Recently we posed our dilemma about closing for events in our newsletter.  It is problematic to turn away buyout events on a weeknight at the risk of disappointing or becoming unreliable for our regular customers. We received over two dozen emails with great input! Here they are. If you have something to say on the subject you can add your comment in the comment box at the end of the article. Thank you all for your feedback.

We think you should do whatever fills the tables.  If that is prebooked events, so be it.  We would rather have to be turned away for an event one evening than show up and find out that you had closed!  Whatever will keep you as a thriving, sustainable local business works for us.   Todd and Cecile

How about just finishing out the space next door into a room for private parties? Kill 2 birds with one stone. Costs of build-out would likely be lower and you wouldn’t crowd out or shut down the main area with private parties. Then incrementally finish the space next door as you would really like to have it, as you can afford it.

Quite frankly, I wouldn’t have the b……s to ask you to shut down your happy hour just for my private group, so without another space, I’d just tell them no—or that you would be happy to cater at a place of their choice. Seems a little inconsiderate of them to ask your other customers to stay away. I know you treasure your days off, but perhaps restrict private parties of that size to the days you are normally closed.

I’m sure my advice is worth every cent you paid for it! Keep doing the great job you are doing! We love having you in the neighborhood. Hugs,  Julie

I’m not a regular (yet) but I live close by and very much support your success in the Bethany community. If having the special events helps get to the goal of opening the Irish Pub then I don’t mind Bethany’s Table being booked for special events. You have my support!    Yvonne

Until the cash fairy drops out of the sky to allow you to expand into a space with a banquet room or a space to set aside for groups, you’re forced to decide what you want to be: a special events place that is open for dinner sometimes, or a restaurant with consistent availability. As you say, it’s a tough conundrum, because people like me found out about you because of a special event. I’m not in your neighborhood, so would always call before dropping in for a meal, but neighborhood folks are probably frustrated when they stop by and you’re closed for a private party. One thought: only book special events in the summer when walk-ins can sit on the patio. Surely this rain will end at some point! The other option is to say set a maximum number for parties that will allow you to set aside enough space for non-group diners.

Probably all things you’ve already considered. In the end, someone loses until you have more space.  Good luck…I enjoy your newsletters…menus sound amazing. Will get there soon.   Cathi

Hi!  We love your restaurant!  I'm thrilled you want to expand – we DESPERATELY need restaurants like yours on the West side of town, let alone in Bethany.

As a neighbor, just one thought – I SO wish you had grabbed the space of Bethany's Grill.  It had great outdoor dining, which sadly can't be used by physical therapists!  (The landlords should never have let that happen).  And outdoor dining is just so communal and civilized, especially in our precious little pocket of Portland.  There's nowhere else like Bethany.

Anyway, good luck with funding options.  We'll keep thinking and talking to folks – hopefully you'll get some answers soon!  Jennifer – Bethany neighbor and Bethany's Table fan!

Personally, I think you need to do what is best for you! If the private parties give you good income and return again, with friends and positive feedback, well, then….what's wrong with that?  Plus, it should make the drop ins more appreciative. You have to make hay while you can!

Welcome to the neighborhood. I think it is IDEAL to be able to walk to work!!

Summer is almost here! Can't wait for the berries!   Ciao, Kelly

David/Karen (just kidding Janet)…go with the money! We, as customers, can be trained. We adore you guys, but don’t have the luxury of visiting you  as often as we’d like….due to life and all.  Like all great restaurants in Portland, we know when to go to get a table, when not to go….and when to give up – but only for another time. It took 5 yrs for us to figure out when to go to Le Pigeon…and it is ok food, on a Par with you guys certainly….and you’re in our neighborhood! What I mean is, I am responding to your email about what to do about private parties vs closing the restaurant. Certainly when we make the effort to walk to your place we would love to sit down, but I’ve got to tell you, it’s great to have to stand in line. It feels like THEE place to be. So train us. We’re ok with that.   Hearts and hugs – Linda

My husband and I would love to be regular customers, but it seems like every time we have the opportunity to pop in for a bite to eat and a glass of wine, we can't because it's the wine dinner night or some other special event going on. I'm not saying you shouldn't do these events, because they're important too. You're right in that you need a better balance between scheduled events, and drop in customers, which really does boil down to needing more room. I sincerely hope there is an angel out there with a lot of cash for you!   Sally & Brian

Maybe one private party a week?  I honestly don't think you should turn down business…how can you open the Irish Bar if you turn people away, but, I get your diliemma.  In my opinion…just keep doing what you are doing, we love your place.  And, welcome to the 'hood.  We love it here!   Debi

You have to do what you have to do, and we are very understanding.  Of course we wish the very best for you, so we certainly can adjust to your availability. You are all so kind and accommodating, we love coming to your place.  Fight the fight.   With best regards, Polly and Jerry

Scott and I usually frequent the Table at lunch, rarely dinner, and if dinner, then Friday or Saturday.  I think it is marvelous that you are booking private events!!!  I’m so happy your business is booming.  We surely hope that you find a venture capitalist who can drop the dough for the Pub!!!  See you VERY soon, comme d’habitude ….. Your friend and patron  Jean-Marie

You need a bigger space to accommodate everything.  Your business is growing and you need to grow with it.  Have you been to DiCarli in Beaverton??  I am imagining that as the proper amount of square footage to accommodate your growth.

Currently closing for private functions might have a detrimental effect on existing clientele and walk-ins.  But on the other hand, it does pay the bills. And gives more word of mouth from those events.  Hope your financial angel comes through!!!    Linda

I think you need to do what you need to do to make your restaurant profitable including closing for larger private parties (if this is more profitable than not).  Once you have the funding to expand next door and feel more comfortable financially, maybe back off of all the larger reservations so you can accommodate the drop-in regulars.  Of course, if you have both restaurants, you may be able to accommodate both.   Desiree

I think your food is wonderful but your waitstaff is off-putting.  It is like ordering from the soup nazi.  We "girls" have decided to stop coming in because we did not feel welcomed.  You have the opportunity to have a fabulous enterprise as your food is "to-die-for"!  I believe if you made a concerted effort to amp up the customer service, to be warm and friendly (this includes all staff), you would have to beat the customers away with a stick.  I am looking forward to coming back some day but right now I am a bit gun shy.

As for your private party dilemma, I guess it all comes down to the numbers.  Does it really pay to have the private group vs an average night?   Ellen

Thanks for the update.  We had dinner at your place last night for the first time in a while.  It's so nice to have a neighborhood eatery that isn't a chain and serves quality dishes.  We don't eat out a lot but I appreciate your place when we do.

I think you should accommodate your large parties.  If you have to turn away locals so be it…only creates a bigger buzz.  They will be back for the good food.  Good luck in your future endeavors.   Jennifer

I would limit the size of any parties until you have the space to accomodate them and your regular customers.  If I came by and you were closed when I expected to stop in and eat, I would think twice before coming the next time.  I wish you well and will pray for your angel to land right when you need the help.  God's planning is perfect.   Joyce

Book the events. Nothing helps a business like good positive cash flow. You might have to start a reservation system. Customers cannot expect an empty table to be available 100 percent of the time. Perhaps for lunch they can.  Richard

Living "the life" in Bethany

It’s so cool to have a family-run neighborhood business. It would be great to make a lot of money at it… but what would we buy?  Time off?  If I had time off I’d probably want to go out to eat. I’d find myself stuck at a table in a restaurant where I didn’t know anybody.  At BT I eat as well as any place in the city, I wander around the restaurant at will, I know almost everybody and anybody I don’t know I can go up to and introduce myself.

What’s really cool about it, now that summer is here – at least according to the calendar, is that the kids are always around.  Nick washes dishes Tuesday-Thursday lunch.  Adam works Monday on prep and deep clean and then on Tuesday and Wednesday night.  John works Thursday-Saturday evenings. Ryan pulls random stints helping out Janet while repaying the cost of his cell phone account, and Jared shows up to help with the baking. Devon is working as a swim instructor again this summer – putting plenty of gooseflesh on display for Portland Parks but we don’t see much of her.

Who wouldn’t want this business? Now that we live in the neighborhood life really starts to make sense. Our next step is to join Bethany Athletic Club. I have been holding off in hopes of leveraging a family membership into some form of cross-promotion. I have a vague imagination that BT customers – those who are not already members – are prime prospects for BAC recruitment.  I would like to obtain special guest pass privileges to share with our customers. Or perhaps we could host a pool party, or half-price beer for triathletes… or some such thing.  We'll keep you posted!

The one riddle I can’t solve is what the heck Bethany-ites do for breakfast?  How is it possible that we were not stampeded every time we opened the doors when we were serving breakfast on the weekends?  We continue to improve the capacity of our kitchen so maybe we’ll try it again some day; if only so that I have a place to hang out in the morning.

Is a Man-Cave Still A Man-Cave If Your Wife Can See You?

We have some preliminary plans drawn that illustrate how we would like to expand into the space next door. Janet’s Chicago-Irish-Democrat roots are showing… she wants an Irish pub. With 40’ of storefront the space isn’t much of a “man-cave”, as an Irish pub seems to call for, so maybe we’ll theme it as an Irish Inn. We want it to be family friendly so we have a place to serve folks when the restaurant is sold out for special events. The expansion would essentially double our space. We will need to upgrade the kitchen. The existing dining room would remain the essentially the same except we’d remove the coolers and expand into what is now the prep kitchen.

The current 10’ ceilings only reach half way to 20’ height of the second floor so we want to leave the space open in the bar’s main seating area and build a mezzanine floor over the back half of the space. We have been considering installing a nano-brewery. Lately though the notion of building a “Club Floor” (so called by Bethany’s Mayor) with possibly a cigar room, billiards, club chairs and sofas… not THAT’S a man cave!

We’d love to here your thoughts on this. If you’d like to see an early-stage schematic of the plan for the combined space simply Click Here To See The Plan. If you have $150,000 burning a hole in your pocket and want free beer for life, drop everything and call David immediately!

Now there is absolutely no reason that you can't join us for dinner!

While "We've Got Booze" might not be OLCC approved terminology, the fact is that you can now enjoy a cocktail when you visit our Table. Being true to our freestyle roots, we got the license first and then began the work to figure out how we were going to deal with it. What we have figured out so far is that we use good booze, have an interesting and tasty specialty drink list and sell for reasonable prices.

Happy Hour!

So it stands to reason that we’d roll out a Happy Hour.  The OLCC says that we can’t tell you in a single communication both the time of the happy hour and the price of the drinks. (Chris Dudley says he’d abolish the OLCC if elected and now I’m a life-long flaming liberal that has discovered Republican love).

So for now we’ll just let you know that we’ll be serving a special small plate menu and discounted drinks from 4–6 P.M. But I suppose you can click here to check out the Cocktail and Happy Hour Menu for yourself.

Everybody knows that if you want to find a great happy hour in Palm Desert you just need to ask somebody from Claremont. The senior crowd will really like the small plates, the early service and the discount. There are plenty of moms out there who would love to duck out for a chat, a snack and a drink in the late afternoon. And there are a lot of guys who enjoy ogling the moms.

So… Happy Hour it is!

With this change we will be commencing full dinner service an hour earlier, at 4 PM. See you then!

On Friday, March 26th and April 2nd, we are featuring a selection of four wines from Tuscany that Janet will be pairing with some really great food. Four courses, four wines, $40, for goodness sake, don’t miss it.

We will start with a 2008 Vernaccia di San Gimignano by SanQuirico. This wine is crisp, dry, and refreshing with perfect acidity.

Next we’ll try a Castello di Bossi 2005 Chianti Classico made from 100% Sangiovese grapes. This juicy Chianti offers fruit, tannins and body that reach an elegant balance that carries through to the lingering finish. It's the quintessential match for earthy, rustic, traditional Tuscan cuisine.

We will also taste another 100% Sangiovese, but something quite different. The 2006 Rosso di Montalcino from Altesino is made from grapes hand harvested from young vines in the Altesino and Velonavineyards. This rosso is round and well balanced offering cherry and plum flavors, hints of leather and a velvety finish.

We will finish the meal off with a 2007 Lagone by Aia Vecchia, located deep in the Tuscany countryside between Bolgheri andCastagneto Carducci. This area personifies the favorable microclimate and ideally suited soils make possible the production of very high quality Tuscan wines. The wine is made from Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc grapes, which offer up aromas of plum and dark fruits that unveil a full body, with velvety tannins and a soft, caressing finish. At once minerally and floral. At once yummy.. and good for you too!

If you want to hang around and visit with your new best friends after dinner, try some Vin Santo with your dessert.

We greet between 6:30 and 7:00. Dinner starts at 7. Make your reservation now by calling us at 503.614.0267 or us the form below to email your reservation.

A New Age of Women Winemakers

Quintessential Spanish Excellence

Tempranillo by Alejandro Fernandez

October 23rd & 30th we are moving from  Multi-Generational Wineries to Multi-Generational Families Making Wine, and beginning with a focus on Women Winemakers.  Alejandro Fernandez has turned over the job of making wine to his daughter Eva.

Previously we have featured Spanish wines because of the excellent value they afford.  While the wines produced from Tempranillo grapes by Alejandro Fernandez are not inexpensive, they are nonetheless true to this theme. These are truly great wines.

Because we are working with a single varietal, Janet must be especially crafty in creating the food pairings that show off these distinctly different manifestations of the Tempranillo grape.

She will show off her Halloween Special, Black Squid Ink Pasta & Salmon and she will also be serving Osso Bucco made with grass-fed Beef Shank and Spicy Sausage served over Creamy Polenta.

Select "Contact Us" in the left panel to email your reservation or simply call us at at 503 614-0267

Seating is limited. The cost is $40 for wine and dinner. Arrive between 6:30 and 7, begin at 7 PM.

The Lap of Bounty

Summer in this valley is indeed a demonstration project on Abundance. Every day we get lettuce, broccoli, green beans and an assortment of fruits and berries spilling from the farms that surround us. Oh the joy of it.

The response to our Buy Local! plan has been tremendous. Many of you have commented online but many more have stopped by to offer their support.  Thank you. It is gratifying to see how the possibility of saving the world by withdrawing our support from the Tyson dominated corn-fueled monster has resonated with the locals. You can read the entire article at BethanysTable.com/community-pages/buy-local/.

We have purchased our first steer and hog from Nick, a farmer near Carlton. No feedlot here, Nick is finishing this yearling steer with produce trim he picks up regularly from a nearby organic farm. Nick is very sensitive to how his animals are killed. He absolutely will not let his cattle see another animal killed as they find this extremely stressful so he will transport the steer to the butcher. He’ll transport the hg the next day.

This means that the money you pay to Bethany’s Table is being passed along to the likes of Mark Brooks, who ones the produce stand on 185th & West Union and sources from the farms that surround us, to a cattle and hog farmer in Carlton, and to a butcher in Mt. Angel.

Warm fuzziness all around.

We appreciate your support of this initiative.