Feast Portland 2013 – Day 1

I’m not sure why I don’t come to Portland more often. The food, the nature, the coffee, the easy flight from San Francisco (thanks Alaska Airlines!). It seems like a great weekend trip away from the Bay Area. Thankfully I had the perfect excuse to visit, with Feast Portland happening this weekend! I arrived at my awesome hotel (the McMenamins Crystal Hotel downtown) where I was put in the Sleater Kinney room. Somehow I feel like the punk rock sensibilities of Carrie Brownstein would be slightly horrified by it, but I was digging the environment. Greeting me was a huge box of awesomeness from the festival, though I’m not sure how I’m going to get half the stuff home.

After check in, I ran over to the Paley Pre-Funk Happy Hour where I met some awesome people, hung out with some other awesome people and general enjoyed the libations and nibbly things. I dragged my friend Tony along with me as well, and he was good sport about chatting with all the food people.

Of course, the main event of the day was the Sandwich Invitational which was pretty astounding. I’d have to dedicated a whole post just to that (and I might do just that), but let me tell you, pork was in abundance. Specifically pork belly (four difference sandwiches), bacon (at least three different sandwiches, including an ice cream one), as well as pork shoulder and porchetta. I think I might have consumed an entire pig tonight.

Of course no festival is completely without an after party – this one hosted by Eater Portland –  which rocked hard. The party was not within walking distance, but I hopped on a bus (yay public transit!) and it was easy to get to. Word on the street is there was an AFTER after party but clearly I wasn’t cool enough to be invited to that one. Not that I would go. I don’t need MORE food in my stomach. Plus tomorrow is going to be back-to-back eating. The things I do for this blog. It’s a tough life.

You can follow along in real time with what I’m eating and what I’m experiencing by checking out my Twitter or Instagram feed as well as searching for the hashtag #FeastPDX. I’ll be at Feast Portland all weekend long and writing up recaps posts for each day. Special thanks goes to Feast Portland and Alaska Airlines for bringing me up here to report on the festival. Even though my flight and accommodations were provided, I was not monetarily compensated for this post and all opinions are my own.