What is TechFestNW? It's Willamette Week's Portland festival of all things tech. Although you wouldn't know it by watching IFC's Portlandia, (because, you know, the dream of the 90's is alive in Portland) Portland has a pretty solid tech scene. We have a great mix of established tech companies, new startups, and everything in between.
Armed (wristed?) with my fancy TFNW wristband I headed out to meet up with my coworkers at the kickoff party.
I had never been to OMSI before (I'm still relatively new to Portland, the East Side is still largely unexplored) so I was pretty excited for the excuse to get over and kind of check it out. The party was held at Theory inside of OMSI. Theory is a "restaurant that explores the science of food". I don't know what their typical menu looks like, as the food for the party was from Bon Appetit, and was DELICIOUS.
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| Charcuterie Plate |
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| Fire Roasted Vegetables |
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| Cheese, Nuts and Dried Fruits |
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| Succotash with Heirloom Tomatoes |
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| Roasted Chick Peas, Cilantro and Cheese for garnish to the Succotash |
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| Fennel & Garlic Stuffed Porchetta with Fava Beans & Heirloom Tomatoes topped with Sherry Vinegar |
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| Smarsh Perfect - the signature cocktail of the evening |
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| Heart Shaped Chocolate Sandwich Cookies |
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| Cupcake Bar
After a couple of hours spent eating, drinking, networking and socializing, we were all stuffed and ready to roll on to the next venue. We decided to head over to Pioneer Square to check out sister festival, MusicFestNWs concert - Animal Collective.
We were fortunate, as a group, to all get into the MFNW VIP area, so we could watch the concert together. I'll be the first to say that Animal Collective was NOT my idea of music, but the good company made up for the cacophony. If you're so inclined, you can check out Animal Collective here.
While I wasn't a big fan of the band playing, I DID think that the experience was pretty great. They call Pioneer Courthouse Square "Portland's Living Room." I walk by it every day on my way to and from the office, and sometimes eat lunch in the Square watching live music (this summer Ikea sponsored live music every Thursday afternoon), but I had never been there at night. There were a CRAZY amount of people in attendance.
I thought that the Historic Pioneer Courthouse made a pretty backdrop for the concert
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