The Old Spaghetti Factory is offering discounts in January to celebrate its 40th birthday. First, on January 6 (that's today!), you can get a complete dinner, including a salad, entree and dessert, for $2?$4.  From The Old Spaghetti Factory press release: Guests will have their choice of six complete dinner items, including salad, a spaghetti entree, fresh bread and spumoni [...]

I'll admit it. I've never been a huge fan of longtime local chain the Old Spaghetti Factory. Although I chowed my way through a plate or six of spaghetti with meat sauce as a kid during birthday parties there in my youth, the Factory, owned by the much-in-the-news-as-of-late Dussin clan (psst, they owned Lucier), features [...]

Tomorrow I'm going to hop on my bike and ride it to the Old Spaghetti Factory in SoWhat, and sign up for the Pints to Pasta 10K. Then I'll ride it home. Or maybe downtown or somethin'.

Sunday I'll get up early, and ride my bike to the Old Spaghetti Factory so that I can run the Pints to Pasta 10K.

Whole lotta exercising going on this weekend. Should be fun.

I haven't run a race since the Shamrock Run 5K earlier this year. I'm not expecting to be superfast. If I break a 10:00 per mile pace, I'll be ecstatic. Mostly I just want to gauge my fitness. And drink beer and eat pasta. And hang out with other runners. And lose some weight. And not be in the house.

...I guess I do have a lot of goals.

PORTLAND, Ore. - What's more fun than eating dinner inside a trolley car? How about enjoying a fun and tasty meal for free after reading a few books. These are just a few of the reasons why The Old Spaghetti Factory was recently recognized by Parents magazine this month as one of the top 10 [...]

Parents magazine, in its current edition, has rated The Old Spaghetti Factory as one of the top 10 places in the U.S. to dine with children.

Point/Counterpoint: Alison vs. Courtney

Did the Old Spaghetti Factory's spumoni ever have chunks?

Alison: Did so!

Courtney: Did not!

Alison: Did so!

Courtney: Did so not! Wait, maybe there were nuts in it, but it definitely didn't have fruity chunky bits.

Alison: Did so!

BLOGTOWNIES, please help us solve this intellectual lunchtime argument. The fundamental strength of the Mercury's editorial team is teetering in the balance.

"Still Life with Spumoni" by Amy J. Ruiz

Mercury Fun Fact: The Old Spaghetti Factory's first location was opened on a rainy day in Portland on January 10, 1969. And the preferred way of pronouncing chianti is "kee-an-tee," which just smacks of wrong.

Both in the press box and on the way home...

The Portland Winter Hawks came out as flat as I've seen them this season last night in Spokane, spotting the Chiefs three goals before deciding it was time to exert some energy, but even just 8:28 into the first period, the game was pretty much already decided.

Granted, not all players played poorly during that stretch...but it was still an ugly start.

Once Jason Grecica tallied his first goal as a Winter Hawk on a power play, the team picked up the pace and actually played pretty evenly with the Chiefs until the final 10 minutes of the game. Spokane got a back-breaker goal late in the first period when Seth Compton realized that no Hawk wanted the puck at their own blue line and left it there for Compton to sweep in alone on Kurtis Mucha. He filed a nice back-hand to make it 4-1 after 20 minutes.

From there, Spokane held Portland at bay, with Kevin Armstrong making some strong saves when Portland did manage to create chances. A flukey goal by Ondrej Roman in the second and then two goals in the final ten minutes rounded out the night for Spokane.

After a quick, quiet post-game meal at the Old Spaghetti Factory (which is a popular destination for teams travelling through the US Divison if you look at other blogs), the bus rolled out at about 10:30 PM.

...

I ventured out to SoWa during the big celebration of the aerial tram and was really glad that I did. It's amazing to see the transformation of once industrial wasteland to growing business and residential community. The Meriwether Condo towers are both populated with new residents. The commercial spaces bear the sign "Leased!" and I've learned that the Meriwether will be home to Urbana Market ( a convenience store), a dry cleaner and Bella Espresso. Bella currently operates from a trailer than sits alongside the building -- what a nice transition to its own cozy space. I also learned that the John Ross will be home to an Umpqua Bank branch. If this branch is anything like the Pearl store, then the SoWa community will definitely benefit from their presence.

I was happy to see the familiar red "d" of The Daily Cafe -- other locations include Rejuvenation (SE) and the Pearl -- inside the OHSU Center for Health and Healing. Other than The Daily Cafe, the other neighborhood restaurant is The Old Spaghetti Factory.

Obviously, there is a lot of work to be done in SoWa, but it's really coming along nicely.

More later!