Kel's Golden Birthday: DIY Champagne Bar

At my job, Alumni Reunion Weekend is a pretty big deal and I have to plan on being on campus basically the entire weekend. Unfortunately, Reunion always falls on the last full weekend in June aka, Kelly's birthday weekend. Very sad, indeed.

Last year, I made Kel and all our friends come to the Reunion BBQ which of course eventually led to Tic Tacs at the T-room (should I be proud or embarrassed that the bartender recognized me even though I hadn't been there in 5 years??).

This year, Kel understandably opted out of spending her bday weekend at our alma mater, so we celebrated a week early with cocktails and snacks at her and Adam's place followed by karaoke at Voicebox.

The Drinks
Birthdays call for a little something special so instead of choosing one cocktail to make, I decided to set up a champagne bar with three different options that people could mix themselves.

The three options were:

French 75
- 1oz Gin
- .5oz Lemon Juice
- .5oz Simple Syrup
- Champagne

Rhubarb Sparkler
- 1oz Rhubarb Simple Syrup
- Champagne

Champagne Cocktail
- Sugar Cube
- Dash of Bitters
- Champagne

This was relatively easy to put together since you're just buying all the ingredients with the exception of the rhubarb simple syrup (recipe here), regular simple syrup, and fresh lemon juice.

I think if I did it again, I would choose something different than the Champagne Cocktail. Bowlsby was the only one who tried it and unlike the other two cocktails, you couldn't mix and match its ingredients with the others to create your own cocktail (gin + lemon juice + rhubarb syrup + champagne = much deliciousness). Maybe something like a Bellini would have worked better?

The Food
All credit goes to Doug on this one since he made the food. Kel requested lemon bars and caprese skewers to which we added watermelon & feta bites, fresh fruit (no one ate that), and Kel's and my current favorite Trader Joe's cheese & cracker combination: syrah-soaked Toscana cheese with fig & olive crisps (this has eclipsed our previous favorite: 1000 Day Gouda with rosemary crackers, in case you were wondering).

The Decor
Kel's house is super cute already so there wasn't much work to do here. I made the drink and food signs using this fun free font and gold polka dot washi tape, and added some flowers and a gold banner I bought at my favorite crafty store, Collage, to fancy it up. Easy!

It also makes a difference to put all your champagne bar ingredients in cute containers like the mini milk bottles we used for the simple syrup and lemon juice and the carafe for the rhubarb syrup.

Kel has a huge glassware collection so she set out an assortment of champagne flutes for everyone to choose from. This worked well for keeping track of whose drink was whose- which is especially important for Kel and me since we tend to lose track of our drinks every five minutes or so.

The Karaoke
One of the funnest nights Kel and I have ever had was a spontaneous hour or so of private karaoke at Voicebox after an impromptu Wednesday night bar crawl down 23rd and 21st a few years ago (Kel took care of the singing and I was in charge of back-up dancing and it was the best). Since then, we regularly think "let's go to Voicebox!" after a few too many drinks at Kel's. That plan never works though because Voicebox is either a) closed by that point in the night or b) already booked.

To ensure we didn't run into the same problem, I made a reservation through Voicebox's online system a week prior. Piece of cake!

Note: A tray of Voicebox's Jello shots is that much better when served by Bowlsby.

Cheers to a great bday, Kel!

Portland Food Event: Nob Hill Dishcrawl

Katie and I have a tendency to proclaim to Adam and Doug that we'll surely be home from our date nights by 9:30 or 10pm, a claim which they have both learned to dismiss and plan on a closer-to-midnight arrival time. Last night's Dishcrawl's date for the Nob Hill crawl was no exception.

We were excited for our food adventure in NW, but drinks aren't included in the Dishcrawl ticket so we decided to make a couple pre-event stops on our way. We began at Casa del Matador where we quickly learned we should not have seated ourselves outside without checking inside first. We were blatantly ignored for 10 minutes and then waited another 10 minutes for our Cadillac Margarita ($8).

With half an hour left before the start, we skipped down the road to St Jack for a delicious drink and hopefully better service. After hearing about our prior experience, their bartender made us his take on an El Diablo with tequila, creme de cassis, lime and ginger syrup. Perfect.

Stop 1: Pacific Pie Co.
Where: 1668 NW 23rd Ave
Honeys Heart: The great service

New to Northwest, Pacific Pie Co. offers up Aussie-style meat pies, sausage rolls, pasties, soups, salads, sandwiches, and more. Owner Sarah, was onsite providing incredible service and tasty samples. We tried a mini Chicken Pot Pie, a mini Meat Roll, and a mini Spinach and Feta Pastie. All were great, but I think Katie's and my favorite was the pot pie.

Sarah and her team went above and beyond and decided to offer a cocktail taster. Though it wasn't our favorite drink, it was a great thought and differentiated Pacific Pie Co. from the other Dishcrawl stops.

We also tried the Aussie 75 ($8) with gin, lemon eucalyptus syrup and sparkling wine.

Happy hour is Monday through Friday 3 to 6pm with $5 mini pasties, meat rolls, and Aviation gin and tonics. Definitely worth returning for!

Stop 2: 23Hoyt
Where: NW 23rd and Hoyt
Honeys Heart: Special menu items just for Dishcrawl

After a 11-block walk (or in our case run because we were slow to settle up our bill and had to make a quick pit stop along the way) we enjoyed some samples at 23Hoyt. The board featured Curried Mussel Soup, a Shrimp Corndog, Tempura Fried Clams, and Chickpea Fries. Most of these items aren't featured on their regular menu, but it gave an idea of their New American style.

The flavor of the soup was really excellent, but a little cold. I wasn't completely sure if it was meant to be served that way or not, but it tasted good.

Katie and I also ordered the drink special made with gin, cynar, grapefruit, and sparkling wine. Yum!

Stop 3: Dick's Kitchen
Where: 704 NW 21st Ave 
Honeys Heart: Dick himself!

The final stop was Dick's Kitchen on 21st. Dick's goal is to reinvent the traditional diner by offering delicious burgers and sides, but with a healthy spin. Owner Dick's personal health has required that he follow a specific diet, similar to a paleo diet, and the mission of the restaurant is to give people with dietary restrictions an dining out option that is just as delicious.

All the beef used at Dick's is 100% grass fed from Carman Farms and sides include a ton of healthy veggie options. We tried a beef slider, asparagus and beet salad, and braised collards. The beef was definitely great quality and the braised collards were a great side.

We spent some time at the end of the night chatting with Dick about the importance of being really conscious of what we put in our bodies and learned that his hope is that by supporting companies with sustainable and healthy practices, like those at Carman Farms,someday there will be a more mainstream push back to this way of farming, preparing, and eating food.

After Dick's Kitchen the official crawl was over, but we weren't quite ready to head home. We would have typically hopped over to Gypsy to sing karaoke and bug the KJ, but since its closure earlier this year we had to find another option: Voicebox. We were concerned it would be a little pricey and were prepared to negotiate, but $4 per person for an hour seemed like a deal. We ordered some sake and entered our room which included a ton of bench seating and a ledge for Katie's back up dancing. It could easily fit 10-15 people, but it was just us and we were pretty amazing. We sang and danced for an hour and a half and in true Kelly/Katie fashion walked home at midnight. Whoops. Definitely the most fun for $4 we've ever had!