Categories
Interviews

Meet The Daily Leaf: Doing What They Love and Creating a Living Doing It

The Daily Leaf’s Stephen Gold & Andy Yashar PHOTO CREDIT: SAM GEHRKE

If you take a few seconds away from the day-to-day journey that most people take, from wake to sleep, there are very few opportunities to do what you love. That is especially true on the East Coast of the USA, where the search for success often clouds over the chance to actually do what you love.

 

Read More Here At Forbes!

Categories
Articles Interviews Miscellaneous

Why You Should Know The Initiative & The Commune Founder Amy Margolis

Amy Margolis in the CommunePHOTO CREDIT: SAM GEHRKE

Why You Should Know The Initiative & The Commune Founder Amy Margolis

Amy Margolis, a prominent 17 year practicing attorney and founder of the Oregon Cannabis Association, is an uncompromising go-getter. A deeply entrepreneurial attorney who’s made a career focusing on the Pacific Northwest (and beyond) cannabis space, Margolis is whip smart and uncompromisingly concise. She has dedicated her career in helping her clients and the industry as a whole navigate through the brave new world of cannabis legalization— a very new direction, one that is certainly not the divorce, tax, real estate or the multitude of legal careers she could have followed. Amy is a famed cannabis lawyer and she’s darned good at what she does. That’s only a very small part of what Amy has accomplished in her young life in Portland, Oregon, though. She recently announced the launch of both The Commune and The Initiative to ensure that the cannabis industry remains the most progressive and balanced emerging industry yet.

 

READ MORE AT FORBES

Categories
Articles Events Interviews Miscellaneous

Why You Should Visit The Doctor’s House, the Most Charming Bud and Breakfast in Portland, Oregon

Bill cooking up muffins at The Doctor’s House.PHOTO CREDIT: BRENDA ROSE

Why You Should Visit The Doctor’s House, the Most Charming Bud and Breakfast in Portland, Oregon

If the alluring scent of freshly roasted and slowly brewed coffee, intermingled with tantalizing whiffs of brain captivating, toasty, handmade muffins and perhaps a juicy ‘wake and bake’ bowl of the finest Oregon-grown cannabis jump-starts your imagination, then this is the Bud and Breakfast for you.

READ MORE AT FORBES

Categories
Articles

Story Of The Vine: Portland’s Division Wines Unites Oregon’s Best, Global Wine

Author’s note: Originally, I sought to work in the wine business. My parents encouraged the enjoyment of wine at the table and in our deep European travel in the 60s and 70s. This eventually evolved to a career in the culinary arts. Writing about wine, tasting wine, wine travel and, of course, the study of culture through wine became a career. As a former trained chef who started at the very bottom— the dish sink, wine appreciation is a wonderful way to teach the palate (and the mind) about the best things in life. Culturally, wine is part of our civilization. We learn to follow the drinking of wine and history is written shortly thereafter. Soon, the creation and the documentation of cocktails became another passion of mine, but in life, I believe that things happen for a reason. A lifetime of tasting wine has offered me knowledge, making it easier to enjoy small-producer, hand-crafted organic and biodynamic wines— my favorites! These are the ones that almost always grace the dinner table because they go so well with the kinds of foods I prepare, from scratch with love. For me, wine is the art that inspires memories and deepens relationships. A special bottle of wine shared between friends makes for experiences that never end. Every sip in the future reminds one of the past. It’s just that easy!

Photo credit: Sam Gehrke

Pouring a glass of wine at Division Wines’ wine bar.

 

When owners Will and Danyelle Prouty first opened Division Wines in 2011 on Portland’s Division Street, they did so with the intention of creating a small wine store they believed would add value to their neighborhood. After all, the shop would be a mere 12 blocks from their home of 23 years, where they currently raise two teenage boys and their accompanying two cats, an anecdote mirrored on the Division Wines website. Danyelle and Will have 30 and 35 years experience, respectively, in the restaurant business–Will, positioned at downtown Portland’s South Park for the past 19 years, running their esteemed wine program for the most recent 13. As time beckoned for the couple to venture out on their own, the wine business was a natural segue. With eCommerce and big box stores ruling retail, they sought to create a neighborhood place where people know who you are and remember what you like to drink, a spot people can trust while exploring wines from around the world.

“What first attracted me to wine over 30 years ago still defines the shop today. Wine is connected to everything around it. Wine is farming, science, politics, religion, history, ambition, ego, grace, beauty, calamity, and more,” Will shares. Speaking with him for just a few moments, it becomes obvious why Will sees wine in everything. “The story of the vine is the story of the human experience. It needs to struggle a little to find true expression. Too much stress and it could break. Not enough, and it grapples with finding character. This journey defines me, and it defines our humble shop,” he says.

READ MORE AT FORBES