Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Portland

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And off we go! Here I am at Mile Zero in Seattle, packed and ready. Naturally I got a late start today (Tuesday August 11). I will be late to my funeral.

I drove south to Portland along I-5, known as "The Slog" in the Pacific Northwest. I have several Lake Wobegon CDs, so Garrison Keilor helped me pass the time.

Love my GPS. Mine is a TomTom. Really handy.

Had dinner and brews with my niece Kate and her fiance Andrew at Deschutes Brewery in downtown Portland. I had Ocho Negro IPA -- excellent. Also trooped by the world famous Powell Books.

The three of us decided we need to open a pub in Portland like the Bulldog, their haunt in New Orleans (they both went to Tulane), with 50 taps and dogs allowed on the patio. Our chosen name: The Happy Puppy (think of the logo possibilites!). I suggested fire hydrants in the restrooms. Your ideas are solicitated. So now the remainder of my journey will focus on locating local breweries and doing research. All a write off, of course.

Tomorrow (Wednesday August 12): Boise.

15 comments:

  1. Excellent idea Ted, love the concept. 2 menus- one for people , one for dogs- take out a must- people get a doggie bag and dogs get a people bag/- Need Dogfish Head beer on tap..oh the possibilities are endless:)

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  2. I thought you were going to spend time during this sabbatical and figure out what you want to do when you grow up. Looks like that took about three hours. Sabbatical over.

    Dogfish Head - our absolute favorite.

    Blue can be the The Happy Puppy's advertising model. He has experience.

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  3. And Will can come and be your Marketing person! He's been quite the Student these past years -- studying marketing and, uh, beer. And I introduced him last week to Dogfish 60 minute IPA. A Great brew.

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  4. I'm in. We will invest, and patronize. Perhaps Ella and Ruby can wait tables for the dogs? Little backpacks to carry kibble? You are SO onto something here!

    Love the picture of you and K&A!

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  5. The thought of Ruby and Ella with kibble backpacks along with Blue just chilling at the bar (the constant model) makes me laugh. We have already planned out several t-shirts designs and are also thinking that there should be one tap that is "The Murray Special".

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  6. I'm now thinking that the human verification words are really Alien Scrabble. My question is how do you know when you land on a double letter or triple word?

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  7. If you liked the 60 Minute, you'll love the 90 Minute. And you'll do flips over the 120 Minute.

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  8. Have you given a name to your Tom Tom? Laura and I gave the woman inside our Garmin an Australian accent and named her Gertrude. We've learned to never ever disagree with Gertrude.

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  9. Piper will be the muscle at the front door. Izzy can be the bookkeeper. And Nikko... Nikko can be... well... We'll keep Nikko busy by installing a disco ball in the bar. Someone has to watch the lights reflected on the ceiling.

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  10. Uh, Kate? Why is your screen name, "Kate & Sarah"? Might this be the triple word space?
    Do I get to brew the Murray Special? And, does it have to always be the same? Maybe better is, Murray's Surprise.

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  11. I dropped that bitch like a bad habit. I'm just KTP now. Thug life.

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  12. "I went to the Happy Puppy and our waitress was a bitch. . . "

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  13. Also, is K&A the new TomKat or Beniffer?

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  14. OMG, little brother, I thought I think I broke arib laughing at the Nikko line...

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