Gossip Should Have No Friends

[June 27th, 2007]

HAWTHORNE INSTA-CITY, ADD WATER AND STIR Sell a few rental homes to buyers here, convert a few apartments to condos there, and pretty soon you have a huge rental-housing shortage and the end of the road for Southeast Portland veggie landmark Uncle Paul's Produce Market , which sits on a prime site at Southeast 23rd Avenue and Hawthorne Boulevard. Its land is now slated for a mixed-use apartment building . Owners Paul and Calla Widerburg knew the future of the site when they signed the lease just three and a half years ago, and harbor no bad feelings toward property owner Tom Moyer, whom Uncle Paul himself calls, "the gem of the earth." Still, the Widerburgs don't know when or where they'll move. Just two blocks east, buzz says the eyesore Artisan Dental building will face a similar fate to make way for another modernist cube, while a third mixed-use condo or apartment building is said to be in the works for the corner of 12th and Hawthorne —next door to Tiny's Coffee. Damn, things change fast in Portland these days.

CURTAIN CALL As first reported on WWire, Pink Martini is losing its longtime linchpin . The band's manager and unsung hero for the past decade, John Brodie, has seen Pink Martini go from a small local band to a huge international sensation. The 41-year-old Brodie, who's also been the main man behind Pink Martini's label, Heinz Records, will be replaced by a new label manager, Bill Tennant, who comes from Nail Distribution (they're the folks who distribute Pink Martini's albums). The band has also hired a management team, Macklam/Feldman Management, out of Vancouver, B.C., which handles big-time artists like Joni Mitchell, Elvis Costello, Diana Krall and Norah Jones. Brodie, who still owns crêperie Le Happy, will say so long to the band July 31.

EAT ME Spring '07 has ushered in more new eateries than Portland has seen in years, and the city must still be hungry, because more are on the way. Mio Sushi will open a Pearl location next door to Paragon on Northwest Irving Street later this summer, and Il Mercato, a Mediterranean restaurant and lunch counter is setting up shop kitty-corner to the Pearl Bakery on Northwest 9th Avenue and Couch Street. Another Mediterranean venue is said to be opening in the long-vacant building in front of the Elizabeth Lofts on Northwest 10th Avenue. Ben and Jerry's won't be the only new sweet shop in the Pearl, as local Cool Moon Ice Cream will soon front the Pearl's mom-and-kid hangout Jamison Square. On the east side, Pizzicato will unveil a new location at Southeast 61st Avenue and Division Street in a formerly dead zone that's about to become a high-density residential corridor. Plus, a certain high-profile Portland restaurateur is scoping out empty Pearl spaces for what would be an American-style restaurant. Now who might that be?