Brooke Geery

Extra Curricular Activities: The Make Out Web

Hey boys! Wanna make out with Laura Hadar? Or maybe the classic good looks and charm of some one like Gretchen Bleiler is more your thing? Well I’ve got good news for you! Chances are you already have. Perhaps you are confused because Gretchen is a lovely and respectable girl who is happily married, or because Laura is out of your league (and you live nowhere near her.) Let me explain. When I say you’ve “made out with them,” I don’t mean you’ve literally made out with them. In fact, the way I mean it, I’ve probably “made out” with them to. This amazing phenomenon is all thanks to a…
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Grand Central Bakery and Cafe

2230 SE Hawthorne Blvd http://www.grandcentralbakery.com/store_hawthorne.html Date of visit: November 6, 2009 Price for 2: $18.65 Before we started this blog project, we hit up Grand Central almost every week. The funny thing is, my only real issue with it was I thought it was a little on the spendy side. Now that I've tried tons of different places and seen what's out there, I'm pretty sure that Grand Central Bakery is actually one of the best lunch options on Hawthorne, in terms of price and quality. As the name implies, the star of the sandwiches here is the fresh-baked bread. Different sandwiches come on different breads, everything  from baguettes to…
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Woopra is Ruining my Life

I haven't felt like this since AOL first came out with its $3-per-hour dial up service. I remember back in the mid 90s, racking up at least one $200 internet bill before my parents told me I was only allowed 1 hour of internet time per day. Thankfully, it didn't take long for internet service to become unlimited, and the amount of time I spend staring at the computer screen is now only taxing on my social life, not my wallet. Anyway you look at it, I am addicted to the Internet. But it wasn't until about a week ago, that I realized I may have a problem. The thing that…
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The Great Atmosphere Store Opening

The Hundreds? Nope. Supreme?  Nope. There's a new fashionable male store in town and this one is brought to you by Atmosphere Clothing, the Portland-based brainchild of Chris Prosser. In honor of the great downtown Portland tradition of First Thursday, the "Great Atmosphere store" unofficially opened on November 5, 2009. There wasn't a damn thing for sale, just a few displays, and two kegs. Atmosphere employee and all-around-cool-guy Mark informed me there is no official opening date set, they just wanted to let everyone know they were there. The store was packed with snowboard-types and random people from Gresham, all there for you guessed it: free beer! Unfortunately, the free…
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The Cart Pod Part Dos – El Brasero

12th and Hawthorne Date of visit: November 4, 2009 Price for 1: $9 I don't particularly like to eat outside. I hate eating outside. I don't care about the autumn breeze. In fact, that's part of why I hate it. My ungroomed, overly long hair ends up in my face, and there's no telling what's going to land in your food next. I tend to leave picnics to the birds, but that's just me. Now that we've gotten that part out of the way, today was likely one of the last "nice" days of the fall/winter season, and we figured hitting up Hawthorne's cart pods was best done in the…
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The Cart Pod- Bubba Bernie’s

12th and Hawthorne Date of visit: November 4, 2009 Price for 1: $10 It was a lovely and unseasonably warm fall day in Portland, so we decided it was time to try the carts on the corner of 12th and Hawthorne. I should note that this is really more of a "drunk at 1 am" kind of spot than a lunch spot, but a few of the carts are open for business during lunch hours. The only real reason we'd never eaten at any of them before is Jared hates eating outside. But I will let him explain that because he going to guest blog about the Mexican cart he…
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Lucky Labrador Brew Pub

915 SE Hawthorne Blvd www.luckylab.com Date of visit: Nov 2, 2009 Price for 2 $19.20 With all of our Hawthorning, this week we decided to mix it up a little bit. So on Monday, after staring at each other for a bit trying to decide where else we should go, we eventually gave up and drove towards Hawthorne. But as we got close, brilliance struck! We decided to go the OTHER WAY, and see what 1st through 10th aves had to offered. As it turns out, not too much. One seedy looking bar, one seedy looking strip club and the Lucky Labrador Brew Pub. Since I wasn't in the mood…
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Hump Day Throws a Grenade at Joseph Condorelli

It’s easy to make fun of Grenade. Between Danny Kass’s antics, and the company's complete makeover, one has to wonder what exactly is going on over there?  Then, when you add in the fact that almost everyone in snowboarding has worked for, hung out at, or done business with Grenade, yet only a few people know what’s really happening, it gets even easier. In fact, I heard last week, CEO Joseph Condorelli bit the head off a live bat. True story. You believed me for a minute didn’t you? After all, Joseph is an outsider. A loud-mouthed New Yorker who came from a business background, having never set foot on…
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Back to Bread and Ink

Date of Visit: Nov 1, 2009 Price for 2 (with tip): $30 We hit up Bread and Ink for brunch this morning. Since I've already done a full review of it, and I don't really want to work too hard today, figured I'd just post some pictures of what we got. I must say, it was some of the best-looking food I've ever gotten there (and it tasted pretty good too!) Belgian Waffle with pear, whipped cream and powdered sugar Skillet scramble with sausage, red onions, roasted potatoes, spinach and cheddar
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Cha Cha Cha

3433 SE Hawthorne Blvd Date of Visit: October 30, 2009 Price for 2: $16 Cha Cha Cha is the best local baja-style Mexican chain around. Specific enough for you? Ok, so it's the only place that fits all those criteria. But it is pretty good; sort of like a local Baja Fresh with better, more sustainable ingredients and an ever-changing menu. Obviously there is no shortage of Mexican restaurants on Hawthorne, but there are a few reasons to hit up Cha Cha Cha instead of the others. The menu is quite extensive, it's fairly reasonably priced, and as I've already mentioned, the ingredients change with the season. There is also…
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