We ate last Saturday evening at the Old Wives’ Tale on East Burnside in Portland. The restaurant, known for its great Hungarian Mushroom Soup, is now in its 31st year and remains one of our favorites.
I complimented one of the young waiters on the fresh red tattoo on his right arm. It seemed fitting with Valentine’s Day just two days away. Then I asked him about ‘Portlandia,” the quirky comedy sketch series set in Portland starring Saturday Night Live’s Fred Armisen and Portlander Carrie Brownstein on IFC (channel 503 on Comcast in Albany). The season’s sixth and fi
nal episode should air at 7:30 p.m. next Friday.
The waiter thought “Portlandia” perfectly captures Portland and its idiosyncracies. Then he asked if we had seen the episode in which Armisen and Brownstein stand outside a restaurant protesting that someone has leashed a dog to a post. Seeing no owner, the duo “frees” the dog. The owner then shows up, and they chew him out.
The waiter said the dog owner is a regular customer at the Old Wives’ Tale. Which made me think: It would be nice if they filmed an episode of “Portlandia” at the Old Wives’ Tale next season.
And there will be a next season. IFC announced earlier this week that there will be 10 new episodes of “Portlandia” starting in January 2012.
For Portland and “Portlandia” fans, myself included, that’s good news.
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The You Tube video above is my favorite “Portlandia” sketch.