Vibrant Valley Farm Southern Feast with pFriem Brewery

A benefit for The Pongo Fund and Street Roots
Saturday, July 13th. 6pm
18850 NE Reeder Rd. Sauvie Island
$125 includes family-style dinner, pFriem beer pairing, and gratuity

La Ruta PDX presents a family-style outdoor farm-to-table dinner on beautiful Sauvie Island at Vibrant Valley Farm. Toro Bravo Inc chef John Gorham and PLAZA DEL TORO chef Michael Kessler will design a menu inspired by John's home state of North Carolina featuring Vibrant Valley Farm's fresh, local, and ecologically sound ingredients.

We'll kick things off with a crawfish boil and spread of Southern-style ham and pickles and then sit down for a traditional dinner with sides from the farm, pastrami leg of lamb, and more! Each course will be paired to an artisan beer courtesy of pFriem Family Brewers.

Bluesman and Blues scholar Steve Cheseborough will turn 2019 Portland into a 1925 Mississippi jook joint with The Diving Ducks' take on Delta Blues and hokum.

A percentage of the proceeds will be donated to The Pongo Fund and Street Roots, two Portland nonprofits working to support Portland's homeless population.

The Chef Off

Saturday, August 17. 4pm-9pm
Bladberry Farm. 15620 NW Gillihan Road. 97231

The Umpqua Bank Chef Off presented by Parr Lumber and the Safeway Foundation is a coveted farm-to-table fundraiser, celebrating the best of Oregon food, wine and beer to benefit the Joey Harrington Foundation’s scholarship program. They bring together notable Portland chefs for a culinary competition on a beautiful 7-acre Sauvie Island.

Renata returns to defend its title of reigning champ with veteran competitor, Michael Kessler of PLAZA DEL TORO, and this year’s rookie: The Country Cat. Enjoy a mouthwatering ‘dessert-off’ between Pip’s Original Doughnuts, Kyra’s Bake Shop, and Wailua Shave Ice. New this year is a tasting competition of Oregon’s finest wine and beer, featuring Domaine Drouhin, Adelsheim, and Bergstrom Wines, and on the microbrew front: Full Sail Brewing, Ninkasi Brewing, and Breakside Brewing.

At the end of the evening, cast your vote for People’s Choice Best Dish (or Dessert), and People’s Choice Best Beer and Wine, each competing for grand prize winnings to benefit an Oregon children’s charity of his or her choice!

Toro Bravo Culinary Trip to Spain
with John Gorham
October 1-10 2019

Chef John Gorham and Aborígens are happy to announce their third food exploration tour around the hidden corners of Catalan and Galician cuisines. After two previous successful trips that brought us to the most amazing food and wine temples of the Basque Country and Andalusia, this time we will explore the North-West section of the Peninsula, where the wild Atlantic coast is the door to an unexplored world of rural flavors.

A small group of lucky travelers, together with John and his crew, and a local, insider guide from Aborígens, will start this journey in Barcelona; a lively city with an ancient culinary tradition as well as a vibrant current food scene. After some urban and country exploration (unexplored parts of Rural Catalonia that we’ll keep secret until you get there…), we will make our way to Galicia, a country with unique seafood, wine and people.

La Ruta PDX Fermentation Dinner: An Evening with David Zilber

October 9, 2019

Join David Zilber, head of fermentation at 2-Michelin-star Danish restaurant Noma, for a multi-course dinner at gastronomic society and private event space, PLAZA DEL TORO. Chef Michael Kessler and Tasty n Alder chef Perry Austin will design a menu based on ferments from Zilber’s new cookbook, The Noma Guide to Fermentation. Zilber will be available to answer your fermentation questions after dinner and each guest will receive a complimentary copy of his book.

“We created PLAZA DEL TORO as a gastronomic society for chefs to study and play, so this is exactly the kind of event this space was built for. We are thrilled to invite David to join us for the evening and I can’t wait to see what our team does with his ferments.”

— Restauranteur John Gorham of the Toro Bravo Inc Restaurant Management and Design Group