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Tuesday, June 7, 2005

Matthew Stadler Habitually Eats

Posted by on June 7 at 11:52 AM

Matthew Stadler, novelist, essayist, Clear Cut Press editor, and party-thrower (not to mention former books editor at this here newspaper), has been named the first writer in residence for a group of restaurants in Portland called, collectively, ripe. The restaurants are Gotham Building Tavern, clarklewis, and ripe family supper (their lower-case). An excerpt from the announcement:

"The writer in residence will bring the intelligence and style of all text produced by ripe up to the high standard set by ripe's food, architecture, and design. The writer in residence will conceive and compose a series of card-sized essays about food and society throughout history, for occasional distributon at the restaurant tables. Most importantly, the writer in residence will carry out his work while in residence -- that is, the writing practice itself will take place 'in residence' by the writer habitually eating, socializing, reflecting, and writing at ripe."

Sounds tough, huh? What a lucky bastard! I ate at one of ripe's restaurants once and it was terrific.

(Confidential to Le Pichet: What do you say? I would write monumental things.)