Abby's Legendary Pizza

Abby's Legendary Pizza is a common site along Oregon roadways.

That requires some clarification. There are 33 Oregon locations, plus three in Washington. Obviously there are a lot of places where you won't see Abby's, but where you tend to find them is when you are driving to the more remote places, and that's why you are on the road.

My sisters have been to the one in Winston, but this review is based on the Woodburn location.

There can be a kind of a dive vibe as you enter. Also, the customer service could be a little more warm and attentive. It is possible that they don't have a lot of competition in most locations, but certainly in Woodburn there are plenty of options.

My sisters liked the salad bar option, though that didn't really appeal to me.

The most important thing, though, is that the pizza is really good. See the Big Hawaiian!

They are very generous with the toppings. See the Abby's Special!

When you are looking at the size options, you can trust the higher end of the people served (a 10" is plenty for two), and that is probably at least partly because of the thickness of the toppings.

It's not terrible having leftovers, which heat up well, but look, even the empty pan has leftovers!

Boxes are available for taking pizza home, or further down the road.

There are worse places to end up on a road trip.

https://abbys.com/

(My one criticism is that I didn't think their mushrooms were very good, which stood out more because everything else was so good.)

Marion County, Oregon - Mount Angel Abbey Museum

We recently saw the Mount Angel Abbey Museum get honorable mention on a list of the 20 best museums in Oregon: https://www.oregonlive.com/travel/index.ssf/2018/03/the_20_best_museums_in_oregon.html

We were surprised because not only had we never been to it, but we had never even heard of it. We had to check it out.

Once we found it, we have to admit it is an impressive collection. The fairly small space contains many more items than you would expect.

It started with biology specimens and scientific drawings.

That made me think about how the Jesuits were early scientists. The Mount Angel community consists of Benedictine monks, but Gregor Mendel was an Augustinian, and it can work.

Then I started seeing more crafts and artifacts from other cultures, and I started thinking about missionary work, colonization, and enslavement of indigenous peoples.

As it is, this museum appears to contain more donated collections than any collections specifically associated with the community of the abbey. This includes a remarkably large taxidermy collection. It's like a mini Field museum.

Not that it's not possible to feel some qualms about all the dead animals.

It is still pretty impressive.

Some of the tableaux are quite vivid.

It is overall a very impressive collection if you can find it.

Just for the record, finding it took two tries.

While there is visitor information on line, and visitors are not discouraged, directions can be confusing.

If you can find the right downward path, there is a small sign that says museum, and then it says museum on the door, but finding the path is the issue.

Part of this is the removal from parking. There is a stairway, and an elevator that was closed during construction. At the top of that there is a large quad, and everything else stands out more than the entrance to the museum, because it is of the least importance for the community, even if that is the reason you are there. There is also kind of a view.

The main thing is don't try and avoid the staircase thinking there must be better access. There isn't unless the elevator is running, but that uses the same parking lot and takes you to basically the same place.

https://www.mountangelabbey.org/museum/

The Ridge Woodfired Pizza & Pub

There is nothing wrong with woodfired pizza, but we mainly ended up at The Ridge to try the polenta fries.

They were pretty good. I was impressed with the balanced texture: soft on the inside but just the right amount of crust.

Otherwise they were generous with the regular fries, and the pizza was pretty good too.

They will do half and half on anything but the Figgy Piggy, which is unfortunate, because that is an intriguing title and description, but a little different for risking your entire dinner on.

The only complaint I have are that the prices seem a little high for what you get.

They are not outrageously high. It is probably just enough of a difference to make the rents possible in a more expensive area, and probably affecting every business there.  (That would also explain the prices at the nearby Rocket Fizz.) That may make happy hour a better option, but there is a minimum drink purchase to get the food prices.

That being said, you will probably never find better polenta fries.

http://theridgepub.com/

PDX Downtown - Roots Food District

I have written before how food courts were great resources when traveling - especially in Honolulu and Washington DC - but they have also been convenient and economical places for eating here at home. We used the one at Pioneer Place often, and were disappointed when it closed.

After a longer than initially indicated time the replacement opened: Roots Food District. That sounds like it is trying to be something higher end.

To be fair, it is still kind of under construction. There are supposed to be more places that are coming soon. Maybe when the additional two places open, there will be more correlation between the banner and what food is actually available.

I am more concerned with how it sprawls. Some listings seem to include the Yard House - a casual but still a sit-down place on an upper level -as part of the district. That takes away much of the convenience of food courts, where one of the key selling points is that people who want to eat different things can still eat together.

Beyond that, some of the restaurant spaces seem much larger than necessary.

There is still general seating, where you could bring your food, but there are many seats for each food place, far more than the amount of usage seems to indicate would be necessary.

This was especially true of Yong Kang Street, which seemed to contain three sections within its space - not just for seating, but for different types of counter service as well - but with nothing happening there. It feels wasted, and makes me wonder where the "coming soon" places (BurgerFi and Raising Cane's) are going to go.

Prices are also higher than they were in the old food court days. It is served on fancier dishes (at least at Yong Kang Street, not as much at Bad Hombres), but that is not enough to justify the price.

That's not to say that the food is bad either, because it is in general pretty good, but it is not significantly elevated over what you could get at any mall.

All of that together makes Roots Food District frustrating. They are trying to be something grander, but with no indication that there was any demand for such a thing. In addition, the long delays with construction may have permanently damaged the existing customer base, because the old food court was always pretty busy before.

There has been a big tendency lately for malls to try and change to "lifestyle centers", hoping for a higher end clientele and greater profits. If the old model is not working that needs to be examined, but it should be thought about really carefully before uprooting the tried and true.

 https://www.pioneerplace.com/en/dining/roots-food-district.html