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Market Watch

Favor Curry Flavor

Chow down on a healthy meal full of flavor by dipping into the curry.

Posted by: Kristin Belz on May 15, 2012 at 06:00AM 0 Comments

We’ve come a long way since the Spice Girls hit the airwaves in the mid-90s: Posh Spice is now Victoria Beckham, mother of four and wife of LA soccer star David Beckham. FM airwaves are now cyberspace. Things have changed. But not curry.

Or at least curry hasn’t gone out of favor. We think of curry as a spicy powder, but actually a curry is any of a wide variety of one-pot dishes using some combination of meat, vegetables, seafood and an array of spices cooked in a liquid. Somehow the spice powder is what stuck with us Westerners, but it’s the mix that matters, and that varies widely depending on culture and personal taste. There’s no single curry! Thank goodness.

Portland company Dulcet (founded by Pam Kraemer) makes a super curry that packs flavor with subtlety to enhance many a meal. Their Madras Curry Cooking Spice & Rub is a mix of turmeric, red chili and coriander “mellowed with a sweet finish.” Mmmmmm. I love it blended into yogurt as a dip for raw vegetables. They also make sauces suitable for stir-frying or finishing meat, fish or vegetables, like Lemon, Mustard and Dill or Tangy and Peppery Moroccan.

Here’s an easy recipe from Dulcet for dal, a traditional lentil curry dish. Unlike many other beans, red lentils cook very quickly and need no prior soaking.

Dal
2 c split red lentils
4 c veggie stock
2 T vegetable oil or ghee*
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic
1 t fresh ginger root, chopped
2 T Dulcet Madras Curry Spice & Rub
14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes, drained
1 T fresh lemon juice
Cilantro for garnish

1. Rinse lentils & drain.
2. Combine the lentils with veggie stock in a medium-sized pot over med-hi heat on the stovetop.
3. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. While the lentils are cooking, sauté the onion in oil or ghee until lightly browned.
5. Add the garlic, ginger and Madras Curry Spice to the pan and continue to cook 2 minutes.
6. Add the sautéed veggies to the pot of lentils along with the tomatoes and lemon juice.

Garnish with fresh cilantro

Note: Ghee is clarified butter and can be found in most Middle Eastern markets, but it’s not necessary.

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DIY

LOL with Lamp-In-A-Box

Make your own designs or pick an old favorite, from Barbie to the Beatles and beyond.

Posted by: Kristin Belz on May 14, 2012 at 01:00PM 0 Comments

Let there be light – and laughter too. These two necessities of life come together conveniently in Lamp-In-A-Box packages you can order online or find at local shops. Both concept and execution are simple: a cylindrical lampshade printed with pattern or image of your choice, plus a plain base of brushed nickel or tubular glass and crystal. The look is generic modern in a good way, making the expression of the shade all the more powerful.

The Lamp-In-A-Box company grew out of lighting designer Daniel Cytrynowicz’s earlier lighting company, founded in Culver City years ago under the name Maura Daniel. His new, fun product is perfect for the Internet age of personalization. LIAB’s website walks you through creating your own lampshade if you’re an individual customer; retailers can order in small runs of whatever specialty suits their market. The Oregon vintage postcard lamps show up in local stores, for instance (probably more often than Alabama cards do).

Some of the graphics are better than others, but they’re all authentic, from a really bright purple W for the Huskies fan to the crazy colorful cartoon Beatles as they appeared (along with the Blue Meanies, Jeremy Hilary Boob, Ph.D., Chief Blue Meanie, Max, and Apple Bonkers) in the Yellow Submarine movie.

Just in time for the new Avengers Marvel comics movie are a full line of super-heroes: several images of Spider-Man, Iron-Man, Captain America and even Silver Surfer. For those wondering where the super-hero women are, you’ll find Spider-Woman, Medusa, and She Hulk, as well as some forlorn ladies looking for love (“Please don’t let me be a… Spinster!” and “By Love Betrayed!” proclaim two of the panels featuring the less than heroic ladies).

More subtle emotions are expressed on the beautiful vintage postcards and food labels, travel stickers, maps, cityscapes and original patterns by artists like Ruben Esparza and James Yang. All these choices might pale though compared to your own artistic efforts: design your own shade by uploading digital images, from a single image to a grid of 24. The lampshades are $29, with the base another $20 (depending on type of base).

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Desirables

Solabee Buzzes

Beautiful florals and botanicals to go in NoPo.

Posted by: Kristin Belz on May 13, 2012 at 03:00PM 0 Comments

Boys and girls deserve equal opportunities – at least last time I checked. So it’s in that spirit – as well as in the interest of good design – that we’re MAXing it back up to the Kenton neighborhood and jogging down the block from Paul Bunyan to visit the gals who run Solabee Flowers. They share space with Boys’ Fort, subject of a visit last week, and it wouldn’t be fair to give the boys all the attention.

Actually, Solabee, Boys’ Fort and the brother-sister duo that owns Salvage Works all share the delightful retail space. They’re part of what’s naturally grown into what they’re calling the Kenton Collective, as Sarah Helmstetter of Solabee explains. Besides the three businesses sharing the retail shop on North Willis, there’s also Bamboo Craftsman just a few steps down the street.

It’s a beautiful thing when beautiful and likeminded things and people come together, and Solabee certainly contributes more than their share of beauty to the collective simply by virtue of working with gorgeous flowers and plants. Both Helmstetter and co-owner Alea Joy put in years as flower shop managers elsewhere before teaming up and setting out for themselves about a year and a half ago, and their experience shows through.

Their exquisite touch with the cut flowers and living plants is a perfect complement for some of the rough, random items found by Salvage Works (they produce wall art and other pieces in collaboration), so the collective whole is often more than the sum of its parts. Plus, some of the flowers at Solabee come from the acre and a half or so of land that Helmstetter’s parents have near Gresham.

Solabee plans to expand in a year or so to the warehouse/garage next door, which is presently a derelict mess. But for now, the shared shop is a lovely and welcoming home. And it’s certainly a step up from Solabee’s original retail spot around the corner on North Denver. That shop was about the size of a postage stamp, without running water near their work table. Now they have a sink, and a work space (a huge walnut table built by Sarah’s uncle, if I recall correctly) big enough to teach classes around as well as to create the beautiful arrangements they prepare for business and restaurant clients, weddings and other special events and places. And for you when you stop by soon.

Once you stop by, you will want to return. With beautiful “florals and botanicals,” you just can’t ever get enough – or at least I can’t! (A new book The 50 Mile Bouquet features Solabee as well as some other Portland floral designers, but it deserves its own future column…see, I just can’t get enough.)

Solabee Flowers (with Boys’ Fort and Salvage Works)
2030 North Willis Street
Portland, Oregon 97217
Monday-Saturday 9-6
Sunday 11-4
503.307.2758

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Out and About

Rummer Homes + Mod Fun

A high-low weekend to revel in 20th century modernism and kitschy Americana.

Posted by: Kristin Belz on May 13, 2012 at 01:00PM 2 Comments

“If I could turn back time.” That’s a sentiment Cher sang famously, but most of us have had the feeling at one time or another. Well, the weekend of June 2-3 will be our collective chance to turn back time to the mid-twentieth century with a tour of Rummer Homes and a retro slide show by Americana kitsch-expert Charles Phoenix.

The home tour and the slide show provide a double dip into an authentic mid-century style that predates Hipstamatic, Instagram, Mad Men or Dwell magazine. Phoenix’s slide show is chock full of Kodachromes – originals he’s found at thrift stores and yard sales, not smartphone photos digitally altered to look old.

The Southern Californian pop culturist will be giving his appreciative, humorous take on favorite mid-century marvels of Americana, including his “Best of Portland” guide of local landmarks, legends and lore. (Preview: according to his website, Charles raves, “Portland is one of my fav cities to explore. Americana abounds here! I can’t wait to have a ‘Dutch baby’ at the Original Pancake House then go skating at Oaks Park, the “World’s Biggest Roller Rink!’”

“Rummer homes” (or “Rummers” as they’re often known in the Portland area) were essentially the Portland versions of a now-classic mid-century modernist house type built by the successful developer Joseph Eichler in Southern California. Rummers blend indoor and outdoor spaces and share many other Eichler-type features. (So did many other homes of the time, including the house that Steve Jobs grew up in and remembered fondly, according to Walter Isaacson’s recent biography; evidently Jobs and Isaacson thought the pre-Apple-ite’s childhood home was an Eichler, but it was not.)

A typical Rummer is also a veritable mullet of residential modernism: business in the front (closed and private wood walls and garage, recessed entry door), party in the back (floor to ceiling windows opening to landscaped garden). Wooden post and beam construction supports the vast walls of glass facing garden spaces and central, open-air atrium. Flat roofs cover the one-story spaces except where a central gable will pop up and create a high-ceilinged, clerestory-lighted main living space.

These houses are much revered, well built and amazingly adaptable to various sites, living styles and even décor. The houses on the tour (there will be at least eight open) are all in the Bohmann Park tract of the Garden Home district of metro Portland; the neighborhood boasts the highest concentration of Rummer homes in the metro area. Within four blocks, Rummer built 63 of his houses in the mid to late ’60s.The open houses on the tour will include Robert Rummer’s own house, and he and other homeowners will be available to guide us visitors through these fab spaces.

Historic Preservation League of Oregon
$40 per ticket (HPLO Members $35)
Saturday, June 2, 10am – 4pm

For more on Rummers, see historian Jack Bookwalter’s interesting article, Rummers in Oregon: A Builder’s Legacy of Mid-Century Modern Homes.

Slide show by Charles Phoenix is 3 p.m. at the Hollywood Theater; tickets $30 ($20 for HPLO members); save $5 if you get the package deal of house tour plus slide show tickets.

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Market Watch

Crepe-licious

How to get the kids to eat more vegetables, in one easy envelope.

Posted by: Kristin Belz on May 08, 2012 at 10:00AM 0 Comments

Every culture has its hand pies, those holdable concoctions of flour folded around a mixture of vegetables, meats and cheeses; perhaps the French version, the crepe , is a touch more sophisticated than some others. But really, a crepe is easier to make than most hand-held nutrition-providing devices.

I’ve yet to try to make a British style pastie, for instance; instead I frequent Saraveza for the addictive Wisconsin tavern version. But a crepe is simple – and it’s a great way to wrap up and disguise healthy vegetables from the farmers market and tell the kids (truthfully) they’re eating pancakes.

Just about anything fresh and cooked well enough to be tender will be a winner inside a crepe, so choose whatever looks best at the farmers market that day. You may be tempted to let the market’s crepe-maker do the work if such a service is available, as it was this past weekend at the opening day of the King Farmers Market. But let the professional crepe maestros be your inspiration.

Recipes for crepe batter vary; pancakes are a notably forgiving food item. They’re basically flour, milk and eggs. The higher the milk to flour ratio is, the thinner and more delicate the pancake will be. As befits anything French, the crepe is the thinnest batter of all. Adding butter or sugar gives the batter more body and sweetness. Buckwheat or chickpea flours can be used to up the ante on the savory side (and provide a gluten-free option, though often the buckwheat combines with a bit of all-purpose flour, as in the recipe below).

Prepare the crepes in multiples and let folks fill and fold their own, with sautéed vegetables, grated cheeses and thinly sliced ham or smoked salmon laid out and added to order. A quick turn of the folded, filled crepe on a lightly buttered griddle can be a decadent final touch, letting the envelope warm around its contents.

Here’s a buckwheat crepe recipe to try, from our reliable kitchen friend, Mark Bittman, in his The Best Recipes of the World. And just so you know, buckwheat crepes are officially known as galettes – in contrast to actual crepes, which are made with wheat flour. Leave it to the French to have two words for pancakes! And to really blow your mind: did you know that buckwheat isn’t a wheat grain at all? It’s a relative of rhubarb!

Buckwheat Crepes

¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 cup buckwheat flour
2 eggs
½ cup milk
Butter or neutral oil, like corn or grapeseed, for frying

Combine the first 4 ingredients in a bowl with 1 cup water; whisk until smooth and let sit for at least an hour if time allows [don’t worry if it doesn’t]

Heat an 8- or 10-inch nonstick skillet over high heat for about 2 minutes. Add a teaspoon or two of butter or a thin layer of oil, then pour most of it out (you can use it for the next crepe), leaving just a trace behind.

Pour in ¼ cup of the batter and swirl it around so that it coats the bottom of the pan completely; pour the excess back into the remaining batter. Adjust the heat so that the batter dries on top before it burns on the bottom; it will be ready to turn in 1 to 2 minutes. Turn and cook the second side for about 30 seconds. Repeat with the remaining batter, adding more oil to the pan if necessary (it will not always be). Stack the crepes as they finish, then fill as desired and serve.

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Out and About

Taking Time to Measure Up

Evaluating our green building efforts, PSU helps us ask how we’re doing so far.

Posted by: Kristin Belz on May 07, 2012 at 02:00PM 0 Comments

Any intelligent, even half-awake Portlander knows that “green” building is the thing to do these days. Along with riding a bike, walking, or taking Tri-Met, it’s the responsible way to behave in the 21st century. Reuse, recycle…rinse, lather, and don’t repeat. But what does all that green living really do for us? The Portland State University architecture department is going to help us find out.

PSU is continuing its efforts to be “in the service of the city,” as the motto goes (and reads in an inscription on a skywalk spanning SW Broadway). They’re sponsoring a free public lecture Thursday at 7 p.m. and “symposium”: all day Friday to get us up to speed on whether our new “green” buildings are Measuring Up.

MeasuringUP is the title of the symposium, which brings together experts from just down the street in Portland and as far away as Germany. The keynote presenter Thursday is Thomas Auer of the German firm Transsolar KlimaEngineering. 
They’re climate engineers whose motto is “High comfort – Low impact,” which sounds like a winning combination.

Are we on the right track with our new green building practices? As we change the way we build, we need to know whether our changes are producing the results we want. After all, in the past, as we shifted from getting around by foot and horse-drawn carriages to gasoline powered automobiles, it’s not like we knew ahead of time that we’d be polluting our air.

Measuring the energy savings and climate effects of the new building technologies we’re innovating, in Portland and beyond, is key to making the right moves going forward. It’s especially important when the right moves take effort and will; changing the habits of decades cultivating a philosophy of build-new-and-sprawl design is not a simple matter.

Panel discussions Friday will involve everyone from local architects and sustainability specialists from the City of Portland, SERA, ZGF, Brightworks and more, to scientist Iain Walker of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, on “Digging Deep: Big Energy Savings in Homes.”

Vincent Martinez of Seattle will be representing the non-profit group Architecture 2030; they say that “Buildings are the problem” and yet that “Buildings are the Solution.” Their “mission is to rapidly transform the U.S. and global Building Sector from the major contributor of greenhouse gas emissions to a central part of the solution to the climate change, energy consumption, and economic crises.”

Beyond the mottos, missions and mantras, are the changes we’re making producing the changes we need? MeasuringUP will help us find out.

MeasuringUP keynote lecture by Thomas Auer is free and open to the public, Thursday May 10
7 p.m.
PSU’s Shattuck Hall Annex
1914 SW Broadway (at Hall)
Portland, OR 97201

MeasuringUP Friday May 11 symposium tickets are available ($51) here.

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Desirables

Boys’ Fort Makes a Home in Kenton

For self-proclaimed “men who never grow up,” a place to call home.

Posted by: Kristin Belz on May 06, 2012 at 04:00PM 0 Comments

The boys have set up a fort, have they? So what else is new? Well, this time the fort is not a typical blankets-and-boxes contraption that elementary schoolers might construct. Though the “boys” who’ve created this Boys’ Fort are, they admit, “men who never grew up,” they’ve built a very grown-up home for their new “men’s home and lifestyle store.”

Boys’ Fort opened late last year as a holiday season pop-up shop downtown. In true temporary fashion, the pop-up soon closed up. But now they’ve popped up again in a permanent brick and mortar retail spot in the Kenton neighborhood of North Portland.

The new location seems tailor-made for their quirky, beautifully curated selection of housewares, artwork, custom furniture and odds and ends; after all, they’re just down the block from that massive man in plaid, the concrete statue of Paul Bunyan. But what Jake France and R. Rolfe of Boys’ Fort bring to the new shop is like what a highly refined, clever and sophisticated younger brother of Paul might like.

Plaid iPhone cases, “Dad” aprons, wooden boxes adorned with old metal car labels (Ford Fairlane…), man-scented fragrances and rugged wall art made of salvaged wooden yardsticks and tools… the items at Boy’s Fort are not to be found elsewhere. They’re all unusual, and yet as displayed in the shop, they go together like, well, plaid and denim.

Just wandering through the shop brings a smile, which might be what the proprietors are trying to do. They say they’re “reinterpreting for modern living” the old things we remember from childhood. Indeed. And it’s good memories they’re bringing back, though not false or fake ones.

The shop space is shared with those purveyors of the real, Salvage Works (read about them here) and of the ethereal, the floral art of Solabee (we’ll pay a longer visit to them soon). All three businesses provide goods and services in the retail space, where their creations live together like an honestly happy family.

Boy’s Fort (with Solabee and Salvage Works)
2030 North Willis Street
Portland, Oregon 97217
Monday-Saturday 9-6
Sunday 11-4

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Around Town

Of Mad Men and City Plans

A long lost short film made by the AIA in 1965 offers a useful comparison to today’s city planning.

Posted by: Kristin Belz on May 05, 2012 at 05:00PM 0 Comments

Watching the TV show Mad Men is a pleasure if only for the eye candy it provides; it’s hard for many of us not to covet some of the mid-century modern furniture, fixtures and clothing that the extremely authentic period sets contain.

The show’s themes are appealing too, in a different way: they remind us of how very far we’ve come as a society in advancing civil rights for so many of us, not just for straight white men like Don Draper. Mad Men’s story lines make us feel good about ourselves.

Can the same be said for a film depicting the state of city planning in 1965? Have we made tremendous historic advances of which we should be proud? Watch this American Institute of Architect’s public service promotional film for yourself. Called No Time for Ugliness, it’s a fascinating glimpse at the urban design architects were advocating for while Don, Roger, Peggy and the gang were gallivanting in their sleek, modernist interior spaces.

Those sorts of interiors, and the furnishings they contained, still seem appealing and even hip to many of us now. But the city of 1965 presented another picture. City designs by nature evolve very very slowly. Fashion is not so much a factor in urban design as it is in architecture. Thus the city of 1965 is recognizable today, and yet so much of it has changed, as has the philosophy behind its design. Or has that philosophy changed?

The answer is complex, and the film will get you thinking. It comes thanks to The Atlantic magazine’s online video channel editor, Kasia Cieplak-Mayr von Baldegg, and is available online in two parts, 10 and 13 minutes long. Watch both parts, and then consider how we plan and build our cities today, in Portland and elsewhere.

The City of Portland has just completed years of preparing a plan for how to guide our city over the next quarter century or so; that document, the Portland Plan, was recently approved by City Council. Browse through the plan on its website.

Is today’s city planning an advance from what the country’s urban designers were recommending in 1965? We’ll cover that question further in a future column; meanwhile, we’d love to know what you think.

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Market Watch

Plate up the Fiddleheads

Young ferns before they unfold their fronds make a tasty addition to dinner.

Posted by: Kristin Belz on May 01, 2012 at 06:00AM 0 Comments

At our local bistro the other night, part of the mélange of fresh vegetables accompanying the delicious pork chop was a handful of fiddlehead ferns. Lightly cooked in olive oil, their bright green coils tightly wound, they were like a smiling spiral of springtime cheer and sign of things to come.

Fiddleheads have a short season (and shelf life); they’re not what you’ll find at any ol’ grocery any ol’ day. But when foraged for knowledgably, the fresh tender and crunchy tips of young fern fronds make an exotic addition to a stir-fry or sautéed dish.

Some ferns contain toxins, so don’t go harvesting in your own backyard unless you have been well educated in the matter. But at the farmers market or gourmet grocery, they’re worth venturing a taste, if only for the visual beauty and natural novelty they add to a dish.

You may have noticed young ferns coming back to life in the past month or so; the curled fronds at their centers are visually fascinating as they pop out of the winter soil so fresh and innocent. Eventually the tiny coils unfurl into long familiar, but when caught early, the fresh tips of certain ferns (usually Ostrich) are edible and delightful.

Fiddleheads can refer to any sort of fern, and the name comes from the spiraled, carved wooden head of a violin. Cook them only briefly, so they retain a tender crunch; a quick sauté in olive oil with salt and pepper should do the job. Or go wild and add strong flavors like garlic, a few chunks of bacon or even morel mushrooms if you want to go whole hog on the forest/foraging theme.

Indonesian cuisines prepare fiddleheads in a rich spicy coconut milk sauce called gulai pakis. If you’re up for trying that, here’s a recipe from Essentials of Asian Cuisine: Fundamentals and Favorite Recipes, by Corinne Trang (via Chow).

Gulai Pakis
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 large garlic cloves (crushed, peeled, and minced)
1/2 ounce fresh ginger (peeled and finely grated)
1/2 ounce galangal (peeled and finely grated)
1 lemongrass stalk (root end trimmed, outer leaves and tough green top removed, inner 6-inch-long bulb finely ground)
1/2 ounce fresh turmeric (peeled and finely grated); or 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
4 or more red Thai chiles (stemmed, seeded, and minced)
1 1/2 teaspoons coriander seeds (finely ground)
1 teaspoon cumin seeds (finely ground)
3 macadamia nuts or candlenuts (finely crushed)
1 tablespoon Indonesian or Thai shrimp paste
3 cups unsweetened coconut milk
1/4 cup or more tamarind extract
4 kaffir lime leaves (2 pairs)
1 1/2 pounds fiddleheads, well washed and drained, tail base trimmed

Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Stir-fry the garlic, ginger, galangal, and lemongrass until fragrant and lightly golden, about 5 minutes. Add the turmeric, chiles, ground coriander, cumin, and candlenuts, and stir-fry for 2 minutes more. Add the shrimp paste and stir-fry until 1 to 2 shades darker, about 2 minutes. Add the coconut milk and tamarind extract, and bring to a gentle boil.

Reduce the heat to low, add the kaffir lime leaves, adjust seasoning with salt, and simmer, partially covered, for 15 minutes. Add the fiddleheads and continue to simmer until they are tender but firm, 5 to 10 minutes. Serve with rice on the side and with any grilled fish or meat.

Happy fiddling!

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Desirables

Modern Elegance, Modest Restraint

Altura crafts furniture that transcends its Northwest upbringing.

Posted by: Kristin Belz on Apr 30, 2012 at 03:00PM 2 Comments

Amidst the funkiness of Portland’s North Mississippi neighborhood, across from the gravel lot with the Waffle cart (and its picnic tables and chain link fence), down the street from the Rebuilding Center (home to all things salvaged and recyclable), there is an unassuming building in which a group of (mostly) men go about the business of making elegant, understated furniture for the ages.

It’s the world headquarters of Altura, the New York City born, Portland raised furniture company owned and operated by two Portland immigrants, Jeff Behnke and Roland Zehetbauer. Actually, it’s their only space: office, design studio, workroom and inventory warehouse for all the furniture they make, whether it’s in the wood-slabs-drying-out stage or the ready-to-ship stage.

Jeff Behnke started the company in New York City, in the early ‘80s, after furniture design school in Rochester. Roland moved from Austria and joined him on West 26th St. in Manhattan. The two men came here in the late 1990s, first Roland, then Jeff deciding to reunite with his former work partner and bring Altura west. The building they are in was just being built, but they signed on for the space, and quickly decided to buy it.

“Portland sure has changed – to our benefit,” says Jeff. When they moved in, the Rebuilding Center didn’t even exist. What has been the super popular Por Que Non restaurant for years now was still Grandfather’s Deli, with its not-to-be-missed mirrored glass storefront. Nu-Rite grocery and the Sunlan light bulb store up the street were the commercial neighbors.

Now, Mississippi is a shopping district destination, representative of all things Portland (and Portlandia, before that show existed). It’s not a stretch to choose to walk the several blocks from North Skidmore down to Fremont – and even around the corner to Grand Central Bakery or down the hill to Liberty Glass (Lovely Hula Hands in an earlier identity for the little pink house).

As the neighborhood has changed, so has Altura, but just as slowly, sensibly and organically. Their high quality and refined style have stayed the same, but the furniture lines have gradually grown as they’ve made minor design discoveries bringing a subtle, crafted character to new pieces.

The team of 13 working at Altura is hands on throughout the production process; inspiration can come at any step of the way. The Arris line, for instance, came out of Jeff eyeing a butterfly joint, the angular piece of wood that is inserted between two slabs, and using that angle to edge into the trim of a cabinet.

Once pieces have been introduced, customers have requested certain tweaks and features that have spawned further expansions to the product line. All the pieces are custom-ordered (Altura sells through designers, rather than at a retail store), making such experimentation a natural form of what people tout as crowd-sourcing in this digital, social media age. The lazy Susan set into the Nexus table, for instance, was a client’s idea.

Other tables have bases that can “nest” in their closed form, but move apart to allow for up to three leaves to be added, extending the table surface and transforming the base into another form entirely. The Oblique is a beautiful example of this; the table goes from 72” long to 108” as the base slides apart and interestingly shifts its profile.

The inventiveness of Altura’s furniture is well thought out and never showy. These are pieces that you won’t outgrow, but that you might pass down to your grandchildren. It’s nice to see Altura growing, yet not outgrowing its spot on North Mississippi and Fremont; they’re planning to expand yet again on the site. Jeff, as a former New Yorker, has been pleasantly surprised at how helpful the city’s Portland Development Commission has been in allowing them to grow over time. All in all, Altura is a Portland story that needs no exaggeration or mockery to be interesting.

Altura Furniture
3500 N. Mississippi Ave.
Portland, OR 97227
503.288.2228

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Desirables

For Gnome Addicts

Digs Inside & Out has expanded, which means more room for gnomes and other home and garden delights.

Posted by: Kristin Belz on Apr 29, 2012 at 04:00PM 0 Comments

If you’ve wandered along NE Alberta in recent years, you may have mosied into the cute little garden and home furnishing store, Digs Inside & Out – and noticed a rather healthy population of gnomes. Proprietor Jj De Sousa’s shop seems to be an unofficial gnome headquarters northwest, the clubhouse for gnomes of all sizes.

Luckily her gang is a good-looking bunch of gnomes, a higher class than you might see hanging out on a garden accessories shelf at the local grocery store. And they’re diverse: gnome garden guys, of course, but joined by gnome keychains, nightlights and I’m sure some I didn’t even notice.

They’re well worth a visit, especially now that Digs has expanded into the space next door, which means more room for more gnomes to frolic and roam. The shop still offers design services and products for interiors and gardens (as well as party planning and real estate staging), and not everything has a gnome theme. But brightness and whimsy shine throughout the shop.

From air plants to upholstery fabrics, ceramic vases to felt nesting bowls, there’s plenty that catches the eye, arranged in inspired color groupings and clever vignettes. The store is vivacious and fun, but the new space gives more room to breathe, and for a wider selection of garden and outdoor products.

I’m sure the gnomes appreciate the extra space too – though they are evidently underground creatures at heart. Wikipedia reports that the word “gnome” possibly derives from the Latin word “genomos,” and that, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the 16th century Swiss alchemist who recorded the word mistakenly omitted the “e.” Which brings up the question, when will our top scientists begin the human gnome project? Or, at least, when will Grimm feature some gnomes amongst its otherworldly Portland residents?

In the Harry Potter books, gnomes live in the gardens of witches and wizards, getting tossed out like weeds yet always magically returning. But clearly these creatures are welcome anywhere at Digs – waiting patiently, if mischievously, for you to take them home.

Digs Inside & Out
1829 NE Alberta
Portland, OR
503.460.digs (3447)
Mon.-Sat. 11-6/Sun.11-5

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Gift Giving

Mommy’s Little Knucklehead

Why not give Mom something useful, like a steel bottle opener?

Posted by: Kristin Belz on Apr 28, 2012 at 02:00PM 0 Comments

What do you give Mumsie for Mother’s Day, besides the usual breakfast in bed, brunch out on the town, or a bouquet of flowers? Branch out and try something functional and durable, like a 10-gauge steel bottle opener. That’s what you gave her last year? But there’s a new color out, just in time for Mother’s Day.

The Knucklehead line of bottle openers is made by local design house Quartertwenty, and Tilde, the always interesting shop in Sellwood, has them on sale May 10-13 (along with most everything else on the premises), 20% off for Mother’s Day. The Knucklehead will wow mom (Dad may want one too, which will get you ready for Father’s Day in June). It’s made from steel left over when Quartertwenty makes its GiddyUp Stool. The design is as neat as the concept: a piece of steel becomes the handsome stool, but the parts cut out in its fabrication get cut into shelf brackets, and the scrap from that becomes the bottle opener.

The company describes it as “One piece of steel. Three products. Zero waste.” It’s an elegant concept and just as elegant in execution. Blue, orange, white, black and now chartreuse green are the colors available (as well as the natural steel grey). For the hip modernist mom, it’s a sure winner. Put it in a gift basket with a six of her favorite microbrew, and she’ll probably forgive you for any and all adolescent transgressions – or at least she’ll be able to crack open a cold one for the two of you to toast to her motherhood.

Tilde
7919 SE 13th Avenue
Portland, OR
Mon – Saturday 10am-6pm
Sunday 12pm-5pm
503.234.9600

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