In 2018, Portland Ate Nearly 2,000 Pounds of Duck, Smoked a Ton of Blue Dream, Listened to SZA and Paid a Lot of Money to Toast Storm Large

The big, small and surprising numbers that define the year in Portland culture.

SZA had the top-selling album at both Music Millennium and Everyday Music this year.
By WW Staff

FOOD & DRINK: Oregonians guzzled 824,714 liters of Fleischmann's Royal Vodka, the state's most-consumed spirit, though it spent more money on Jack Daniel's: $14,795,756 altogether. Deschutes remains Oregon's biggest brewery, selling 58,592 barrels through October. The smallest, Salem-based newcomer Hopheads, sold only 0.87 barrels. Canard, The Oregonian's and Portland Monthly's Restaurant of the Year, went through 1,936 pounds of duck, 25 gallons of duck fat and 562 dozen duck eggs. Super Deluxe, the new fast-food venture from restaurateur Micah Camden, sold 98,627 Single Deluxe burgers since opening on Southeast Powell Boulevard in July. Brew Dr. Kombucha sold nearly 2.8 million gallons of kombucha this year, while Stumptown roasted 2.3 million pounds of coffee—2.8 million if you include cold brew.

Margot Robbie as Tonya Harding in “I, Tonya”

STAGE & SCREEN: The most rented title at Movie Madness was I, Tonya, which was checked out 251 times, while North America's last Blockbuster, in Bend, Ore., rented out almost 800 copies of Jumanji—the one with the Rock, not Robin Williams. Free Solo, a documentary about rock climber Alex Honnold, was Cinema 21's best-selling movie, moving 15,000 tickets. Laurelhurst's best-seller was Sorry to Bother You, which sold 11,265 tickets. Portland Center Stage's most popular play, The Color Purple, sold 24,982 tickets, while the most expensive ticket sold for a local theater production was a $250 VIP package for the opening night of Storm Large's Crazy Enough that included a pre-show Champagne toast with the Portland singer.

MUSIC: SZA's 2017 album, CTRL, was the top-selling vinyl at both Music Millennium and Everyday Music, though the overall best-seller at Music Millennium was John Prine's Tree of Forgiveness, which sold 369 copies on both vinyl and CD. Jackpot Records sold "about 100" copies of The Sciences, by stoner-metal legends Sleep, good enough to be their top-earner for the year. The most expensive ticket for a show at Moda Center was a $335 seat to see Italian opera star Andrea Bocelli, but the most-attended show was Metallica's first Portland appearance in a decade, on Dec. 5, which brought in 18,575 people. The arena's fastest sellout was for Elton John's farewell tour, which stops in Portland next month—it sold out in less than 30 minutes. The song Portland streamed on Spotify more than any other city was "Frontin'" by rapper Ja'Ryan, though the most-streamed song overall was "God's Plan" by Drake.

CANNABIS: Oregon smoked 163,901 pounds of cannabis this year and bought 4,264,001 edibles, according to Oregon Liquor Control Commission data. Blue Dream was the state's most popular strain, accounting for $234,628 in sales.

BOOKS: The most-sold book at Powell's was Michelle Obama's memoir, Becoming. Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ng, was the most checked-out novel in the Multnomah County library system. It was checked out 1,371 times, followed closely by Fire and Fury, journalist Michael Wolff's controversial exposé on the Trump White House, which was checked out 1,294 times—though both proved less popular than the DVD of The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro's Oscar-winning tale of interspecies romance, which was checked out 2,779 times.

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