Latin American Cocktail Bar Tropicale Starts Serving Brunch This Weekend

Cocktail Bar Tropicale Will Start Serving Brunch This Weekend

When Tropicale opened earlier this year, customers rolled in to try the cocktail bar’s whole-pineapple piña coladas. But starting tomorrow, the bar will start serving brunch Fridays through Sundays. Dishes include things like chilaquiles verdes, breakfast tacos with chorizo and egg, guava French toast, and a breakfast sandwich with pork belly and sweet potatoes. Late in the day, the bar also serves weekend specials like pozole rojo and arepas. The brunch is available from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Travel Portland Releases a Food Cart Database

Portland food carts are hard to track: They move often, open and close quietly, and sometimes avoid social media. In response, Travel Portland created a new database dedicated to Portland food carts, with more than 200 carts listed. People can search for specific cuisines or dishes, with filters like “strictly vegan” or “halal.” The results include the Google review star rating, neighborhood, and cuisine. Plus, the database also has a map functionality, so people can find food carts in their neighborhood. [TP]

The Alano Club Is Auctioning Off Dinners With Some of Portland’s Most Notable Sober Chefs

The Alano Club of Portland, one of the city’s leading recovery organizations, is fundraising to replace some of the $180,000 in funding it lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic. So a number of sober chefs in the Portland area are auctioning off private dinners to help raise money for the organization. On Friday, November 6, the organization will start the bidding for a private, eight-person dinner from chef Patrick McKee (Estes at Dame); the following Friday, November 13, will feature an auction for a private, in-home cooking class with chef Gabriel Rucker (Canard, Le Pigeon). On November 20, the organization will auction off an eight-person dinner cooked by chef Gregory Gourdet (Departure, Kann, Top Chef), complete with a non-alcoholic beverage pairing. The live auctions start online at 9 a.m. on the above links, and end at 9 p.m.

In Other News...

• Willamette Week talked with Andy Barnett, medical director for Oregon Health & Science University’s respiratory clinic, about how restaurants can adapt to reopen safely. [WW]
• Oregon chain Original Pancake House is opening a second restaurant in central Ohio. [BizJo]
• Maurice is closing throughout the week, just in case things get dangerous as election results roll in. [EaterWire]
• DarSalam, Portland’s Iraqi chain, has made major expansion moves this year, despite the pandemic: Just a few months after opening its Pearl District location, the chain has opened a Hawthorne locale. [EaterWire]