Openings, closings and dishy gossip

[February 27th, 2008]

»CAKE CRAZY: Just in time for wedding season, baker Julie Richardson , owner of Baker and Spice , has announced to WW she’ll be opening a modern baking-supply shop called Sweetwares in early June. The shop, just a few doors down from the bakery in the Hillsdale Shopping Center, will host classes and wedding cake consultations, as well as stocking hard-to-find items like cake forms and unusual serving dishes. “There have been lots of things we’ve wanted to do here, and now we have the space,” Richardson says.

»CHOCOLATE CHANGES: Cacao owners Aubrey Lindley and Jesse Manis are keeping their fingers crossed for a late-spring opening of their newest shop, which is dedicated to everyone’s favorite bittersweet slave master—the cocoa bean. Lindley, now working on transforming the tiny corner space on Southwest Broadway inside the Heathman Hotel building— previously home to Old Town Florist—says that the shop will be a more gift-oriented, abbreviated version of the original store on Southwest 13th Avenue. “We were looking to quietly and thoughtfully expand,” Lindley says, who adds that the new shop will still serve coffee (from Seattle’s Caffe Vita) and drinking chocolate. “When this opportunity came up, it seemed too good to pass on. It’s a good fit.”

»PIT STOP:What happens when celebrity chefs get together after a hard day’s work? They drink into the wee hours, just like you and me. This past weekend, Portland’s own Christian Krogstad of House Spirits Distillery mixed after-hours cocktails for highfalutin’ chefs like Mario Batali, Bobby Flay, Marcus Samuelsson and Emeril Lagasse at the South Beach Food & Wine Festival. How does Bobby Flay like his martini? In an email to WW over the weekend, Krogstad said, “there is an absolutely strict no media/press rule at the TwoTwelve Access South Beach house, so maybe I shouldn’t tell.” Bummer. —