eatout •
OREGON S LGBTO NEWSMAGAZINE
APRIL 15. 2011
In a city full of bacon-loving former,
vegans, queer Portlander Berlin Reed is
giving more than lip service to the idea
that eating meat can be ethical, too. His
labor of love, The Ethical Butcher, serves
as an umbrella for a multitude of meaty
projects aimed at revolutionizing the way
animals end up on menus.
W hat started as an odd job behind the
butcher counter of a small New York
grocer—odd given that Reed was expect
ing to work with cheese, and also because
he didn’t even eat meat at the time—has
turned into a passion that allows Reed to
incorporate his. food politics into his re
newed respect for meat eating.
“Being a vegetarian for most of my
Drawing inspiration from “favorite
conscious life meant that I came to cocktails, dominant spices in certain re
butchery with a very different background gional cuisines and crackpot flavor com
than most butchers,” Reed, 28, explains. bos,” Reed has compiled a little black
“I’d say the way my veg days show up is book of more than 80 bacon varieties.
that I am always interested in talking
There are the “fruity and floral,” such as
[about] politicizing my food, a very veg Tea and Cake (candied spiced orange and
person thing to do.”
lemon preserves and jasmine and chamo
Hailing from San Francisco, Reed had mile teas); the “spiked and spicy,” includ
been a vegetarian for 14 years when he ing I’ll Love You Until My Veins Explode
started working as a butcher in 2008. (guajillo, pasilla, ancho, habaneTo and
W hile his abstention from meat began as Scotch bonnet chiles, cherry preserves
an act of preteen rebellion, it persisted and espresso); and the “deep, dense and
because of a sense of compassion for the dark,” with such indulgent varieties as
way animals suffer in factory farms. When Box of Chocolates (raw cocoa nibs, dark
he realized it was possible to ensure that chocolate and amaretto with a coconut-
meat came from animals that lived and almond crust).
died well, Reed figured it was safe to step
“I play with bacon because it’s fun. I get
off the wagon.
to take this common yet beloved food, spin
After biting off a baptismal hunk of it around and do crazy new things with it
rib-eye on the job, Reed was converted, and then bring it back to blow minds and
eventually setting out to share The Bacon palates and guess what? It’s still just ba
Gospel with communities across the con,” Reed says. “That’s the fun, stretching
country. In each city, he found local heri the limits of this very traditional and es
tage breed pork and combined it with a sentially unchangeable food. Each of my
rich assortment of other local flavors, al now 80-plus flavors taste unlike any bacon
lowing him to highlight hometown pur you’ve ever tasted, yet each one tastes just
veyors of produce, spirits and coffee.
like bacon should.”
J9>:
Mississippi
Rising
Bleeding Heart Butcher
Berlin Reed brings a vegetarian sensibility to meat eating
19
b y e r in r o o k
Q Center gets fresh for
inaugural farmers market
£
<s>
Bacon for it: Berlin Reed in an ethical
butchering demonstration
In addition to creating specialty cured
meats, Reed organizes whole animal din
ners, helps run The Butcher’s Guild and
writes about ethical butchery. He even
has a book in the works, part memoir of
his transition from vegetarian to butcher
and part how-to-eat-meat guide, and he’s
currently working on a film project.
“M y drive right now is in working for
this movement for a sustainable meat sys
tem,” Reed explains. “M y work, my events
and writing, these are my contributions to
the movement and to my community.
Putting on events like Primal Cuts at the
Ace back in November, where over 100
queer artists and DJs were mixing it up
with food bloggers and farmers over a ta
ble brimming with insanely decadent lo
cal meaty goodness and a wall of photos
of animals from many of the farms I’ve
visited—that is what my work is about."
BY RYAN J. PRADO
»
©
To learn more about The Ethical Butcher,
visit theethicalbutcher.com, and read the fu ll
interview with Berlin Reed at justout.com.
It’s no secret that Portland loves it some
farmers markets. Regardless of which quad
rant of the metro area you reside in, fresh
produce, artisan crafts and organic wares of all
shapes and stripes are within but an arm’s
reach. Ali W illiams, Q_ Center’s new special
events and projects intern, knew this too,
which is why one of her first undertakings at
PDX’s much loved LGBTQJiome base was to
organize Market
Beginning Saturday, May 7, Market Q_will
offer up fresh fruits, vegetables and other goods
like cupcakes, pies, vegan cheese, crafts and cof
fee from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the center’s parking
lot (4115 N. Mississippi Ave.).The market runs
every Saturday through September 3, save for
during the Mississippi Street Fair on July 9,
when the center’s parking lot will be in use.
The closest farmers market to the Missis
sippi District’s bustling milieu is the Interstate
Farmers Market, located at 3500 N. Interstate
.Ave. next to Overlook Park, operating
Wednesday evenings from 3 to 7 p.m. W il
liams decided that starting up a weekly farm
ers market in the heart of the pedestrian-heavy
business sector of Mississippi Avenue—and
on a regular weekend morning—would be a
twofold beneficial operation.
“I really wanted to be more active within the
community that we exist in,” says Williams. “A
lot of people use the center, but I wanted to
expand that and have a way for not just visibil
ity within the LGBTQcommunity, but also to
partner up with all citizens that come— tourists,
and people from all surrounding neighbor
hoods. I thought it would be a really good way
to bring the community together.”
Williams says the vendor lineup is likely to
change from week to week, providing oppor-
i-------------------------------------------------------------------------
i
toastpdx.com
503774-1020
Dine
w ith
Family
e n jo y o u r
Happy Hour
w eek d ays 2 - 6 p.m .
W ine Special $4/glass
Beer $3/pint
10% OFF for downtown employees.
316 SW Stark Street. Portland, OR 97204
karamrestaurant.com 503.223.0830
5222 SE 52nd Ave.
Portland, OR 97206
open for breakfast
7 days a week, 8am - 2pm
open for dinner
Thur & Frl, 5:30 - 9pm
Wednesday Night Dinner
coming soon
Follow us on Twitter
<a>Toast__pdx
M
A neighborhood restaurant
LEBANESE RESTAURANT
1318 SE Hawthorne, Portland, OR 97214
5 0 3 .2 3 5 .12 5 4 fax : 503.236.8457
11 :30 am - 9 pm M on - S at
12 - 830 Sunday