Welcome to the Leftbank Cafe!    Please stop by, we would love to meet you!  Feel free to let us know if you would like to see anything featured in the Cafe that isn’t currently offered.

We are open Monday through Friday 8:00 am to 2:00 pm

Telephone - 503-281-1187

Menu:

(subject to change or substitution)

Today’s Specials

Breakfast Special: Bagel Sandwich with Eggs and Cheese

Soups: Cream of Mushroom (gf), Lentil (gf)

Dahl: Indian style black lentils with yogurt and apple chutney on a bed of basmati rice

Chorizo Panino: with Provolone, Fig Spread, and Cilantro

Grilled Cheese Panino: Tillamook White Cheddar on Grand Central Bread

Ham and Swiss Panino: with Arugula, Dijon Mustard, and Mayonnaise

Roasted Vegetable Panino: Roasted Red Peppers, Mushrooms, and Fresh Mozzarella Cheese with Cilantro Pesto on Grand Central Bread

Deli Sandwich: Smoked Turkey with Cheddar Cheese, Grain Mustard Aioli and Greens on Grand Central Bread

Hot Sandwich: BBQ Pulled Pork, Braised with Upright Beer and Topped with Apple and Arugula Salad NOT AVAILABLE TODAY

Roasted Beet Salad: with Mixed Greens, Preserved Lemon Vinaigrette, Olives and Feta

Many of our soups are Gluten free.

We feature numerous local beverages including Hot Lips sodas which are made from local Oregon grown fruit .  We are pleased to tell you that none of our beverages contain high fructose corn syrup.

All of our baked goods are made with sustainably grown Shepherd’s Grain Flours while our produce is locally grown by Millennium Farms and Creative Growers.

We are doing our part to help save the planet as well.  All of our “To Go” containers and flatware, though they may look and feel like plastic, are 100% biodegradable and compostable, and are made from Sugar Cane, Hemp, Corn, Bamboo or Potatoes.

Hope to see you soon!

-Leftbank Cafe- more

Leftbank has loads of inspired space.   Come join us and start something here.   Follow this link to see a slideshow of some of the currently available spaces - or click the ‘leasing’ tag to the left for more information… more

Hey Leftbankers,

Please join me in welcoming our new neighbors - Focus the Nation - who have just moved into Suite 212.  Their mission statement is “Empowering a Generation to Power a Nation” and, in their own words:

Focus the Nation is a national non-profit headquartered in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1999 by professor and economist, Eban Goodstein. We believe in the science of climate change and the opportunity it presents to rebuild American communities and US leadership at the local and international level.

We are driven by a fierce commitment to empower young people with the leadership, educational and civic engagement opportunities that will accelerate our transformation to a more just and prosperous clean energy future.

For more information on the kinds of the things Focus the Nation stands for please check out their website here.

Have you ever looked at the ubiquitous symbol of comfort that is the t-shirt and thought about the ‘ingredients’ that go into the finished product? Take the two most obvious: water and cotton. One organic cotton t-shirt is coaxed into existence by more than 400 gallons of water. Conventional cotton production accounts for roughly a quarter of all pesticides used in the U.S., according to the USDA. That’s a heavy load to wear.

Even though Portland Farmers Market is in the food business, we dabble in the world of apparel when we choose which t-shirts to offer for retail sale at the markets. Each year, we take a close look at the sourcing and components of the apparel we select, seeking out merchandise that reflects our values to the greatest extent possible. We believe our name belongs on only the most local and sustainable option out there. That’s why we are particularly excited to partner with Looptworks to create our t-shirts for the upcoming season. Looptworks is a Portland-based apparel manufacturing company using 100% “upcycled” materials. Rather than manufacturing shirts from new materials, Looptworks uses quality, unused fabric that is destined to be discarded before it is made into finished pieces when the factory has completed a production run. This means everything Looptworks creates is from pre-consumer excess. The company’s goal is to promote closed loop manufacturing by making good use of surplus textiles, pushing for textile recycling at the community level, and advocating for textiles to be recycled into new fabrics. As a result, the manufacturing ‘loop’ is complete with less or no new materials needed. Bottom line: Looptworks is in the business of turning waste into want. That’s exactly the kind of company Portland Farmers Market is proud to support.

For a closer look at life cycle of apparel, see this article from Environmental Health Perspectives, a peer-reviewed journal published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Like many small non-profits, Portland Farmers Market wouldn’t be the gem of an organization that it is without the passionate energy of dedicated volunteers. We have the good fortune of working with a core group of forty people who help with everything from staffing the information booth at the Saturday PSU Market to assisting with cooking classes for children during the summer months. As we prepare to open for our 19th season, we want to give a special shout out to these fine folks, many of whom have been with us for several years of service. We are extremely grateful for these fun-loving, enthusiastic volunteers who are committed to spreading the good food gospel. We couldn’t do it without you!

Would you like to join our volunteer ranks this year? If so, please email amber@portlandfarmersmarket.org for more information about current opportunities.

See you at the market!

before anything else, the finest site I have seen in some time:  Paper Make Stack.

One of the finest parts of collaborating on a project with scope as diverse as leftbank’s has been the many opportunities to involve friends….   Justin Gorman was one such contributor..  he helped make the building a creative space well before it was arguably habitable.   Tapped initially to document the physical evolution of leftbank, Justin’s involvement soon expanded to treating the walls as canvas.   Sometime later, he was painting a large, large sign above the back lot, and an absolute fixture at T:BA’s the WORKS.    After that, we commissioned him to develop Leftbank’s interior signage (in collaboration w/me) and he’s even more recently done work w/SOLIDCORE and uncommon, taking position as an early leader in the effort to maximize the collaborative potential of the place.       One of Justin’s most recent works is the development of his own (half self promotional/half creative clearinghouse) website called Paper Make Stack. You’ll like it.

How many people can say they eat for a living? Here at Portland Farmers Market, we have the good fortune of doing just that during product jury time. Every year as part of the application process, a select group of potential processed food vendors are invited to bring in their goods for evaluation by a panel of PFM staff and Market Advisory Council members. Products are assessed based on a number of factors. Although passing the taste test is the most important criteria, the jury panel also takes a hard look at ingredient sourcing, aesthetics and packaging, balance of products in the marketplace, and alignment with PFM’s mission

This season, we received a record number of extraordinary applicants. The jury had the honor of sampling 20 entries representing everything from baked goods to wine to chutney. After several hours of eating and drinking, the jury panel was faced with some very tough decisions. Even though we had to decline many qualified vendors based on space availability and market needs, the sheer diversity of entries tells us this will be a banner year for artisan foods in Portland.

Among the businesses that will be joining PFM for the 2010 season are Oregon Kombucha, Sassafras Catering, and Leftbank’s own Upright Brewing Company. Congratulations, Alex & Co.!

Hello everyone.  I’m Nino, the editor and co-founder of EarthTechling, an online consumer publication about green technology located in the Hive. I’ve been here since the beginning of September.  We are growing pretty fast and I’m turning to you, the Leftbank Project community, to help us out with some fresh story ideas.

We cover all matter of green technology topics including, but not limited to, green gadgets, wind farms, solar power, wave energy, electric vehicles, hybrids, green architecture and so forth.  You probably get the idea.  What I’m looking for are ideas that your business, or you personally, are involved in or aware of which might be interesting for my readers.  If the story idea pans out, I’ll give you credit on my site as the origin point.  Locally based ideas, such as Portland’s biogas project, are fine as I’ll use that to address as an example of something which can be done on a national level.

Please shoot me your ideas to my email address.  Thank you for your help on this.  Cheers!

Come join us for the release of our newest beer on Friday the 26th - an Oyster Stout! We’ll have one of only a few kegs on draft as well as bottles of this full-bodied and creamy stout available to take home. It was brewed in collaboration with fellow oyster lover Jason McAdam of upcoming Alchemy Brewing. We made the beer using over ten gallons of oyster juice fresh from the Oregon coast and eight dozen DeCourcy oysters from B.C. For the release raw oysters  will be available along with some free snacks as well between 4:30 and 9 pm which also marks the beginning of our new Friday tasting room hours. Hope to catch you there!

Join us every last Friday of the month  in suite 202 for good company, conversation, and community!

Please RSVP to attend here.

We hope to see you there!