I'm pausing to interject two comments here about recent happenings:
The Positive:
Have you seen the movie Julie & Julia? I went a couple of weeks ago during my mom's visit and I have to say that I LOVED it! I read the book by Julie (about her blog and cooking her way through the cookbook etc) about 3 years ago. I enjoyed the book. Then when I saw that there was a MOVIE about it - I knew I had to go. But what I didn't expect, and thought was so very clever of Director and Screenwriter Nora Ephron, is that she used Julie's book "Julie & Julia" AND Julia Child's book "My Life in France" to show the two parallel lives, and inter-mixed the two life stories in a really cool way. I was just taken by it and thought it was a great adaptation. I liked it even more than I thought I would. I thought the acting was great as well - both Meryl and Amy played their "old" and "new" parts well. Loved it. Go see it - especially if you like stories about women, and life, and food.
The Negative:
Lately, I've been seeing some of the after-effects, trickle-down-wise, of the economic downturn even more. I think some businesses and restaurants have held out and held on for some time...but lately there seems to be more finally giving up. Yesterday I heard from my mother that one of my favorite restaurants in Portland, Caprial's Westmoreland Kitchen (formerly known as Caprial's Bistro) closed. Suddenly, they closed up shop and their cool restaurant location in Sellwood/Westmoreland area of Portland is now for lease. This is sad to me. I went there many years ago, and then returned about two summers ago for a catch-up dinner with a dear old high-school friend. Then, I just took my mom there for dinner when I visited in February. I LOVED that place, the location, the decor, and their menu too. They used fresh, local, seasonal ingredients and added their gourmet twist. It was a neighborhood kind of place, the kind that I wish I lived near and could stop in more frequently. I'm really sad to hear they closed. I also learned from another friend that a restaurant I loved in NYC closed this month too. Couldn't keep making it. When I read my online newspapers, I hear about more restaurants in cities I've visited that are closing. It seems that as people's incomes are cut, dining out is just one of those easy things to cut out. Of course, it makes sense. But it's sad too - the trickle-down of all those people who worked at the restaurants also out of jobs then too. Sad.
