- FOOD AND DRINK: Little Big Burger flipped 520,340 cheeseburgers, 89,675 hamburgers and 72,040 veggie burgers this year. The most popular cheese was cheddar, though co-owner Katie Camden says the newly introduced pepper jack should overtake it in 2014. Secret Aardvark used 9,855 pounds of habanero chilies in its hot sauces. Olympic Provisions made 31,000 pounds of hot dogs and 50,000 pounds of dry salami. The best-selling beers at New Seasons Market were Full Sail Session lager in cases and Ninkasiâs Total Domination IPA in six-packs. The stateâs top-selling liquor is again HRD vodka, an Oregon-made well that retails for $7.50 per 750-milliliter bottle. There are 3,168 licensed restaurants and 704 licensed food carts in Multnomah County. The lowest county restaurant inspection score of the year went to Mariscos Las Islas Marias on Southeast 82nd Avenue, receiving a 54 on Sept. 24. The restaurant was reinspected Oct. 4 and received a 95.
- MUSIC: Daft Punkâs Random Access Memories was the best-selling album at both Music Millennium and Everyday Music. Drumgasm, the album by the all-percussion supergroup featuring Sleater-Kinneyâs Janet Weiss, Pearl Jamâs Matt Cameron and Death Gripsâ Zach Hill, was Jackpot Recordsâ top seller, which surely elated the storeâs owners, as it came out on their in-house record label. White Lighter, the second full-length by Portland-based chamber-pop group Typhoon, made it into Everyday Musicâs top five, while Sallie Ford and the Sound Outsideâs Untamed Beast outsold both Arcade Fire and the National at Music Millenniumâa nice parting gift for WWâs Best New Band of 2010, which recently announced its breakup. The Lumineersâ âHo Heyâ was the most-streamed track in Portland on Rhapsody, proving that the Rose City still loves musicians who dress like 19th-century moonshiners.
- STAGE AND SCREEN: Laurelhurst Theaterâs highest-grossing film was Beasts of the Southern Wild. It ran for 17 weeks, with about 9,400 tickets sold. Laurelhurstâs longest-running film was Searching for Sugar Man, which played for 27 weeks, with about 7,700 tickets sold. The most popular movie at Movie Madness was The Hobbit, rented 512 times. Meanwhile, at the Multnomah County Library, Argo was the most checked-out DVD, followed by The Descendants, The Hunger Games and the first seasons of Game of Thrones and Downton Abbey. Portland Center Stageâs most popular show was Fiddler on the Roof, which played 61 times and sold 28,513 tickets. It was the third-best-selling show in PCS history. Helium Comedy Clubâs biggest draw was Mike Epps, who sold 1,600 tickets to his six shows in January.
- BOOKS: The most popular book at the county library was Gillian Flynnâs Gone Girl, checked out 2,381 times, edging out Cheryl Strayedâs Wild, which was checked out 2,349 times.
- SPORTS: A total of 15,924 permits were issued to climbers hoping to summit Mount St. Helensâincluding only one WW staffer. There were an estimated 8,150 participants in the World Naked Bike Rideâincluding only one WW staffer. Meanwhile, there were 16,500 clothed participants traveling between Willamette River bridges in the Providence Bridge Pedal. So far this year, 1,835 bikes were reported stolen in Portland. Of those, only 189âabout 10 percentâwere recovered. The most popular game at Ground Kontrol was The Addams Family, which is also the most popular pinball machine manufactured in the last 80 years. The top score on the Ground Kontrol machine is 984,989,210. Portlanders have some work to do: The world-record score is more than 1.5 billion points.
WWeek 2015