BEST OF EUGENE 2004
over your lover to turn it off. Your lover snug-
gles you closer; that skin-on-skin warmth is a
whole lot more inviting than the chilly morn-
ing air. Thoughts of work move to the periph-
ery as your bodies come together in a cloud
of hands, hips, tongues and hair… In your
blissed-out state you roll your eyes dreamily
toward the clock. And then, like a hot pepper
in chocolate sauce, it hits you: YOU’RE
LATE! You toss on your clothes, splash your
face, peck your lover on the forehead and run
out the door. Yeah, it was worth it, but how
are you going to explain this to your boss?
BEST REASON TO LIVE IN EUGENE:
THE PEOPLE
2nd: Nature
3rd: The weather
Well it sure as hell ain’t the weather, which
oddly enough received enough votes to
place third. But we think that was a joke.
And we’re pretty sure this one isn’t. People
here are nice. As a newcomer to Eugene I
chose to write up this category because it
reflects my experience, as least so far. My
neighbors say hi. My co-workers rock and
go out of their way to be helpful. The peo-
ple at the DMV and even the board of elec-
tions are sweet and helpful. And perfect
strangers have given me their phone num-
bers and said, “Hey, you’re new to town.
Let’s go grab a beer sometime.” How much
nicer could people possibly be?
BEST RESTAURANTS
BEST SOUTHEAST ASIAN:
CHAO PRA YA
2nd: Broadway Market
3rd: Barry’s
(See Best of the Best, p. 16)
2nd: Ring of Fire
3rd: Mekala’s
BEST ECO-FRIENDLY FOOD:
MORNING GLORY
BEST RESTAURANT FOR A SOLO
MEAL: CAFÉ YUMM!
2nd: Zenon
3rd: Cornucopia
EW talked to Mark Beauchamp, the owner:
Do you think you really deserve to win? We
know that our customers appreciate the por-
tioning we make available with many items.
We have meal options for vegans as well for
those that prefer a non-vegetarian diet,
gluten free, dairy free, etc. Our environment
is designed to be comfortable to the diverse
group of customers represented in the greater
Eugene area. And the café crews at our three
locations are simply awesome — we appre-
ciate them so much! Beautiful, delicious,
nourishing food served with care in a com-
fortable environment. That’s our goal. What
was your worst kitchen disaster? A couple
years ago our cook was going to use up
about 20 pounds of a wide variety of expen-
sive heirloom beans and make a special heir-
loom bean soup. The first step, of course, is
to soak the beans overnight. In the morning
the opener saw the soaked bean mix and
thought there must be something wrong with
our regular black and red beans and dumped
out all the soaked heirloom beans. Oh well,
better to be on the safe side!
BEST NEW RESTAURANT: IRAILA
BEST BAKERY: SWEET LIFE
2nd: Zalaya
3rd: Laughing Planet
EW talked to Mark Zolun, a co-owner:
Do you think you really deserve to win? I do,
because I think we’re offering something a lit-
tle different and a little homier to people in
Eugene. People who eat here feel like they
could be in Eugene or transported to a little
European town. What was your worst kitchen
disaster? A continual kitchen disaster is burn-
ing bread. It’s so treacherous and toxic.
Sometimes you just have to pull a little Lucy
and scrape off the burnt top. I have to say, we
really haven’t had anything disastrous — other
than burnt bread, and I can deal with that.
(See Best of the Best p. 17)
2nd: Metropol
3rd: Eugene City Bakery
2nd: Sundance
3rd: Marché
EW talked to Gail Brown, the owner:
Do you think you really deserve to win? We
try very hard to do this as environmentally-
friendly as we can, and we believe in
healthy food. Worst kitchen disaster? On a
busy Sunday during Country Fair, my
refrigerator broke. It just quit
cooling. The employees
moved things all over
the
place,
they
worked in total
chaos, and they got
somebody in to fix
it the next day.
BEST FOOD CART:
CART DE FRISCO
2nd: Alexander the
falafel guy
3rd: Rita’s Burritos
EW talked to Eric Bergland, an employee:
Why does Cart De Frisco deserve to win?
Because we have hand-made food made by
people who care. There are no chemicals,
no ugliness. And it’s damn tasty. If you were
an animal or vegetable, what would you be
and why? I would be a cat because they are
choosy. I was also a bike messenger in
Seattle for seven years and I was hit by cars
many, many times — so maybe I do have
nine lives.
BEST ITALIAN: BEPPE & GIANNI’S
2nd: Mazzi’s
3rd: Ambrosia
EW talked to Gianni, a co-owner:
Do you think you really deserve to win?
We’re the best Italian restaurant in
town. We make our own pastas, we
have Italian heritage, and we travel
to Italy quite often for new menu
ideas. What was your worst kitchen
disaster? On our opening week-
end, we overloaded the circuit
breaker. It would trip all night and
the lights would go off. That hap-
pened at least a half a dozen
times in the first week.
It was kind of
a pain in
the butt.
BEST CHINESE: LOTUS GARDEN
2nd: Ocean Sky
3rd: Maple Garden
Do you think you deserve to win? Well, I don’t
know. I think the customers like it... I guess
this shows customer support!
What was your worst kitchen disaster? Oh no!
[We] never had any problems in the kitchen!
BEST DELI: CORNUCOPIA
(See Best of the Best p. 17)
Georg Birns, owner of High Priestess
BEST PIERCING SHOP
JAM
ES
BAT
EM
AN
Toni Pimble, Artistic Director
Toni Pimble’s
A
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OCTOBER 21, 2004 23