Mark Dedrick

I hope this merger goes well. Alaska is by far my favorite airline to fly, a fact that is really hammered home whenever I end up on Delta or American. They also have by far the best flights to the PNW, including one direct each way daily out of DCA to Portland, and two each day to Seattle.

Anyone been recently? We'll be there for two nights in May. Thanks in advance.

Has anyone been recently? Was considering going today before a show at the Black Cat.

I'll be frequenting this Whole Foods primarily so I won't have to ever go to that Giant again. To agree with your comment on staffing, I've been twice now, including on opening day after work. Even when the store was busy I was able to check out in probably a third of the time it would take me on a typical Giant trip.

I've been once and really enjoyed it. The seafood tower is good for group snacking, and the service was good.

Salem - Table Five 08 - I think this restaurant is relatively new, and based off of one visit it is probably my favorite restaurant in downtown Salem. The soup of the day when I was there was a seafood bisque, which had mussels, halibut and salmon in it, and it was great. I also had the Chicken Avocado Sandwich, which was also really good. The dinner menu looked interesting, and if I find myself in Salem at dinner time (unlikely) I'd push to go back and check that out. Their beer selection was also good. Silverton - I seldom eat out in my hometown, as I'll typically end up eating at home. However, my parents are currently renovating their kitchen, which means we ate out three out of the four nights I was in Silverton (the fourth we had Dungeness crab, which did not requite cooking). 3 Ten Water - As you can see, I apparently had a thing for unfortunately named restaurants with weird numbering on this trip. This restaurant is located in downtown Silverton, in the Silverton Inn and Suites. The dining room was apparently originally designed to be the lobby of the hotel, which makes sense when you look at it. It's probably one of the "nicer" restaurants in town. I ended up going with the NY Strip, which is not a typical restaurant order for me, and it was perfectly cooked. Service was excellent. Seven Brides Brewing - This brewpub is located on the north side of town, just past the Roth's grocery store as you're headed north on Highway 214. I would say that their beers are more solid than spectacular, although they have different and more varied options available on tap than they have in bottles. The food was good, in a brewpub sort of way. It was taco night last Thursday, so that's what I got, and the tacos were quite solid. The pretzels we got as an appetizer were fantastic. I'd definitely come back, and I think it would be very nice in the summer, as they have great outdoor space with a huge fire pit. Mt. Angel - Glockenspiel - Mt. Angel is a small town located about five miles north of Silverton. It's known for their quite large Oktoberfest every fall, and their zoning laws require every building in the downtown to look stereotypically Bavarian. The Glockenspiel is in the downtown, and actually sits beneath a large tower housing its namesake instrument. I had the Wurstplatte, and the sausages were very good. German food is not something I crave, but this is done well, and worth visiting.

Quick trip to Portland earlier this week. Q - This new restaurant is apparently from the team behind the (sadly) closed Veritable Quandary. As a huge fan of the VQ, I was excited to try this place out, and it did not disappoint. The menu very much reminded me of the VQ. I had the cochinita pibil sandwich, which was outstanding. It's a good downtown dining option. Por Que No - This place has been described to me as "that hipster taco place", and that's pretty accurate, particularly the location I went to, which is on perhaps the most hipster street in the country, Mississippi Avenue. But it's still good, and not that expensive, and the tacos and beer really hit the spot on Monday night. Would happily return. Sasquatch Brewery - I've only had beers here. It's good, and one of the few good options in this part of SW Portland. Mississippi Studios - Not a food recommendation, but this is a very good rock and roll club. I saw LVL UP here on Monday night (after the aforementioned tacos at Por Que No). Good sound, good sight-lines, good beer selection.

In what I'm now learning may be an unpopular opinion, I still think Hopslam is very good. I won't go out of my way to buy it, but I will get some if I see it, and I've been enjoying it this year. FWIW, they have it in cans at the Rock and Roll Hotel.

Spicy Sabzi is definitely my favorite. I haven't tried one of the bowls, but should probably do that next time I'm there. I wish they were closer to my office.

For cocktails Rittenhouse is my preferred rye. I also like the James Oliver Rye.

We had dinner here about a month ago, and also thought it was fantastic. Loved the space. When going back to look at the menu I don't love the fact that their website immediately starts playing music. We also enjoyed the tuna carpaccio, although I wouldn't say that it particularly stood out. We did quite enjoy the other cold tapa we had, which was the bacalao with a salmorejo sauce and olive oil dust. The flavors worked well together, and the whole thing reminded me very much of Spain, particularly a meal we had in Cordoba. Of the warm tapas, everybody really enjoyed the deep fried anchovies, which had great flavor, and a wonderful yuzu aioli to dip them in. We liked the pork tenderloin quite a bit (and agree that the potatoes were the star of that dish). Our favorite two dishes on the night, however, were the Lima beans with baby cuttlefish and squid ink, and the pasta dish with jumbo crab, sea urchin, caviar and shrimp butter. It was an insanely rich and flavorful dish, and I could have eaten an entire bucket of it.

They had it this weekend at Red Apron at Union Market for $9 for a glass. And they also have the RAR Naticoke Nectar for $7, which is also delicious.

Hussong's is still open, we drove right by it during one of our jaunts to Ensenada. We didn't stop as we didn't have time, and, as mentioned, I was driving and didn't think those two things would mix well together.

Ensenada We didn't stay in Ensenada, but ate lunch in or near the town on three different days. Trailero Ensenada - This taqueria is located directly on Highway 1, just north of Ensenada. My friend, who drove down from San Diego for the day, had been here before and recommended it. It's very good, and worth stopping at. They've got a series of little stations set up around where you order your tacos (one for fish and shrimp tacos, one for al pastor, one for asada or cabeza, another for tripe). We sampled a fair amount of what they had available, and it was all very good. The fish tacos were great, as were the al pastor. Tacos Mi Ranchito El Fenix - They have two things, fish tacos and shrimp tacos. They're both fantastic. Strongly recommend it. La Guerrerense - I'd seen this food cart on Anthony Bourdain's show, and had read about it elsewhere. They do ceviches (on tostadas), and seafood cocktails, all from a food cart. The fish is fantastic. I loved the ceviche with clams and uni, and the scallops on top of the tostada with crab salad were absurdly sweet. We probably over-ordered because everything was just so damn good, but we ate absolutely everything. Again, strongly recommend it. The food truck is closed on Tuesdays, and apparently doesn't open in inclement weather (or at least wasn't open on Friday when we were in town during an absolute downpour). They did open a brick and mortar restaurant across the street, Sabina's. I can't vouch for it, but they appear to serve the same menu.

Post two on the Valle de Guadalupe, on restaurants: Deckman's - This was the restaurant I was most interested in eating at. It's adjacent to the Mogor Batan winery, which we didn't visit as they're only open on weekends. The chef/owner, Drew Deckman, earned a Michelin star while working in Germany before moving to Baja and opening this restaurant. It was fantastic. The entire restaurant is essentially outdoors (half is surrounded with walls of hay and open windows, but it's definitely outdoors). Given that it was rather cold, we ate with our jackets on, which wasn't ideal, but still worth it. All of the food is prepared at the outdoor kitchen, entirely on wood and embers. We ordered an insane amount of food for three people (a friend of ours drove down for the day from San Diego), plus wine, and the total cost was about $140. Even simple dishes, like mixed grilled vegetables from their own gardens, were stunning. Wonderful restaurant, and a very laid back and cool vibe, complete with dogs and puppies. Finca Altozano - Very similar vibe to Deckman's, it's also outdoors (they will bring you blankets), they also have dogs, and much of what they cook is done over wood. Fantastic ceviches, the stuffed squash blossoms were great, and the grilled pork was phenomenal. Again, total check for two people with wine and dessert was less than $80. Laja - This is an indoor restaurant, and serves only a four course tasting menu with two choices for each course. The total cost, with wine pairings, is around $40 per person. Probably my least favorite of the four places we ate dinner, which is less a knock on the restaurant and more a compliment to how good every single place was. The food was very good. There was only one other couple in the dining room (who had, coincidentally, also been at Deckman's and Finca Alotzano the previous two days when we were there). Corazon de Tiera - While Deckman's was my favorite meal on this trip, Corazon de Tiera was the best. Six course tasting menu, and it's absolutely fantastic. It was kind of odd being the only couple in the (beautiful) dining room, but service was very good without being intrusive. The menu changes constantly, so I'm trying to recreate this from my memory and a few photos, but we started off with a really wonderful and inventive garden salad, followed by a steak tartare with egg yolk sauce; tamale with mole amarillo, dried parsnips and sauteed kale; seared angelfish with some sort of salsa verde; an incredible duck over pureed potatoes with what was described as a five-year red wine and bone sauce but I believe there may have been a translation issue there; and a tremendous flan with mezcal ice cream. Fantastic meal, you should definitely go, although if you go the same time of year as us you should hire a driver as it was one of the most harrowing drives I've ever been on. On at least three occasions our driver drove straight into lakes in the middle of the road, and on at least one occasion the headlights went under water. Adobe Guadalupe - At this winery they have a food truck set up just outside the tasting room serving Spanish-style tapas. It's very good. We had sauteed mushrooms with chili threads, a dish with sauteed shrimp, sausage and garlic, and something else that's escaping my mind. As with every other place we ate, the bread was incredible.

We just returned this past weekend from five days spent in the Valle de Guadalupe. TL;DR - It's awesome, and you should totally go. In a bit more detail, I'll break this up into three posts, one on the Valle itself, where we stayed and what wineries we visited; one on the restaurants we ate at; and finally one post on the two places we ate lunch in Ensenada. First, the Valle de Guadalupe is stunningly beautiful, perhaps the most beautiful wine country I've ever been to (which is high praise, since wine country anywhere is basically always beautiful). The Valle is approximately 15 miles long, and I believe there are somewhere north of 100 wineries. It's an easy drive from San Diego (we drove down the coast as it's more scenic, cutting over on Highway 3 just north of Ensenada). Once there, however, it's one of the more challenging vacation spots we've been to, although in the end this didn't cause us to enjoy it any less. First, it has perhaps the worst roads I've ever driven on. This was almost certainly exacerbated by the fact that they had just gotten a ton of rain right before we arrived. With the exception of Highway 3, another major road that essentially paralleled Highway 3 through the Valle, and a road called El Tigre that connected these two major roads near the western end of the Valle, we only saw two, relatively short, paved stretches of road. Everything else was dirt, and all of them were covered in holes and ditches, which at times made them completely impassible. You also would periodically come upon ponds or lakes which would cover the entire road. Given that we were driving a rented Nissan Altima, we chose not to plunge blindly in, and instead would turn back around. Because of this there were several wineries we simply couldn't visit (most notably Vena Cava which we really wanted to visit), and heavy rains on Friday morning led to us not visiting any vineyards at all that day, and instead starting our trip north to the border a bit early. If you want to drive into Mexico there are only a few rental companies that will rent to you (Hertz is one), and you have to have Mexico-specific rental car insurance. This isn't hard to get, but is one extra step you need to go through. Lodging - We stayed at Encuentro Guadalupe, and I'd definitely recommend it. They have a main "lodge" near the highway, and then a series of "Pods" which are arrayed across the hills above, each of which is a single guest room. The views are absolutely stunning, and at night the stargazing is incredible. The rooms themselves are nothing incredible, but are comfortable, and each room has a small deck with a firepit. It was somewhat cold while we were there (colder than we expected) so we didn't take advantage of the pool and hot tub, although we did eat breakfast every day adjacent to the pool. Staff was super helpful and accommodating. Wineries - Here are the wineries we visited, in rough order of our preference. One point I'll make quickly here at the top is that while the wines on the whole were very fruit forward, they were surprisingly low in alcohol, with most coming in right at or around 13.5%. This was extremely welcome news for me, as I was concerned they would be coming in way too hot. Also, everybody produces primarily reds, and some wineries were at least only pouring reds. Las Nubes - This was our favorite winery all around. Great wines, fantastic views from the north side of the valley, and tremendously friendly and knowledgeable staff. Alximia - This was one of three wineries we visited who claimed to be the only Mexican winery using primarily gravity in their winemaking. It's a very cool building, and we really enjoyed their wines as well. Clos de Tres Cantos - This is a particularly small operation, and currently produces about 1,000 cases per year. Their goal is to increase to just over 2,000 cases and year and then stay at that level. It was a bit of a challenge to drive to due to the road conditions, but they've got beautiful views from the south side of the valley, and they were incredibly friendly. There appeared to be only one guy working there, and he happily sat down with us outside and poured us four of their wines (all reds). The buildings were very cool, and most everything there was built from recycled materials. Villa de Montefiori - We visited this winery on our first day and it is extremely impressive. Great views, and extremely helpful and knowledgeable woman working there. They make wines primarily using Italian varietals, and their wines were quite good. We didn't realize until after we'd left, but we had purchased one of their wines in DC at Grand Cata in Shaw. Vinicola Torres Alegre y Familia - We hired a drive on Thursday, our last full day in Mexico, because it was raining, and by early afternoon we started to get a bit of cabin fever and wanted to get out. This was a winery that we attempted to visit ourselves earlier in the week but turned around because we were unwilling to drive into what looked like a lake that blocked the entire road. Our driver did not have the same concerns, and while I was certain his engine was going to flood fortunately we made it through. They had one wine that I absolutely couldn't stand (an extremely over-oaked, in my opinion, Sauvignon Blanc), but we very much enjoyed the reds they were pouring. Adobe Guadalupe - The first winery we visited, and it's a good one worth stopping at. Beautiful estate, and very solid wines. You can also stay here. Emeve - Located just down the road from Adobe, and it's an extremely nice tasting room. This was the first place we visited where nobody spoke English, although we were able to get by with my very limited Spanish with little trouble. Finca la Carrodilla - Very nice winery and tasting room, and good wines. We enjoyed them. Per them, they're the only organic winery in Mexico. Decantos - This is a quite new, and incredibly beautiful facility, with a very large tasting room. I was surprised that currently they're only producing around 1,000 cases per year. We liked their wines, but nothing knocked our socks off. JC Bravo - This is also a very small project, and I think they also produce about 1,000 cases per year. It's located essentially in the town of Guadalupe, and we were only able to taste two wines, a heavily oaked Sauvignon Blanc, and a Carignan. the latter was fantastic. No views to speak of. Baron Balche - I believe this is one of the older wineries in the area, and one of the larger (I think they're around 10,000 cases annually). It's a really nice facility, just below Decantos. They do their tastings in their wine caves, which is a nice touch. Their wines were good, although too many of them were, in my opinion, way too tanic, and as a result they really kind of wore me out. Camou - Probably the only true disappointment for us. They're one of the first wineries in the area, but we didn't particularly enjoy their wines. They were also pouring incredibly old vintages for us, like 2006 Sauvignon Blanc, and a 2002 Bordeaux-style blend. You are limited to bringing back one liter of wine (or any other booze) per person duty free. Between the two of us we brought back six bottles (would have brought more but we needed to fit everything in our checked bags) and had no trouble getting back in without paying any tax. Not that we were hiding anything, and we answered all questions truthfully at the border, but they just waved us through.

We stayed for three nights in San Diego on the front and back ends of our Mexican adventure, but didn't have that many restaurant experiences. This was due to the fact that we arrived late on the first night, and spent both of the first two nights with a friend of ours in Encinidas. I do recommend the "Cardiff Crack" which is the burgundy-pepper marinaded tri tip they sell at the Seaside Market. On our return, we grabbed seats at the bar at Herb and Wood, located in Little Italy. We were definitely fans of the drinks, food and service. We had the beet salad, the tuna tartare (with gochujang), the grilled king trumpet mushrooms (killer), roasted branzino, grilled venison loin (also killer) and a gnocchi with an oxtail ragu. everything was very good. I'd recommend it.

Nice, that's very exciting. We really loved Bali when we were there, and I'd definitely recommend staying in at least two different areas. Ubud and Seminyak, for example, are extremely different from one another. And the seafood dinner on the beach in Jimbaran was one of my favorite experiences from the entire trip. I'd definitely do that.

We'll be here in about ten days or so for a couple of days (on the front and back ends of our trip to Mexico). Anybody been recently? I've spent a lot of my life in San Diego but haven't been for a few years.

We're visiting the Valle de Guadeloupe and Ensenada in about two weeks. Anybody been recently? And any can't miss restaurants or wineries? Thanks in advance.

Cannon Beach - The Stephanie Inn - This is widely proclaimed to be both the nicest hotel and the nicest restaurant in Cannon Beach. I can't comment on the former (although the hotel looks extremely nice), but it almost certainly is the best restaurant in town, and the only real fine dining experience I've ever had on the Oregon Coast. The dining room is lovely, and the service was fantastic. I don't think they could have done a better job. The food was also good, perhaps even approaching very good at times. But I'm still having some trouble getting over the prices (and complaining about price is very much not my thing). I feel like we were paying essentially DC prices and not really getting the meal to match. I had the Curried Crab Salad to start ($17). It was fine. There wasn't much crab, and the rest of the salad just wasn't that interesting. I then had the Rack of Lamb ($48) as my entree. It was cooked beautifully, and the accompaniments were also quite good. Several people went with the Dungeness Crab Cakes ($45), and while these reinforced my believe that I've never had a good crab cake in Oregon (although these were the best that I've had there). Basically, if you're looking for a very nice meal in Cannon Beach you should go here. But I'm guessing that in the future we'll find ourselves somewhere else. Seaside - I know I've mentioned it before, but I'll put in another plug for the Bell Buoy. Great chowder, and fantastic fried fish (although my razor clams this time were sauteed with lemon and butter). Love it. And the smoked oysters from the fish market adjacent to the restaurant are awesome. Astoria - I hadn't been to Astoria in years, but it's extremely cool. There are at least three breweries and a distillery in the downtown (this is just what we walked past), and it's worth a visit. We ended up eating at Fort George Brewery and Public House, and it was a good choice. I enjoyed my burger very much, and their beers are great.

A few from my most recent trip: Lebanon - Conversion Brewery - This is a relatively new small brewery in Lebanon, and it's a good addition to a town that needs more and better dining options. They've got somewhere around 12 of their beers on tap, and we enjoyed what we tried. I most enjoyed the Brethren Double IPA. Nothing really stood out, but they are solid options. On the food side of things it's pretty much pizza, and a few appetizers. They advertise the pizzas as individual pies, although I'd say they're a bit bigger than that, and as a result a good value at between $10-$13. This isn't groundbreaking work, but it was very solid. Now that I've tried both, I'd probably go to Growler Cafe if given a choice, but I wouldn't be upset about ending up here. Salem - Bentley's - Do to the fact that we always find ourselves looking for a table for ten to twelve for lunch on December 24, we consistently end up here every single year as almost everywhere else in Salem seems to close. It's fine, but the service is consistently terrible. You can do better (unless you're also looking form something on Christmas eve). Newberg - We decided to take a slightly different route to Cannon Beach this year, and routed ourselves through Newberg, both to avoid the debacle that is Highway 217, and also to do some wine tasting. We hit up Orin Swift and Chehalem, which are both in the town of Newberg, and then pulled into Raptor Ridge on a whim as we drove by after heading out of town. All three are worth visiting, although Raptor Ridge has (in my opinion) the best wine of the three, and has the advantage on the scenery front as it's actually located on a vineyard. It's gorgeous. For food, we ended up at Taqueria Kopitos based on Yelp (I know). It's really good and I'd recommend it. They make their own tortillas, the tacos are something like $2 apiece, and all of the fillings that we tried were great. Woodburn - I'll put in another plug for Luis's. It's absolutely outstanding. This time around I had the menudo, which is only available on the weekends (and apparently federal holidays as they were serving it on the 26th). It's great. Corvallis - Local Boyz - This is solid Hawaiian food, located just off of the OSU campus. I'd definitely return, but it isn't the best Hawaiian food I've had in Oregon.

I hadn't spent any time in Vancouver in many years, but a conference this fall, and a visit to see my sister-in-law over the holidays changed that this past year. The downtown is much nicer and more active than I remember, and there are quite a few cool *looking* places there. That said, I'll only comment on one spot, The Grocery Cocktail and Social. It's a very cool looking space, and would not be out of place if it opened on H Street in DC. And over two visits all of the food (and cocktails) were fantastic. On my last visit I had the Grilled Pork Chops for $13, which suggested a relatively small dish to me, but was instead effectively an entire meal. I'd guess it was at least a 10 oz pork chop, cooked perfectly, served with polenta, root vegetables, and pickled mustard seeds. I didn't need the Bacon and Hock Braised Collard Greens, although not ordering them would have also been a mistake, as they were fantastic. I'd pass on the Deep Fried Brussels Sprouts, however. They're battered and then fried, and I don't think this treatment does the sprouts any favors.

Would 100% endorse those two restaurants. Probably the two best meals I've had in Las Vegas. If you need to be closer to the airport, China Poblano in the Cosmo is also quite good.

I think that's a fair comparison. It's been a few years since I've eaten at Mitsitam Cafe, but they are definitely similar. In my one visit to Sweet Home Cafe it seemed harder to navigate and more confusing, but that could very well just be a function of the sheer volume of people.