Local Rhoots is a meal delivery service using locally sourced ingredients wherever possible, creating jobs within the community and delivering in reusable packaging. Their motto is "we feed humans whole food that tastes awesome!" Learn more at localrhoots.com. 

This winter, SōthKitchen held pop-ups at 64oz taphouse. Now, the owners have finished the build out of their food truck, secured their permits, and passed their inspections. The only thing left to do is open the window and start serving food, which they will do on Friday, April 1 at Mt. Hood Winery. Here's what we know about the truck: 

"Gourmet sandwiches with a touch of Italian and Filipino flavors and cuisine," -- Owner, Michelle Soth

The truck will be parked at Mt. Hood Winery, for the most part. They have mentioned being open to catering, as well. Address: ​2882 Van Horn Dr, Hood River, OR

For now, the hours will be 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. Friday-Sunday. That may change in the future. 

Michelle and Joshua Soth are co-owners of the food truck.
Joshua has been an Executive level Chef for the past 15 years but has been in the industry for nearly 28 years. He's never worked in a food truck before but having his own has always been a dream. He was born in a South Suburb of Chicago. Joshua is an avid kayaker and whitewater rafter and spent some time as a sea kayak guide on Orcas Island, WA. He also trained in the whitewater of the White Salmon River where his love for the Columbia River Gorge began.

Michelle: You may know Michelle from her work as a yoga instructor at Brimstone Boulders. She was born in  was born and raised in Chicago, as well. She’s a first generation Filipino-American. The memories of family gatherings and meals at her Lola's home are the inspiration to Michelle’s style of cooking today. She’s an avid baker and has a strong passion for making delectable sweets and breads.

SōthKitchen is a family business. Joshua and Michelle's daughter, Bella, lends her expertise to the business. Bella handles all of the design work for the business. She helps with prep and loves making ​lumpia (Filipino egg rolls). 

Soth (rhymes with both) is their last name. You'll find a long history of posts under #sothkitchen on instagram: it's the tag they've used to share their food adventures, both at home and on the trail, for the past few years. 

Kids menu available. Pay by card or with cash. Vegetarian options available. 

Want more info? Want to check for an updated menu or hours? Find SōthKitchen online at ​sothkitchen.net or on Instagram @sothkitchen

Late this winter, a new food truck opened in the parking lot of Windance Board Shop. The name is PESCO and it's run by Elizabeth Pesco. 

​The theme? Handmade Italian food. We're talking the kind that's made by a chef that lived in Italy for several years. And don't get us started on the fried rice balls that take the owner two and a half hours to make each morning. They're carefully packed with slow-simmered meat sauce, veggies, and cheese. ​

You may know Elizabeth from her work as a chef at several restaurants around town. Before opening PESCO, Elizabeth learned her skills in some of the most well-known kitchens in town. Elizabeth is a talented chef with a passion for food. She works tirelessly and patiently to perfect each recipe she makes and puts a ridiculous amount of effort into everything she does. With her experience as a chef and her knowledge of Italy, she has brought a new take on Italian to Hood River, providing something completely different than what we currently have. Think:  seasonal, light, packed full of flavor,  fresh, local, and handmade -- just like you would find it in Italy. 

Elizabeth rotates her menu each month. This month, she's focusing on Sicily with items like Spaghetti con Pesto di Pistachhio (fresh spaghetti with a pistachio pesto) and panelle (Sicilian chickpea fritter served with lemon aioli). In the past, she took us to Florence (fresh pappardelle with tomato sauce; spinach and ricotta dumplings; Tuscan soup; and more) and Rome. 

Moving forward, she'll continue to change the menu each month, reflecting the seasonality of our local ingredients here in the Gorge. Check for a new menu each month on her website and Instagram page. 

Address: 108 HWY 35, HOOD RIVER, OR 97031
Hours: 11:30-sold out (typically some time between 6 and 9 p.m.). Instagram is a great way to track when she's sold out for the day, so if you're worried, pop over instagram.com/pescohr
Kid-friendly menu? Yes!
Payment options accepted: Cash, card, apple pay
Website and current menu: www.pescohr.com
Drinks: Yes!  

Ready for some weekly updates? 

1. Want to go out for St. Paddy's Day? There are tons of specials around town. Ferment is doing a turkey Rueben + Irish stew. Everybody's is cooking up Corned Beef and Cabbage as well as Shepard's pie, Bangers + Mash, and Irish soda bread. Kickstand will have venison Shepard's pie and drink specials. And Thunder Island has a crazy awesome looking St. Paddy's burger with corned beef, kraut, swiss, and 1000 island dressing. 
2. 6th Street Bistro is closed for the week, reopening 3/25.
3. Like booze and easter egg hunts? Packer Orchards will be hosting a "boozy glow in the dark Easter egg hunt" for those of you 21+.
4. It's Farm-to-Table dinner event season and Hood River Organic just announced that it will be hosting one on June 12. Find more details here.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! ​

Last Wednesday's, "Dine/Drink out for Ukraine" (organized by Hood River Eats and Solstice Pizza)  was more successful than I could have ever imagined.

Restaurants, breweries, wineries, taphouses, and coffee shops were packed all day. pFriem was on an hour wait; when we walked into 64 Oz (taphouse) near their normal closing time, the business was packed; and many of the business owners we talked to said business was above normal on Wednesday. 

Together, eaters and drinkers in the Gorge managed to raise $25,000 for the World Central Kitchen. That's incredible! 

What you didn't see was that behind the scenes this event was powered by servers, dishwashers, bussers, cooks, hostesses, managers, dough makers, and bartenders. A huge shout-out goes to them for their hard work on Wednesday. Many businesses are short-staffed these days, closing unexpectedly if a staff member calls in sick. The labor market in the Gorge is tight and difficult but every restaurant that committed to the fundraiser found a way to make it work Wednesday. A huge thanks to them and their staff. 

The easiest part of this fundraiser was getting restaurants to join the cause. It's unbelievable how supportive this community is. All it took was a few emails and phone calls to get 20 restaurants on board and from there the event snowballed. On Wednesday, 41 establishments pledged to donate a portion of proceeds to the World Central Kitchen. On Thursday, we heard from additional restaurants saying that they had been closed or short-staffed on Wednesday but were planning to donate proceeds from a different day. Then, over the weekend many wineries decided to donate a percent of their sales to the fundraiser. In the end, we had almost 50 participants. 

A huge shout out to everyone who donated online, ate out, worked, or helped us spread the word. Thank you all for making this event so successful. 

Want to find out more about the WCK? Click here. Want to donate? Head to this link. Funds go directly to WCK. If you would like your donation to go directly to the Ukraine, you can mention it in the comments box when you donate. 

10 Speed Coffee 
Local Rhoots
Broder Ost
Pine Street
New York City Sub Shop
Pfriem Family Brewers 
White Salmon Baking
Gorges Brewing Co. 
Celilo
Solstice Wood Fire Pizza
Gorge Wine Library
Volcanic Bottle Shoppe
Thunder Island Brewing Company 
Freebridge Brewing
Egg River Cafe
Evoke
64 Oz 
Sushi Okalani 
Stave and Stone 
Double Mountain Brewery 
Boda's Kitchen
Mugen Noodle 
Camp 1805
Crush Cider Cafe
Feast Market & Delicatessen
Bette's Place Restaurant
Ground Coffee
Doppio
Working Hands/Slopeswell Cider
Riverside
River Daze Cafe 
Pizza Leona 
Henni's Kitchen and Bar
PESCO  food truck (located in the lot next to Windance)
The Mesquitery
Mylan Wines 
Randonne Coffee (1104 1st Ave, Mosier, OR 97040)
Lilo's Hood River
China Gorge
Kickstand Coffee & Kitchen
Treebird Market
Everybody's Brewing 
Aniche Cellars 
Cor Cellars 
Domaine Pouillon
The Pines 1852
6th Street Grill

We're sad to announce that the Viento tasting room has been sold and is closed. No news on who is going into the space or when it will re-open, but it's not the end for Viento Wines. Owners  Rich and Robin Cushman will continue to sell wine on their website and through local pop-ups. The Viento brand was not sold. 

On Wednesday, March 9, 2022, participating area restaurants will donate a percent of their daily sales to World Central Kitchen, which is working to feed Ukrainians through this crisis. Right now, the organization has 8 sites set up at border crossings in Poland, and is also delivering meals within Ukraine. 

All participating Gorge eateries and drinkeries have pledged to donate at least 10% of sales. Each participating restaurant is in charge of deciding what percent of sales it would like to donate to the cause. After the event is complete, we will be able to see how much our community raised, here. ​
​
Please join us to support feeding Ukrainians by dining or drinking out on Wednesday March 9, 2022. 

Each restaurant name below is linked to a website or Facebook page where you will find the establishments address, menu, and hours, if available online.  

• 10 Speed Coffee 
• Local Rhoots
• Broder Ost
• Pine Street
• New York City Sub Shop
• Pfriem Family Brewers 
• White Salmon Baking
• Gorges Brewing Co. 
• Celilo
• Solstice Wood Fire Pizza
• Gorge Wine Library
• Volcanic Bottle Shoppe
• Thunder Island Brewing Company 
• Freebridge Brewing
• Egg River Cafe
• Evoke
• 64 Oz 
• Sushi Okalani 
• Stave and Stone 
• Double Mountain Brewery 
• Boda's Kitchen
• Mugen Noodle 
• Camp 1805
• Crush Cider Cafe
• Feast Market & Delicatessen
• Bette's Place Restaurant
• Ground Coffee
• Doppio
• Working Hands/Slopeswell Cider
• Riverside
• River Daze Cafe 
• Pizza Leona 
• Henni's Kitchen and Bar
• PESCO  food truck (located in the lot next to Windance)
• The Mesquitery
• Mylan Wines 
• Randonne Coffee (1104 1st Ave, Mosier, OR 97040)
• Lilo's Hood River
• China Gorge
• Kickstand Coffee & Kitchen

and more to come! Please check back Tuesday night to see the complete list of participants. 

The short answer? Aaron from Solstice Kitchen believes in the work of World Central Kitchen so much that he started this fundraiser to support them. The organization and cause is one that resonates with Aaron. 

This project started as a fundraiser at Solstice, but Aaron is a big-picture thinker and started looping in other area restaurants like Pfriem, Camp 1805, Pine Street, 10 Speed, and Egg River. Then, he felt like more could be done, so he contacted Hood River Eats to see if we knew anyone else that would want to participate. 

We started by double-checking that World Central Kitchen is a good cause. It is! The organization has a score of 100 on Charity Navigator. And more importantly, as we started to rally local eateries, many of them were familiar with and confident in World Central Kitchen.​

To read about World Central Kitchen's current work in Ukraine/Poland, please see this article from the Washington Post. 

​Founded in 2010 by Chef José Andrés, World Central Kitchen (WCK) is first to the frontlines, providing meals in response to humanitarian, climate, and community crises while working to build resilient food systems with locally led solutions. WCK has served more than 60 million fresh meals to people impacted by natural disasters and other crises around the world. WCK’s Resilience Programs strengthen food and nutrition security by training chefs and school cooks; advancing clean cooking practices; and awarding grants to farms, fisheries, and small food businesses while also providing educational and networking opportunities. Learn more at wck.org.*

This verbiage is directly from the World Central Kitchen media kit .

Any eatery or drinkery is welcome to join our cause.

• If you would like marketing materials or social media templates to use to promote the event, please contact us through our contact form.
• We would like to keep a running list of all participants so we can share that info with everyone, so if you'd like to participate, please shoot us a message and we'll get you added to the lists.
• ​When you're ready to deposit your funds, head to this link and hit "donate" or "join team." Donating will allow you to leave your name while joining as a team (a few extra steps) will post your information under your business name. 
• Make sure to allocate your funds to "disaster relief." This will help funnel your funds towards the efforts in Ukraine. 

We have a group fundraiser set up on the World Central Kitchen website. If you are able to, you can donate by heading to this link  and hitting "donate." 

For the most up-to-date information, follow us on Facebook and Instagram.