Amanda Shares Her Favorite Portland Bites

Welcome to the latest edition of Food52 Founder Amanda Hesser’s weekly newsletter, Hey There, It’s Amanda, packed with food, travel, and shopping tips, Food52 doings, and other matters that catch her eye. Get inspired—sign up here for her emails.

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Someday I would like to have a reason to have a “cheese coaster” as the centerpiece of my dinner table. I haven’t yet figured out an even vaguely plausible rationale, but I’m going to. I saw this mahogany beauty, which glides on brass casters, at the Stissing House Craft Feast last weekend. You can roll your 10-pound wedge of Stilton or Parm across the table for serving. This one-of-a-kind cheese coaster is available at Curio Shop.

Nea created her own holiday wreath (made of meringue, cream, and berries) and tower (made of crisped prosciutto, potato chips, and cheese, ofc).

We relaunched three of Jens Quistgaard’s Dansk Pepper Mills last week and will be producing many more in the years to come (he designed more than 70!). We encourage you to collect them all, like this couple, who have assembled nearly 50 Quistgaard peppermills in their Upper West Side apartment. I’m starting with this one.

Last week I was in Portland, Oregon, for a Schoolhouse photo shoot. Schoolhouse, the lighting and home furnishings company, is our sibling brand. Lighting photo shoots involve a lot of fast electrical work, fixture polishing, set building, and tweaking. We worked with photographer George Barberis—check out his work here.

While I was there, worlds collided when Schoolhouse held a book event in their store for Leslie Stephens, who writes the wildly popular Morning Person newsletter. Leslie also happens to be a former Food52 editor! And her debut novel, You’re Safe Here, came out earlier this year.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t include some recs from my Portland food outings:

Rangoon Bistro: Better Burmese food than I had in Burma! Get the tea leaf salad, of course, but also the wat cho, or braised pork shoulder

Cafe Olli: Wood fired pizzas, puntarelle salad, and a dazzlingly good chocolate cake.

JinJu Patisserie: I went for the croissants, but the blueberry scone was the winner.

Canard: he steam burgers are very good, as anyone in Portland will tell you, but if you’re into cocktails with a savory edge, don’t miss the “Room With A Vieux,” which is made with Japanese whiskey, rye, oloroso, Averna, and…matsutake shoyu.

Last week, I shared our holiday-season sleeper hits. This week, I’m sharing the trends:

• Cookware and knives are trending down. People purchased a lot of pots, pans, and knives during the pandemic, and the good thing about high quality cookware and tools is that they last for years, so people are replacing them less often. A challenge for our business, but good for the world.

• Wreaths & Garlands are another area where competition has increased—our new wreath designs have performed well, but our core assortment hasn’t. So we’ll be finding you more new, new, new wreaths!

• Tableware is taking off for us—people are buying all manner of plates, glassware and cutlery. Gen Z likes to entertain at home.

• Playfulness is in. We’re seeing products such as this pasta keychain and this banana menorah fly.

If you’re into work, thinking about work, talking about work—I am!—then check out our CEO’s new Substack, The Great Ones Play Hurt.

Let’s get this week wrapped so we can enjoy the holiday!

Amanda