As I’ve mentioned previously on this Tumblr, I am a fairly adamant proponent of the brunch game. While I love this tweener meal mostly for the combinations of tastes it presents, the breakfast/lunch nourishment has actually played an integral role in my road sales strategy. When I am on the West Coast, I usually wake up at 7:30am to answer emails and take care of communication with my east coast contingent before heading out for that day’s appointments. With stores not opening until 11 or noon, I use the time in between tasks to stuff myself with an incapacitating amount of food so I will have energy for the day while staving off hunger until the late evening. This routine often yields two bountiful meals a day, and in theory it should save me a little bit of coin without sacrificing my nutrition. That of course holds true unless I find myself in spots like Tin Shed Garden Cafe in Portland, OR.
My well traveled homie Charley suggested I visit this place while in Rip City, and I will forever be indebted to him as a result. Top 3 brunches of all time. (Sometimes I exaggerate a bit when mentioning “Top” lists… like “That new 2Chainz track is like 15th in my top 5 tracks of all time… but this time there is no hyperbole.)
Sweet potato brioche french toast and this pile of slop that included potato cakes, pork sausage, eggs, cheddar, and a chipotle aioli sauce. Aka “Crack Music” (this name for this combo order is still under review).
I ended up dropping about $30 on brunch… but trust me when I say it was worth it.
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Normally when I am on the road for vT, I tend to find myself in cities where I have good friends who wouldn’t mind having me crash on their couch for a night or two. Portland marked the first spot since my time abroad where I actually didn’t have that option. With the vT budget stretched thin already, I decided to look into some alternatives to dropping the dough on an expensive hotel room. Enter Air BnB, a non-sketchy Craigslist/more official Couch Surfing type of website.
For $30 a night I stayed on a futon in an apartment shared by two local college students. The two ladies were very interested in the hospitality industry so they were using Air BnB as a way to entertain guests and work on their culinary skills. As I am not one to inhibit practice, I happily consumed their homemade sushi and 1950s style Mai Tai while responding to emails for the day.
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Upon arrival in Portland, my buddy Kohei picked me up from the airport. He and I became friends when I interned at Reebok back in the summer of 2008, as he was responsible for designing some of Allen Iverson’s last signature shoes for the brand. Kohei has since been picked up by adidas basketball design, and he is currently working on Derrick Rose’s third installment of signature footwear. (Not a bad resume!)
Kohei and I always used to ball at lunch time during my stint at Reebok, so to bring back the old days we went straight to adidas’ US headquarters to hit the court. It being a Sunday, we had the court to ourselves to get plenty of shots up and run some ones. The adidas village was smaller than I had imagined, but then again, the size made sense considering the world HQ is over in Nuremburg, Germany.
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