Breakfast in Bridgetown: The Definitive Guide to Portland's Favorite Meal [Perfect Paperback]

Paul Gerald (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2008

Where do you like to go for breakfast?

Everyone in Portland, Oregon has an answer to that question. And now Portland has the definitive guide to where we all like to go: Breakfast in Bridgetown, by Paul Gerald, author of the best-selling 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles of Portland.

Take a fun and informative trip to 95 places serving Portland's favorite meal. Learn where they are, what they're like, how their food is, who eats there, and most importantly, what kind of coffee they serve.

With helpful categories and handy lists, Breakfast in Bridgetown is a tour of Portland's breakfast scene, based on the idea that a city's soul shines through its breakfast restaurants. In other words: we describe, you dine.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Breakfast in Bridgetown is as much a celebration of the Portland breakfast culture as it is a guidebook. Paul's attention to detail and witty observations will have Portland eating breakfast in a whole new way. --Craig Schuhmann, Author, Moon Outdoors: Oregon Fishing

The quintessential guide to Portland's wide variety of breakfast places. Breakfast in Bridgetown is a book you can read from cover to cover, as pure entertainment, but will keep an honored place in your glove compartment. --The Food Dude, PortlandFoodAndDrink.com

Breakfast in Bridgetown is as much a celebration of the Portland breakfast culture as it is a guidebook. Paul's attention to detail and witty observations will have Portland eating breakfast in a whole new way. --Craig Schuhmann, Author, Moon Outdoors: Oregon Fishing

About the Author

I have always wanted to do interesting things, visit interesting places, meet interesting people, and then tell folks about them. As a teenager I found out that writers get paid for doing it, and my life s trajectory was set.

I started as a sports writer at the Southern Methodist University Daily Campus because I wanted to sit in the press box at football games. I also had a sports-desk job at the much-missed Dallas Times Herald for three wonderful years.

After college I screwed around and traveled for a few years, then retreated to my home town of Memphis and another fantastic sports-desk job at the Memphis Commercial Appeal. I also got hired at the weekly Memphis Flyer and wrote for every section of the paper: sports, news, book and film reviews, editorials, you name it. Good times!

And then in the mid-1990s I found the twin promised lands of freelance writing and travel writing. That was when I cut loose from the docks of life and set myself adrift; I ve held exactly one real job since. Along the way I have slaved for money in between writing gigs at various places: an amusement park, a temp agency, landscaping (briefly), restaurant kitchens (more briefly), Alaskan fishing boats, social service nonprofits, FedEx, and an insurance company -- yes, cubicle and all. Those are the jobs I can remember, anyway.

I moved to Oregon in 1996 because it's about four thousand times cooler than Memphis. I have written two hiking guidebooks, both published by Menasha Ridge Press of Birmingham, Alabama: 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles of Portland (third edition, 2007) and Day and Overnight Hikes on Oregon s Pacific Crest Trai l (first edition, 2007). I am in the process of revising Menasha's Best in Tent Camping: Oregon, which will be out in early 2009.

I published Breakfast in Bridgetown book myself, and more titles are on the way from Bacon and Eggs Press.

I would appreciate your buying this book because I really don t want to have any more jobs.

Product Details

• Perfect Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Bacon and Eggs Press; 1st edition (September 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979735009
• ISBN-13: 978-0979735004
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,560,179 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Paul Gerald grew up in Memphis and went to school at SMU in the middle of the football scandal there. His writing career began in the sports department of the much-missed Dallas Times Herald. He later worked for the Memphis Commercial Appeal and the Memphis Flyer before setting out as a freelancer. Since then, he has written some 300 travel articles for the Flyer, and along the way his work has also appeared in Northwest Airlines' WorldTraveler, as well as Portland's Willamette Week and The Oregonian.

He's also worked in and around landscaping, restaurants, public relations, social work, an amusement park, Alaskan fishing boats, the YMCA, corporate marketing, and as a package handler for FedEx. Such is the life of a writer who really, really wants to avoid having a regular job.

Paul's hiking life started at age 12, when he went to a summer camp in the Absoraka Mountains of Wyoming. He became a trail and road hound at that point, and his hometown of Memphis never looked the same. He's hiked in the Rocky Mountains from New Mexico to Montana, as well as in Appalachia, Alaska, Nepal, and Argentina. In 1996 he moved to Portland to be close to the ocean, the mountains, the big trees, and the coffee shops.

His first book was 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles of Portland; the first edition came out in 2001 and the Fourth in 2010. His second was Day and Overnight Hikes: Oregon's Pacific Crest Trail, also published by Menasha Ridge Press in 2007. And in 2009 he revised Best Tent Camping: Oregon for Menasha Ridge.

He's even become his own publisher, putting out Breakfast in Bridgetown: The Definitive Guide to Portland's Favorite Meal in 2008, under the name Bacon and Eggs Press. The "Second Serving" of that book came out in 2010.

He has greatly enjoyed meeting people using his books out on the trails; he's also grateful that none of them appeared to be lost or angry. He does hope, however, that any feedback will be directed to him at www.paulgerald.com. And he hopes people will continue to enjoy and benefit from the fruits of his labor -- that is, if hiking, eating and writing can truly be called labor.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love this book!, November 6, 2008

By 

Shari Melton "tamecoyote" (Wilsonville, OR United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Breakfast in Bridgetown: The Definitive Guide to Portland's Favorite Meal (Perfect Paperback)

This book is fun to read even if you aren't looking for a breakfast place. Paul Gerald is hilarious! I actually have read parts of it out loud to others and we just crack up. On a more utilitarian note, often on the weekends my husband and I meet friends for breakfast or brunch and are left trying to figure out where to go. Although we have some regular favorites, we like to try new places, or we want to find a place in a certain area of town. This book helps us find a restaurant in the geographical location we want to go and lets us know what to expect when we get there. He doesn't pull punches and gives a thorough review including the cost, the food, the wait staff, the decor, and general ambiance. Another thing I like about the book is the way it is organized. You can find a restaurant by type, by location, or alphabetically. Very convenient and easy to use. I actually keep a copy of the book in my car. Enjoy!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great reference and fun read for Portland lovers, October 28, 2008

By 

Alirambles - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breakfast in Bridgetown: The Definitive Guide to Portland's Favorite Meal (Perfect Paperback)

A fun-to-read and useful guide to how and where Portlanders do breakfast. Gerald melds his own dining experiences ("When Jerry dropped a knife, in the time it took me to crack a joke about his lack of sophistication, somebody was standing next to him with a new, clean knife . . . on a platter"), with quotes from restaurant critics (something he cheerfully asserts he'll never be), foodie comments he's found online, and background information gleaned from owners, staff and good old-fashioned research. Restaurant website addresses are provided, when available, so readers can check for updates on hours and prices. The resulting assessment of nearly a hundred tempting spots for breakfast is thorough and entertaining.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Information - Fun Reading, November 22, 2008

By 

Carol White "Author - Live Your Road Trip Dream" (Wilsonville, Or USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Breakfast in Bridgetown: The Definitive Guide to Portland's Favorite Meal (Perfect Paperback)

Each little vignette is a story unto itself - a peak inside the heart of the restaurant - not just a boring, snooty little essay about how the food is, blah, blah, blah. No, Paul has made each place come alive on the pages. Makes you want to grab your coat and head out right now and see if he is really right - and hope that you enjoy the experience as much as he obviously did.

His categorization is so, well, Portland - down to earth and not too pretentious - and he gives enough of the detail along with his insights that you know if you have to bring cash, whether you'll get good coffee or Folgers, how long you might have to wait and whether your Vegan friend will be happy there.

If you love a) breakfast and b) Portland - you'll love Breakfast in Bridgetown.