gordonzola

beelavender, her guy, and I were looking for a place to get a drink after our fine meal in Belltown. They decided that I had to go the the Edgewater, some fancy-pants hotel where the Beatles stayed back in the day. Expensive yes, but with an amazing view and we were only going to have one drink.

Unfortunately, as we approached we realized something was wrong. Throughout the otherwise peaceful night and pretty-much abandoned streets, the sound of a bad rock cover band was heard. As we entered the lobby of the hotel, I saw the problem. A sign read: "Welcome Whole Foods Tribal Gathering" around some Mod Prim "Celtic" graphic. Translated into my language, it read, "Icky cultural appropriation trying to disguise corporate business meeting. Run away!" We fled back to their neighborhood.



On the way back to the Bay Area I stopped at The Rogue Valley Creamery in Center Point Oregon for a tour of their facility and to pick up some free cheese. Over a meal of freshly slaughtered local 4H pork, the owner David told me that he had just gotten back from travelling through Portland, Olympia, and Seattle. We exchanged travel notes and when I expressed my feelings about the "Tribal" gathering which kept me from my $8 beer, he got all excited.

Evidently, he was sitting, bored, just inside the bar at the fancy hotel after a meeting with the regional cheese folks. Could anything have solidified my standing with Bee as an International Man of Cheese Mystery more than entering a random hotel and immediately running into a comrade of dairy? They would have thought I set it up. Oh, lost opportunities.