In the merry, merry month

Greetings from your humble correspondent, out and about when not tending to the roses. Everything's blooming early this year… Almost as if the climate were changing or something…

Two of Portland’s legendary small businesses are up for sale as their founders retire… Music Millennium on East Burnside where Kerns meets Laurelhurst, and Higgins Restaurant downtown… These places are Portland institutions and labors of love that will never be replaced if they fold… Fingers crossed that somebody out there is up for the challenges of running a shop in the 21st Century Rose City. Actually, two somebody’s are needed…

Speaking of revered and endangered, Dan and Louis Oyster Bar just off of Burnside downtown had to put out the distress call for customers a while back, just as Higgins had done earlier… People showed up, but they’re not out of the woods yet… We were thinking, it’s kinda sketchy down there; maybe we could go for lunch… Then a guy got shot about a block from there. At 11:45 on a Friday morning, right about when we’d be stepping out of the Uber…

Also on the eatery circuit, we owe an apology to Clarklewis restaurant for our complaint about their charging 75 cents for the big ice cube in a shot of whiskey. We've been asking around at other places, and finding out that the extra charge is not an uncommon practice... Before we enjoyed a fine plate of noodles at Campana, our waiter explained that at that establishment, the price for the big ice is two bucks! But if it's in one of their specialty cocktails, it's free... When we asked our waiter at Cabezon, he just laughed. No, at that restaurant, the big cube is still complimentary...

No charge for ice at the World Famous Kenton Club, where Raquel Welch once rolled… This joint in NoPo is the best dive bar still standing in town… Go for it before it gets knocked down for more cr-apartments… And eat there, because a nice fella named Dub is in the kitchen and not kidding around…

How ‘bout them Blazers? Fighting their way into the playoffs before collapsing in an epic reversion to the mean… Now comes the real drama, when local government hands the team about $300 million for renovating the arena, while the politicians cut services and impose new taxes on property owners due to a supposed budget crisis… You know what they say about clowns and circuses…

Here’s a fun one. A couple of realtors from “Barnes International” have scheduled “neighborhood insights” meetings for the next two Saturdays at Caffe Destino, at 14th and Fremont… What they’re offering is free pie and coffee, along with “insights” about recent school boundary changes… “Do You Know Where Your Home Lands?” asks their mailer. Well yeah, we do, this part of town just got switched from Grant to Jefferson, which is a royal screwing… But not really news. It happened a while ago… You wonder what these realtors are up to. Anyone got a clue?

Jeff Knight is the former dining and entertainment columnist of the Jersey Journal. Send news tips to Jeff at jeffknightpdx@gmail.com.