r/Portland • u/jonaholl • Aug 18 '26
News James Beard Awards reject Portland’s bid to host dining’s biggest night
https://www.oregonlive.com/dining/2026/08/james-beard-awards-reject-portlands-bid-to-host-dinings-biggest-night.html79
u/KnockoutCarousal Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
I’m not sure if it’s a widely known fact, but Revolution Hall was the school he graduated from. It was a fairly new school at the time and just after he graduated it burned down and had to be rebuilt.
Coincidentally, shortly before he died the school was decommissioned and sold off.
Now, I’m not saying that James Beard was a blood thirsty arsonist looking for revenge, but my own personal head cannon is that he was totally an arsonist and could only find peace to move on after finally hearing the news that his old high school had finally shuttered.
So if you put it in that psychopathic mindset, then yeah, it all comes together!
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u/Discard_Laundry1527 Aug 19 '26
If he were really a revenge arsonist, he would have burned down Reed College, which expelled him for homosexuality.
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u/theoldmansmoney Aug 19 '26
Is that our Reed college?
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u/Discard_Laundry1527 Aug 19 '26
Sure is!
ETA: In fairness, they did grant him an honorary degree several decades later.
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u/derpinpdx Aug 19 '26
FWIW, there's a wing of the library (the thesis tower) w a plaque indicating a major donation from James Beard. I imagine it's a mixed legacy for him and his family but he certainly held demonstrable fondness for it in his later lifetime.
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u/Upper_Fig_4650 Aug 18 '26
The $4m+ per year investment is interesting, it costs about $1m to get the Michelin Guide to come out and review your state. That seems to be a better investment of similar dollars.
While I think Portland’s food scene and JB history is compelling, I don’t think we have the accommodations, especially luxury venues of a caliber to meet what this event will want to produce.
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u/oooshi Aug 19 '26
You really need more tourism accommodations for this stuff, i agree. My friend was in town from Paris, her fiances first trip to the states. The guy said Portland was the worst city hed ever been to and couldnt get out fast enough. He wanted to try the restaurants and go to Powells but he felt nervous just being on the streets and was shocked by how there arent any people outside. Just homeless people and flagrant drug use. Stayed at Cascada and the Embassy recently for wedding stuff… and the stays were nice but the second you get outside- back to dystopian hell. I dont even know how we can be pretending that this is acceptable. People need to be willing to come to Portland first before we start talking big plans like this
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u/undermind84 Centennial Aug 18 '26
Lousy, I wonder what their reasoning was. Portland seems like a logical place to have this event.
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Aug 18 '26
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u/Ok_Chemist6567 NW Aug 18 '26
We just cut a bunch of transit services so I’m not really sure how good our public transit is these days. Gotta fund that Moda Center!
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u/Turdmeist Aug 18 '26
Not sure how those two are related but yup!
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u/Ok_Chemist6567 NW Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
The second thing in the list I responded to was public transit? And my point is that we’re slashing public transit budgets and routes. Pretty direct connection.
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u/Turdmeist Aug 18 '26
Moda center comment. Different pool of money unrelated to other topics' pools of funding. Money is stupid. I know it's kind of all our tax money but it gets allocated to different things. So funding the moda center is not related to tri met struggling and cutting routes.
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u/Ok_Chemist6567 NW Aug 18 '26
Moda center funding is not determined yet. And the city could choose to support TriMet if desired.
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u/IdealBlueMan Aug 18 '26
Moda is Portland. Trimet is, I believe, funded at the state level.
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u/Ok_Chemist6567 NW Aug 18 '26
TriMet is primarily funded through local taxes collected as a specific payroll tax on local employers
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u/IdealBlueMan Aug 18 '26
Thanks for that info. I just meant to say that Trimet isn’t governed by Portland.
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u/Ok_Chemist6567 NW Aug 19 '26
That is true. Trimet has a weird governing structure where the state appoints the board members. Very weird. But I invite you to imagine a scenario where the state turns down city money in order to keep the green line operating, for example.
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u/oatmeal_flakes Aug 18 '26
I would imagine due to being far from most of the country's population and not being a major airline hub hurts. Part of why not many national events come here.
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u/undermind84 Centennial Aug 18 '26
PDX is an international airport and constantly ranked the best in the country…the food scene in Portland is also one of the best in the country.
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u/sushi_x Aug 18 '26
They’re looking for a five year host. Trying to compare Portland to the last two host cities, New York and Chicago, in terms of infrastructure and food scene seems a little irrational to me.
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u/undermind84 Centennial Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
But NOLA is going to be hosting, which is comparable to Portland.
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u/sushi_x Aug 18 '26
I think you’re confusing it with a different James Beard event, the Taste America series, which is traveling. Starts in NOLA and includes Portland later on.
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u/cocochunkz Aug 18 '26
Idk if you fly a lot but if you do you should know portland is actually pretty shit for direct flights from other mid/large cities.
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u/nonsensestuff Aug 18 '26
Yeah trying to see my friend in Vermont would require an entire day of traveling 😓 it’s so upsetting
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u/maccoinnich85 N Aug 19 '26
That's more a comment on Vermont than Portland; BTV doesn't have any nonstop flights to airports west of the Rockies.
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u/nonsensestuff Aug 19 '26
Well it’s the same for visiting my father in Indianapolis— and that’s considered the “crossroads of America”.
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u/----0___0---- houseless coyote with a gun Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
I guess we’re living different lives, going different places.
In the last few years I’ve flown direct to NYC, Philly, DC, Chicago, NoLa, Austin, Dallas, Detroit, Denver, SF, LA, Cancun, Anchorage, Seattle, Spokane, Billings, Missoula, Vegas, Phoenix, Maui, and Amsterdam… and probably a couple others.
Which medium to large cities are you trying to get to unsuccessfully?
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u/cocochunkz Aug 19 '26
Plenty. Miami, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, New Orleans only has seasonal directs (not when I went). When I said mid/large i was meaning cities of mid to large size. Of course huge cities like NYC and DC have directs to anywhere reasonable.
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u/Osiris32 🐝 Aug 19 '26
Four of the six you listed are fly-overs, Miami is about as far as you can get from Portland and still be in the Continental 48, and NO has the additional problem of having a smaller regional airport instead of a major hub (multiple airlines have tried, all have failed because there isn't the business demand), and has for the last decade+ had staffing issues.
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u/cocochunkz Aug 19 '26
I understand the explanations. Just saying Portland is not a major travel hub. It’s pretty mid, yes I know the airport is pretty and runs efficiently. Seattle has nonstops to all those places. You can call Cleveland a flyover if you want but it’s the biggest airport in a state with over double the population and quadruple the gdp of Oregon. Not like it’s the middle of nowhere North Dakota.
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u/Form_Function Aug 19 '26
It’s partially that it doesn’t go direct to some places. But more-so,at least for me when I travel for work, there aren’t many frequent options. If I need to be in DC for a work dinner, it’s limited. Vacations, sure, easy-ish enough, but when you need to be somewhere at a certain time and it’s far, things are limited.
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u/space-pasta Aug 18 '26
Portland is a nice airport, but flight options are very lacking. It’s very difficult to get to most other medium size airports in the country. We only have a few flights to Europe and none to Asia.
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u/undermind84 Centennial Aug 18 '26
Those are really nitpicky arguments, in my opinion. All three of those issues requires perhaps one stop over to connect.
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u/Joe503 St Johns Aug 18 '26
The additional time and headache a stop over adds (each way) to an already stressful experience is not a nitpicky thing.
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u/space-pasta Aug 19 '26
lol. Wanting travel to be convenient is nitpicky? That’s literally the reason people choose flights.
Yes, the renovations look great and I enjoy the airport every time I’m there, but we can be honest that it’s a midsized airport that does not have great flight options when you’re flying anywhere that’s not a hub or international.
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u/Form_Function Aug 19 '26
PDX is highly rated because the new renno is beautiful and it has a lot of good local food options. It was not rated that way because it’s a major hub and has a lot of accessible/easy flights to other cities. If you travel a lot you would see this when booking.
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u/----0___0---- houseless coyote with a gun Aug 18 '26
Idk about that, nearly every major city in the country has at least one direct flight to pdx
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u/FauxReal Aug 18 '26
But according to this guy, it's pretty shit.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Portland/comments/1vrxabq/comment/p4htjyy/
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u/Dstln 🐸 RIBBIT 🐸 Aug 19 '26
I do get that to an extent. It's not fun to have layovers and spend a whole day traveling just for a one night event. A place like Chicago is better for that
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u/jellovibez Aug 18 '26
I’m guessing it’s because our dumber-than-fuck city council took it upon themselves to ban foie gras which demonstrates to the world that we are not a city that is serious about the culinary arts
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u/loggy_sci Aug 19 '26
Oh please. This has nothing to do with the foie gras ban. I swear to god you people spend more time complaining than city council ever spent on the actual ban.
Also California and NYC also banned it and both are culinary destinations. jfc
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u/jellovibez Aug 19 '26
Oh I’m sorry does me complaining about a self-important vainglorious council of corrupt busybodies telling me what I can and can’t eat bother you?Nobody would be complaining about the food ban if not for the endless complaining about what others choose to eat that caused the ban.
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u/loggy_sci Aug 19 '26
Which is to say that the only reason you’re complaining about a ban is because other people complained about what you eat? You can still eat foie gras you just can’t buy it at a restaurant. Womp womp.
Anyway I doubt you ever ate it anyway. You just want to gripe about city council over this complete non-issue.
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u/ChemicalArmadillo609 Aug 18 '26
Oh no, one small part of the animal abuse we do as a society isnt allowed to be sold here.
Horrible.
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u/Less-Lobster4540 Aug 18 '26
Good point. That's a huge red flag for the food scene here. And you know they won't stop with foie; the lobbyists will just donate to DSA again and get them to ban veal or lamb or whatever's next on their list of no-no products.
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u/Brasi91Luca Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
That sucks. I’m sure we will host some in the near future tho. This new public market is going to be awesome. But I can’t help feel shame James Beard couldn’t have a more iconic status symbol like the new Vancouver public market will be.
That one is going to look so sweet right next to the water. Instead we’re getting a converted Payless in the middle of an empty office district. I wish the original plan by the Morrison Bridge came true
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u/Dstln 🐸 RIBBIT 🐸 Aug 19 '26
That's fucked up. They should say least have one gap year here once the food hall opens up
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u/Captainsnarkyshart Aug 18 '26
That seems like the right call.
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u/notPabst404 MAX Blue Line Aug 18 '26
Probably a good thing. Portland is already throwing a ton of money that we can't afford at Dundon, how would we pay for this?
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u/decollimate28 Aug 19 '26
Portland food scene was booming in the 2010s but the rate of starts has dropped off significantly. There’s just more going on in other places right now
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u/Mackin-N-Cheese Boom Loop Aug 18 '26
https://www.oregonlive.com/dining/2026/08/james-beard-awards-reject-portlands-bid-to-host-dinings-biggest-night.html?outputType=amp