachios that are made to look like salami. it is then served with a citrus marmalade and salt and pepper shortbread. i am not a huge desert person but this was soooo good. that salt and pepper shortbread was to die for, i was wishing there was more on the plate. nate also gave us a sampling of a barolo antica. this is a desert wine of barolo and grain alcohol. i had never had anything like this. it was delish! it definitely warmed me up, suddenly i felt very flush and had to get outside to cool off.

as always, nate and his partner's establishments impress me. it was great food, a beautiful environment and fabulous service. i can't wait to get back to try their polenta.

thank you, nate and team for such a great meal and i hope you and jane have a great trip to spain. i can't wait to see what new recipes you bring back.

olympic provisions
1632 nw thurman
503.894.8136