Portland Spoke – The Official Blog of Travel Portland

Bunk takes Gotham: Tommy Habetz of Bunk Sandwiches.

The week before last was a big one for local chefs, who gathered in New York City for the May 21 launch party for Feast Portland, the much-anticipated food and drink festival that will take place Sept. 20-23 in downtown Portland.

New York media, chefs and tastemakers descended upon the party, which highlighted Oregon beer, wine and spirits, plus samplings from Olympic Provisions, Bunk Sandwiches (the oxtail sandwich was a particular favorite), Beast, Departure, Paley’s Place and others. Here’s a nice recap of the event from Bon Appetit.

Later in the week, two other culinary standard-bearers — both of whom will also be participants in Feast – led hands-on, Portland-focused events for travel writers and meeting planners. In Chicago, Jenn Louis of Lincoln (one of Food & Wine‘s Best New Chefs of 2012) led a hands-on cooking demonstration. And in DC, Mark Bitterman (owner of The Meadow and author of the James Beard Award-winning Salted) piqued attendees’ taste buds with samplings of artisan-made finishing salts.

Foodies, mark your calendars: tickets for the first annual Feast Portland food festival go on sale on Tuesday, May 22 at 6 a.m. Pacific time. Find them at www.feastportland.com. That day, you’ll see the full schedule of events (Sept. 20-23, 2012) and guest chef announcements, and be able to pick and choose whether you’ll be going for a full conference pass or individual events.

If you’re traveling to Portland for the festival, the full pass will give you the ultimate Portland food experience. And, keep an eye out for a special Portland Perks hotel package that will run during those dates. If you travel to eat, this is a national experience not to miss. See you at Feast Portland!

Behind the scenes: Douglas Derrick (Nostrana) mixes a Manhattan for Mike Thelin (Feast Portland) and my colleague Barbara Steinfeld.

Working with our friend Mike Thelin — co-founder of the much-anticipated food and drink festival, Feast Portland (Sept. 20-23, 2012) — we recently wrapped up some fun video shoots at three leading restaurants, which shared their recipes for chocolate hazelnut toffee (Country Cat), butternut squash soup (Metrovino) and a seasonal Manhattan (Nostrana).

Visit the “Flavors of Portland” tab on our Facebook page to download and share the recipes, watch the videos and enter to win two tickets to Feast. (Must enter by Jan. 6, 2012.)

Portland loves its food! So, it’s with great excitement and anticipation that we share the dates for Portland’s first-ever international food and beverage fest.

FEAST, a celebration of Oregon’s bounty, will be held on Sept. 13-16 20-23, 2012. That’s a ways off, but now is the time to mark it on your calendars and stay tuned to hear about the mouth-watering details as they emerge. This will be an event you will NOT want to miss!