Kokanee Café in Camp Sherman

Saturday night we had dinner reservations for six at Kokanee Café in Camp Sherman. Kokanee Café is a fine gourmet restaurant since 1992, and Paul and Denise Mercer have managed this rare find for the last five years. My husband told me when we were done that the food at Kokanee Café was some of the finest he has ever eaten.



Here's a map to the restaurant and be sure to take your time getting there. The speed has just recently been posted at 35 MPH and go 47 MPH and a mustachioed sheriff will ask you your opinion of the speed limit and tell you that the restaurant will wait.



What's so special about the food?
We started with a house salad - crisp romaine, mixed field greens, dried cranberries, roasted hazelnuts with bleu cheese vinaigrette or marionberry vinaigrette. We had the bleu cheese vinaigrette. The salad was not too dry or too wet and chilled. The flavors were divine.

Connie had crab cakes and said they were delicious. The chef uses fin fish, fresh ginger lemon grass and fried lotus root. The presentation was excellent.

Bev had Idaho Rainbow Trout grilled in a pouch over an open flame combined with lemon verbina, basil and citrus curry butter, candied peppers and arugula salad.

Bill, Nancy Lou and Mike had a 8 0z. beef filet laid on a hill of mashed potatoes. The beef was smoked in a bleu black truffle butter combined with a fig demi-glaze and topped with a cherry compote. All dinners had a serving of brocholini which the men promptly gave to their wives. Mike ordered his steak medium rare or slightly pink. The steak was pink to just slightly red one one side however it was so tender and flavorful that the slight red didn't detract. Mike said he could almost cut it with a fork and the cherry and the mashed potatoes set it off beautifully. City Grill's New York steak in Portland is comparable in quality and price.

The menu has changed since the web site went up and Denise said it will change for fall this Friday. I asked what one menu item can't be missed and she volunteered, The Wild Escolar, a white pacific fish. It is prociutto wrapped and pan roasted served on a bed of squash risotto and piquillo peppers.

Did I mention the salt encrusted bread served with a pepper butter? Desert was heaven: Peach and Marionberry Cobbler with a dash of whipped cream and a scoop of Bill's ice cream.

Don't expect to just walk in at 5:30 and expect to be served. One party was told it would be a four hour wait. Be smart and call ahead.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Kokanee Café Camp Sherman Oregon Paul and Denise Mercer Fine Dining Bev & Mike

Clear Lake 0131

Clear Lake 0131
Originally uploaded by gily122000.

Mike at Mover Mike has posted comments about the Clear Lake trail loop we hiked with friends on Sunday.

For other photos of Clear Lake visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11145551@N00/tags/clearlake/

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Wall Design Diva, Suzanne Gallagher, Seminar and Book Signing

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a treat for you.

Prior to her appearance on AM Northwest KATU Channel 2 on October 2nd at 9:00AM, Suzanne Gallagher, author of The Fine Art of Wall Design will be appearing at Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery for her Start With Art seminar (Featuring ROMA Framed Art!) and Book Signing on Thursday, September 28th, from 5:00PM - 7:00PM. Refreshments will be served, but seating is limited.

In the words of Suzanne Gallagher:

Do you know where to start when tackling an interior decorating project? It can be a challenge. Don't design your room around the sofa... Start with Art! Art is the perfect inspiration for your décor. It reflects your personality, your style. You can determine the colors and style for your interior space from a piece of art that you love. Art is the glue that ties all of the elements in the interior space together. When the art image and color, framing design, and placement in your spaces work together, something terrific happens! It is called The Fine Art of Wall Design.

You Will Discover from the seminar and The Fine Art of Wall Design:

# How to select art images that work.
# Confidence in knowing where to find art.
# Basic understanding of art and value.
# The secrets to good classic art framing design.
# Simple design principles of placement.
# How to create PIZZAZ and "Ooh la la" in your interior spaces!

Where:
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery,
6140 A SW Macadam Avenue, Portland, OR 97201
When: Thursday, September 28th, 5:00PM - 7:00PM
Registration Fee: Free

Call 503-245-4222 or email Bev for reservations

Bev@landfairfurniture.com

Daniel Masters Of Hekman On Quality Woodwork

We see a lot of interest in Hekman Furniture via Google web searches at Landfair Furniture (Blog) and our other sites. I want to share some consumer information that will help you navigate our furniture store and others stores you may contact when you begin to shop for furniture for various rooms in your home.

Daniel Masters is the president and owner of Hekman furniture. He is a 29-year veteran of the furniture industry. As an expert, he has written many articles that will help you in your shopping. Here he is on the topic of: How can you tell quality woodwork?

I think it is really important for a consumer to stand back and look at what you are going to buy. Back up in front of the piece of furniture and touch it in the following ways. Run your hands across the top, underneath the edges, and underneath the bottom. What do you feel? The top should be smooth to the touch. When you run your hands around the edges or the sides, there shouldn't be a rough feeling. Sometimes, you feel scratchiness, almost like stubble of a beard. Those are indications that the furniture was not sanded. Now after you have looked at that and gotten a feel for it, you want to stand up to the top, come up and look at the top and inspect the top of the furniture. How or what does the top of the furniture look like? When you walk up to a piece of furniture, you look down at the top and what do you see? Well, here are some things that you should see. Is the wood on the top of the furniture? Can you see small little pieces of wood formed together with little finger joints? That's called finger joint construction and generally speaking, it allows you to use more small wood parts that make it more affordable. When you finish that wood whether it is a light finish or a dark finish, you should be able to see those little joints.

Does the top run very uniformly? Do the edges appear to run at different grain directions? In other words, are they running across and all of a sudden you look at the edge and it is running up and down. That would indicate that this has been neared top. At that particular point you could have two different constructions on the edge. It could be a wood construction that's well done. Or it could be what they call a filled edge, and that is just basically where somebody literally painted on a veneered look, almost sort of like a plastic type of feel to that look. All of those things are determining what the sale price is because there is cost in doing more work to create a piece of furniture. So when you look at that veneer top or wood top, how does it appear to you in looking down at it? Can you sort of pick the edges off? Feel the flip edges of veneers and that type of thing. So at that particular point you should have an idea of what the construction of the material is, or the tops of the furniture you are looking at which is the most important thing.

Right now each of those various constructions are fine. They are all stable. What really happens now is that as your furniture ages, it starts deteriorating. This is a real thing. A piece of wood is cut out of a tree and the tree continues to live in some vague shape or form in your home. It absorbs moisture. When your house is humid, when your house is dry, it dries. It expands and contracts even though it is not a living thing. Over time and usage, the things that are better-built are going to last longer. And so are you buying heirlooms or you are buying things that you want to just give to your kids when they move out on you?

Now, let's move on. When you see the color, does the color look uniform across the top? When you walk around the table, looking down again at the color, can you see shifting light? This would indicate flip in the veneers which is something that the salesperson should be explaining to you. Light will hit the top of the veneered table and give you a different color from different angles. But the most important thing is that when you are looking at this color on the retail floor, is the color uniform from piece to piece? In other words, do you have dark spots and light spots?

As a consumer, when you get that in your home, it is going to age differently. Over time in a home, light will come in and out and the furniture will get either richer or warmer or start to get bleached out. If you are going to start with somebody delivering furniture to your house that is not uniform in color and appearance, it is going to age just like different people age.

Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery always has a number of Hekman pieces on our floor and we invite you to compare the quality and the price. Do the "hands on" tests that Masters suggests. Did we mention the furniture is beautiful, to boot?

Bev & Mike

Hekman Furniture Daniel Masters Interior Designe Bev & Mike

Rowe Companies files for Chapter 11

There's good news and bad news today from Rowe Companies. In a press release Rowe said they are filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Upholstery manufacturer and retailer The Rowe Companies, reeling from declining sales, import competition and lingering problems from a faulty enterprise resource planning system, said today it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and that it plans to sell its Storehouse retail division.

We expect no disruptions in service from Rowe at Landfair Furniture and there should be no effect on special orders.

Now for the good news. I looked at the Rowe site and discovered they are running a contest for a new sofa.

So, tell us a little about yourself and we'll put your name in the hat for a drawing to win a free sofa! The drawing will be held on September 29, 2006. No salesman will call and we will not share your personal information with anyone.

Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery is proud to carry Rowe Furniture as part of our commitment to provide a range of price points for designers, their clients and the retail public. While LF + DG specializes in working with the interior designer, we are open to the public and can provide as much design help as you may require. For those special projects ask about "referral to a designer" program.

Bev & Mike

Rowe Companies Rowe Furniture Upholstery Win a free sofa
Bev & Mike

Furnishings For Your Garage

A few years ago, Mike and I converted the detached car port into a garage that matched the style of the house. Since it was a one car garage, we wanted the space to be more than a place to park the car. We wanted a place to store used paint, gardening tools and fertilizer, the lawn mower and bikes. Like many people, we bought some of those shelving systems you can get at Costco and one of those metal tool benches. The tool bench has heavy particle board for the top and has since bowed from the moisture. The floor is the typical cement that gathers stains over time.

Designer Donya Wiland and her husband Craig have a two car garage and have three cars in it. An original Morris, a 1957 Chevy Nomad, which Craig is restoring and a red convertible Corvair. There is barely enough room to walk around the cars and Craig would love to have room for a shop.

At the dog park Helen and Joe are selling their home by Grant Park and moving to the South East part of Portland. Joe has a strong desire to have a multiple car garage with a shop. He figures if he doesn't restore the panel truck he owns, he never will.

Where am I going with this talk about the garage?

Well, there is a new company in town, Vault, led by Chad Haas that offers "An Ultra-Premium Line of Furnishings For the Dream Garage."



And you should see the color palette. In addition Vault offers flooring. To quote their web site

Every element of your home is a reflection of your lifestyle, including your garage floor. So, if you dislike coming home to an unattractive and dirty garage floor, we have the perfect solution. Our Garazzo™ flooring system will transform an ordinary concrete garage floor into a decorative statement that is difficult to stain and easy to clean.

Take comfort in coming home to the cleanest and nicest garage on the block.

Vault has broadened its product offerings to include carriage-style doors, flooring products, wall treatments and period furnishings – to put it more succinctly, everything needed to outfit the dream garage.

Now all the men I know will soon be saying, I want a bigger garage. I want a Vault garage!

Chad Haas is in Beaverton, OR and can be reached Toll Free at (866) 828-5810.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

"It isn't easy being green."

Kermit the Frog, in his latest commercial says, "It isn't easy being green." Bridget A. Otto in the Thursday Homes & Gardens section of The Oregonian sympathizes:

Consumers like the idea that bamboo grows so quickly, thus being sustainable. But, ...some companies in China are pushing the bamboo bandwagon off a cliff by selling products made from plants harvested at three or four years. If left to grow 10 years, bamboo's density improves, giving it the characteristics that make it as durable as hardwoods for flooring....

So, if you have to replace that dented and scratched bamboo floor sooner, is your use of a sustainable product for naught?

If you buy furniture made from reclaimed wood, is it still green if it's been trucked here from North Carolina?

It's about balance, says Alisa Kane with Portland's Office of Sustainable Development.

"For me, it's making sure that what I was purchasing was durable, and the resources were respected and the people involved were respected," she says. "Ask the question: Where did it come from; why do I need it; will it last?

We know at Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery that being green is more than a color. One of our many encounters with "green" came in an interview with interior designer Marcie Harris in which she said:

My interpretation of Green Design is that designers and architects need to be educated about the 'lifecycle" of the products they specify. This is not only the recycling capability of products, but thinking about what it took to make the product in the first place. Obviously we can't evaluate everything - but if more pressure were put on manufacturers from designers and architects regarding "green design", I believe the industry would react accordingly. I have a client with a child that came down with environmental sickness after they moved into their new home. The off-gassing of VOC's from the various products (osb board, carpet glue etc.) was enough to keep her out of one whole year of high school. This was 8 years ago and things are improving - but it is still a huge concern.

Bev & Mike

Green Bridget A. Otto Interior Decorating Design Bev & Mike

New Home Decor Blogs

Every week it seems that new blogs are springing up dedicated to interior design, furniture and accessories. Here are a few of our latest finds:

MoCo Loco - Modern contemporary Design.
Take a look at this hand truck/chair:

Is this for the co-worker not pulling his/her weight?

Funfurde - Funky. Furniture. And. Design.

Design*Sponge - Design*Sponge features store and product reviews, sale and contest announcements, new designer profiles, trend forecasting and store/studio tours. In addition, Design*Sponge features a unique section dedicated to covering student design, national and international design shows.

Trendir - Trendir is an online magazine about the latest Home Decor Products and Trends. We cover High-End Luxury products. Think of us as having both style sense and the ability to identify new and cool things. Just take a look at this most unusual kitchen sink:



Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Furniture Home Decor Interior Design Bev & Mike

New Textiles From Phillips!

From Phillips Lumalive a new fabric for clothing and furniture.

Lumalive textiles make it possible to create fabrics that carry dynamic advertisements, graphics and constantly changing color surfaces.

[...]

Lumalive fabrics feature flexible arrays of colored light-emitting diodes (LEDs) fully integrated into the fabric - without compromising the softness or flexibility of the cloth. These light emitting textiles make it possible to create materials that can carry dynamic messages, graphics or multicolored surfaces. Fabrics like drapes, cushions or sofa coverings become active when they illuminate in order to enhance the observer’s mood and positively influence his/her behavior.

It's not in the showroom yet, but count on it coming in the near future. You just need to be creative in how you use it.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Phillips Lumalive Light Emitting Fabrics Textiles Home Decor
Bev & Mike

Jimmy Choo

So what do the stars wear when they walk on the red carpet?
If you said Jimmy Choo you are correct. Many, like Charlize Theron who wears ‘Paris’ a satin sandal with ornate jewel detail set in antique gold, choose Jimmy Choo for the walk.

The mere mentioning of the name Jimmy Choo has women worldwide drooling. The Chinese born, London based shoe designer is at the very top of brilliant shoe fashion.

Now you can browse his collection and dream, dream, dream.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Jimmy Choo Fashion Shoe Designer Bev & Mike

Bridget Otto Thursday on Saturday

Bridget A Otto had a beautifully illustrated article, Mirror Mirage, in Thursday's Homes & Gardens section in The Oregonian.

Our mirrors remind us of who we have become, but

A strategically placed mirror won't make you look younger, but it might lighten that dark corner near the entry or make the small guest room appear larger.

You can even create the illusion of a window.

We learn from the article that Suzanne Gallagher's new book is out: "The Fine Art of Wall Design" (Alta Press, 2006).

Bridget quotes designer Patti Marvitz.

A reflection doubles what's in the room, so you'd better like what you see in the room.

Gallagher notes

And just as that mirror in the bathroom has a practical purpose, so does the pretty one in the front hall.

That way you'll never end up saying, "I didn't know that was sticking to my skirt!"

The Bridget Otto article also has some practical advice for hanging those heavy mirrors on drywall (see pdf).

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Fads or Trends?

The Sacbee has an interesting article about fads and trends entitled
Can you separate the oh-so-trendy from the tried-and-true timeless?
By Alison apRoberts.

...there are ways to identify style trends that are likely to have staying power.

Two current themes promise to wear well. One is the Arts and Crafts style, which hews to the traditional, yet its simplicity and use of natural materials make it feel up-to-date and timeless.

...the other style du jour as "sleek, modern urban loft design." Again, simple designs and natural materials can keep the style from looking dated.

I liked this idea

"The shell of your home is like your body and the furniture is like the clothing, and the accessories are like the jewelry...

To avoid fads buy a few pieces of quality furniture that is timeless and change small things around it; throw pillows, wall colors, accessories.

Then apRoberts remembers the fads and trends of the past and what is fashionable today

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Art Glass: Contemporary Assessories

From Home Accents Today, Art Glass: Avant Garde Art Glass by Kara Cox

With art glass maintaining its contemporary appeal, these colorful pieces add a touch of eye candy to the mod mix. Abstract designs grab your attention in electric hues of red, blue and green or with graphic touches of black and white. Art glass is an easy way to update the home with a touch of modern appreciation.

Global Views' tall oval bowl in a fiery orange hue has a playful iridescent touch.

Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery is proud to carry Global Views.

Bev & Mike

Art Glass Contemporary Interior Design Mover Mike

Swan, ID and Square Scoops

Yellowstone 056
Originally uploaded by gily122000.

Bev & Mike traveled over 1000 miles to see and taste the ice cream at Rainey Creek in Swan, ID.

The story is: In 1943 the owners decided to expand into selling ice cream and Gracie ordered an ice cream scoop from back east. When it arrived it was a square scooper and she was very upset. Her husband said why don't we try it. That happy accident and some great flavors like Moose Tracks, Cotton Candy, Play Doh and Huckleberry & Cream have attracted visitors from all over. The present owners may go through 30 tubs of Huckleberry & Cream a week, and some are so taken with the flavor that they will walk out if their favorite is out.

Swan can be reached on the road from Jackson Hole, WY to Idaho Falls. The Swan Valley is one of the prettiest we saw on our road trip to Yellowstone.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Yellowstone 055

Yellowstone 055
Originally uploaded by gily122000.

Bev in front of Rainey Creek in Swan, ID, home of the square scoop ice cream in a cone. She has been to Yellowstone and Jackson Hole and is on the way home.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

San Gimignano Is Under Siege

One of our favorite cities is under siege. Three million tourists come to San Gimignano each year (compare that to two million visitors to Jackson Hole) and they come in fast, take a quick picture of themselves against a tower and whisk out to another city in the triangle.

“Some people, jokingly, say that we have to get out of the ‘Bermuda Triangle,’ a reference to the hordes of tourists in sandals and shorts who migrate between St. Peter’s in Rome, the Uffizi in Florence and Piazza San Marco in Venice,” said Francesco Rutelli, deputy prime minister and culture minister.

In 2000, when Mike and I went to Italy to celebrate my 50th birthday, we flew into Venice, spent several nights there, drove to Radaa and spent a week there driving to the Uffizi in Florence, San Gimignano, Siena, and many of the towns in Tuscany, then we drove to Rome for another week.

If you have the time, I would encourage you to get to know these medieval towns, enjoy lunch and dinner there, sit in the sun and sip a cup of coffee, enjoy the Gelato, talk with the Italians, practice your limited Italian and marvel at the ancient buildings and the light.

“The problem is hit-and-run tourism, which doesn’t create wealth or guarantee the preservation of a beautiful but delicate city,” said Sabrina Benenati, the town counselor responsible for commerce and local productivity. “If all you want to do is get photographed in front of a tower, I’m sure there are computer programs that can do the same thing with no damage to the town and without spending much money.”

Don't be a hit-and-run tourist!

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Do you love Watermelons?

Are you frustrated with the fruit because they roll around when you are slicing them? Do you hate it that they roll around in your fridge? Well Brazil has come up with



Square Melons!

Tesco exotic fruit buyer Damien Sutherland: 'We’ve seen samples of these watermelons and they literally stop you in their tracks because they are so eye-catching.

'Melons are among the most delicious and refreshing fruit around but some people find them a problem to store in their fridge or to cut because they roll around.

In Japan they sell for about $75 a melon. We'll wait until the price comes down.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Square Watermelons Watermelon Bev & Mike

Is it time for wallpaper again?

Pure Contemporary thinks so in We're Stuck on Wallpaper all over again!

Button Up from Tracy Kendall is a bespoke look with buttons (large or small, plain or detailed, delicate or chunky) and their holes sewn into plain or textured wallpaper.

Caroline Kooshoian writes

...wallpaper's surging toward a comeback, and it’s left the brash, fussy and fuzzy behind.

[...]

It gets bold with stark geometric prints, fun with abstract flowers and artistic in hand-painted sheets. But it's the organic warm looks in cork, wood, grasscloth, textiles, even mother of pearl and glass, that have helped lead wallpaper manufacturers to almost $8 billion in sales last year, and showed the faux finishing crowd that walls can shine with luminous depth sans telltale sponge marks.

Exciting isn't it?

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Bridget Otto Thursday

Can we get a hooha! for Bridget Otto Thursday? Hooha!

Her latest article is in today's Oregonian Homes & Gardens section entitled Pattern Recognition. She writes

Decorating with patterns takes an even hand and a trained eye.

Designers with the magic touch talked with me about what it takes to pull multiple patterns together to make one fabulous room, and I'm here to pass along their wisdom.

She interviews several designers including our friend Jim Yockey and finds that while rules can be restictive, there are themes:

"The first is scale," says Jim Yockey, showroom manager at Linde Ltd., a to-the-trade-only designer showroom in Southwest Portland. Especially when mixing patterns. If every pattern vies for attention, the designers agree, it's like a room full of toddlers all screaming at once. No one gets noticed.

Another friend of Landfair Furniture is Kimberly Jaynes:

"The eye wants rhythm and bounce," says Kimberlee Jaynes of Kimberlee Jaynes Interior Designs Inc. "What's interesting in the room is the play off one pattern to the next. If there isn't contrast, then it all becomes one big mess."

Sharon Tjader has some input about rhythm:

Contrast can come in solids, too. A solid-color wall or carpet, or even the tiniest muted print that looks almost solid, provides needed contrast when you're working with patterns, says Sharon Tjader of Design Concepts of Oregon. It also provides a place for the eye to rest. Or as Tjader says, a pause in the rhythm of the room.

"Design is all about rhythm," she says.

Bridget devotes the rest of the article to the use of color and explains a color wheel:

If you work within the colors of the feature -- or dominant -- fabric, then your guidelines are readily set.

But, if you want to cross over to harmonizing colors or contrasting colors, then you need to understand the all-important color wheel.

As usual Bridget gives us much to think about as we look at pictures of decorated rooms in magazines or tour places like the Street of Dreams this next month.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Bridget Otto Jim Yockey Kimberlee Jaynes Sharon Tjader
Bev & Mike

To Market, To Market!

Bev is off to Las Vegas tomorrow, Wednesday, for the Home Furnishings Market. "I am excited to see Dinec'," she says. Dinec' is relaunching the company at market after seeking court protection and then being sold to Bermex in April.

Dinec' will be offering three new bedrooms and 10 new dining chairs. Apparently they have simplified their offerings and stress that they are one of the most personalized manufacturers. In addition, they are broadening their focus from purely contemporary to a mix of offerings, by adding some traditional.

She's excited about leaving with her sister Carol Brandis , but first she and I get to celebrate 14 years of marriage tonight with dinner at standing room only Nuestra Cocina at 21st and SE Division.

Bev will be visiting Hekman, Palecek, CBK, Mirador and many others. Speaking of Mirador, they will unveil more than a dozen TV cabinets some able to handle 60 inch flatscreens.


She will have all the "dish", when she returns to the store on Saturday.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery