This is just a note to let you know that there is seating in the Basement Monday-Friday 11am to 4pm

Not everyone is aware that we do have the Basement available for seating during the day. Tell your friends!

We are happy to share that there is a support group that meets monthly.

Information below:

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MID-WILLAMETTE VALLEY GLUTEN INTOLERANCE GROUP

February 2012 Newsletter

Our regularly scheduled meetings occur on the third Saturday of every month

10 a.m. to noon

Kaiser Permanente Skyline Medical Center

Conference room 1 (turn right after entering the building)

5125 Skyline Rd S., Salem

Please join us!  There is no charge to attend our meetings. We enjoy lively discussions about events and news related to gluten intolerance, gluten-free food and where to find it, and other issues related to a gluten-free life.  Bring your questions and we’ll do our best to answer.

Website: www.salemglutenfree.org

Email: glutenfreemidval@comcast.net

The Mid-Willamette Valley Gluten Intolerance Group is a branch of the Gluten Intolerance Group of North America, www.gluten.net.

That’s right, Monday April 30th 6PM @ the Taphouse we’ll be serving four unforgettable courses perfectly paired with five Russian River beers: Pliny the Elder, Pliny The Younger, Supplication, Damnation and Redemption.  Tickets will be extremely limited and Younger will only be served at this dinner. These beers are highly rated on Beer Advocate (Younger is #1 in the world) and painfully rare.

(Visit the Russian River web site for more info)

To properly prepare for this event Venti’s Special Event Chef Jesmika Moreno and our Beer Czar Matt Killikelly made a pilgrimage to Russian River in Santa Rosa, CA this past weekend to preview this year’s Pliny the Younger and lay the initial groundwork for pairing these very special brews with what we expect to be sublime pairings which are not to be missed.

We’ll also be giving away swag via raffle and serving Russian River’s Blind Pig IPA at the bar all night so that if anyone gets thirsty between courses they can still have a great Russian River beer.

Ticket sales for the pairing dinner in April will kick off at yet another special event-call it a warm-up for the main event, but this promises to be a “super beer geeky” event all on its own. Monday February 27th we’ll begin selling tickets for the pairing dinner starting at 6PM at the Taphouse and roll out the menu and beer pairings. We’ll be also serving Pliny the Elder IPA and Stone Ruination IPA and Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA , any of which customers can opt to have infused with sticky fresh whole hops in a French Press right at your table-side or at the bar. The boost to the hop aromas and flavors with this steeping of fresh hops is sure to please the biggest hop head. Check out this recent article for information.

Also, for the 2-27 ticket sale event evening Chef Jesmika will be preparing an exclusive special Pliny the Elder inspired and infused dish which will be only available for that evening. We will be also giving away a ticket for the pairing dinner via raffle at the on the 27th. Buy any of our featured beers or a hop infusion and you’re entered.

If you’re reading this post you probably know how hard to get Piny the Elder is and how exponentially harder the Pliny the Younger is to get. There has already been overwhelming interest in tickets for the pairing event, so don’t miss the ticket sale kick off party or you could miss the main event too. If there are any tickets left after February 27th we’ll make them available at the front counter at either Venti’s location. Stay tuned for a menu and additional  details about both events, which will be added to this post as they become available.

The Friends of Two Bridges is a non-profit organization working hard on making this become a reality. The Friends of Two Bridges needs to raise significant public funding to qualify for government money available for this project. Here at Venti’s we believe this is essential to the vitality and growth of downtown and city economic health.

Venti’s is joining w/ Gallagher Fitness Resources and Courthouse for C2V events (Courthouse to Venti’s). This year these will be fundraising efforts for Friends of Two Bridges. Information about the events to come. Check back.

Click here to read about the City’s plans.

“The bridges will help further the collaborative partnership between Cycle Oregon, Travel Oregon, Oregon State Parks and the Oregon Department of Transportation to connect the state with a series of scenic bikeways and position Oregon as America’s best place to ride a bike.”
- Gov. Ted Kulongoski

For more information on how to donate to Friends of Two Bridges, contact Hazel Patten, 503-581-4939 or ptn1363@msn.com.

Make checks payable and mail to:

Friends of Two Bridges/Salem Parks Foundation
PO Box 5764
Salem, OR 97304

Read about it: Gallagher’s Fitness Resources donated $2000 to Friends of Two Bridges

The Minto Island Bicycle and Pedestrian Bridge will span the Willamette Slough from the south end of Riverfront Park to Minto Island, connecting users to existing trail systems and downtown Salem via a multi-use path. Together, with the conversion of the historic Union Street Railroad Bridge into a bicycle and pedestrian facility, these two bridges will link more than 1,300 acres of popular downtown parks and about 26 miles of trails.

This Monday Venti’s continues our tradition of bringing the best to Salem on 5th Monday. As always, we’ll be tapping a keg of Russian River’s highly acclaimed and rare Pliny The Elder Double IPA. But, tomorrow the spotlight will belong to top “Roshambo” players as we host our first Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament at the Cafe. We’re hoping that the trophy, a glowing tribute to their hard work and sacrifice, will be enough to draw the best players from around the globe tomorrow. However, we’re not adverse to local rookies getting in on the action too. So, don your track suit, warm up your hands and fingers and head down tomorrow, Monday January 30th at 6PM for a whole lot of fun. Who knows maybe some rookie Salemite will beat the best in the world.

Isaac’s Room provides experiences that build character, confidence and skills in a community of people living life with intentionality, intelligence and heart.

They invest in kids by building critical work skills in a team concept through an IKE Quest internship at the IKE Box, the family business of Isaac’s Room.

Isaac’s Room is piloting a new variation of IKE Quest called Heroes In Training, helping kids discover the hero within through service learning opportunities in the community.

Through all of these experiences, supported by mentoring and other positive relationships, they see kids through the transformation from divested to invested from powerless to empowered, from liability to asset.

An easy way to get involved in the mission of Isaac’s Room is to shoot them an email.  Tiffany can be reached at tiffany@ikebox.com.

You can also have a significant impact if you want to volunteer your time or invest in their cause.

Volunteer Impact

One hour of volunteering for Isaac’s Room can teach 10-15 young people a critical life skill like budgeting and saving, or shipping and cooking for healthy eating.

A volunteer can also help fix tings in this wonderfully unpredictable 120-year-old building — frees up our staff to do what they do best.

Monetary Impact

$5 – Pays for a notebook full of Key Ideas – ideas that unlock new possibilities in life – for an IKE participant.

$25 – Pays for two weeks of mentoring for an IKE Quest participant.

$50 – Pays for a day on the Oregon National Guard ropes course, including three meals and a life-changing experience, for an IKE Quest participant.

Debbie and her daughter Megan in Urdhva Dhanurasana on a Thai beach!

Welcome to 2012. What better way to start the new year off than making a commitment to health and wellness. Our personal choice at Venti’s is Debbie Boe. She has been hands-on part of our health and wellness for many years, as a yoga mentor and massage therapist/healer.
Debbie has been practicing yoga since the early 80s (teaching since 2004) and has been a Licensed Massage Therapist since 1989. Her approach to life is holistic, devoting herself to study of anatomy and healing modalities — and making it all fun. This is lifestyle for her.
And that lifestyle permeates the professional. She has a massage practice in Salem (located in the historic Garfield School, 528 Cottage St NE, Suite 204-A), has been massaging w/ Cycle Oregon since the early 1990s, volunteers her time to bring yoga into the prison system to promote rehabilitation, and leads retreats focusing on body, mind, spirit. Debbie is a true asset to our community.
Both Dino and I see her regularly for massage to compliment and support our active lifestyles. She says “at least half of my clients are athletic — runners, cyclists — either coming in for regular maintenance … or if they get torn up in roller derby […or mountain biking].”
Several years ago I hurt my ribs in roller derby and Dino said “You gotta call Debbie.” We laugh about it cuz every time we get sore, that’s the first thing out of our mouths. We feel so very fortunate to have Debbie part of our lives and feel you would, too.
I first met Debbie as a yoga student of hers. Debbie showed me that yoga can be cheerful and full of humor. Up until that point, I really took my yoga too seriously, revering my practice so that I was rather uptight about it. In Debbie’s classes I also discovered that my form needed improvement — her knowledge and ability to communicate adjustments to me has helped open my mind about yoga drastically.
Two years ago, Debbie did a 10-day silent vipasana meditation in Washington. “About day 7, I decided I wanted to work with kids and meditation,” she said. Inspired to deepen the practice of karma yoga Debbie began to search for options w/ youth and meditation. In a twist of fate which deviated from her plan, she stumbled upon Living Yoga through her home studio, Amrita. Living Yoga is an organization based out of Portland which brings yoga classes to prisons, addiction rehabilitation facilities and other institutions. She completed the training shortly after.
Through Living Yoga’s volunteer opportunities, Debbie planned to try a few places but “went to OSCI and it just fit.” Working w/ the guys at OSCI (Oregon State Correctional Institution) and OSP (Oregon State Penitentiary) has become  very central in her work, teaching yoga 1-3 times a week. “The chapel at OSCI is not prison to me. It’s my other place of worship besides the dog park.”
“Mindfulness is the main focus in the classes in prison,” Debbie explains. “The quiet is what is really important. They have a lot of work out options in prison but they don’t have a lot of quiet.” The intensity of the classes w/ the inmates vary. “It goes anyway from restorative to L3 intensity — pretty much like a regular class,” she says. “There are guys in there who have been studying yoga and meditation a long time and then there will be brand new people. It’s really cool.” Check out this incredible video from the OSCI Living Yoga class.
Debbie also teaches two gentle classes a week at the First United Methodist Church in downtown Salem. These are public classes and all abilities are welcome. Class info below:

Gentle Yoga with Debbie Boe
Tuesday and Thurday Mornings 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM
First United Methodist Church (in the dining room)
600 State St. Salem, Oregon
Cost: Sliding scale, $8.00-$12.00 for drop-in. Monthly option, $35.00 one day a week, $60.00 both days a week.

Additional Summer classes at Minto Island Growers farmstand and retreats at Silver Falls State Park.

Visit her web site for current info on her classes and massage (Now available for Saturday massage sessions).

Debbie Boe, L.M.T. 503-990-5043

Licensed Massage Therapist since 1989, Certified Breema® Practitioner, Yoga Instructor and Self Breema® Instructor. I blend many styles of bodywork to facilitate balance (therapeutic, sports, deep tissue, relaxation, structural balancing, Breema®, Reiki, hot rock massage, and yoga therapy).

Gift certificates are available.

Convenient downtown location in the historic Garfield School, 528 Cottage St NE, Suite 204-A.
Hours 9:00AM to 4:30PM Weekdays and 3rd Saturday of the Month.

Tickets are available through January 18, 2012.

We are getting close to our first beer pairing dinner of 2012. We’ve partnered w/ Gilgamesh Brewery for the wonderful beers and our enthusiastic kitchen staff crafted the menu below.

1st course
Creamy risotto w/ parmigiano reggiano, chanterelle mushrooms, fried shallot + scallions
Beer pairing-Filbert Lager

Intermezzo
Mega Mamba taster followed by Mamba sorbet

2nd course
Cocoa braised beef short ribs, chocolate buerre blanc, potato/parsnip gnocchi, w/ root vegetables.
Beer Pairing-Cherry Coffee Cordial

Vegetarian option
Same entree as 2nd course but omit short rib, add cherry beurre blanc
Beer Pairing-Cherry Coffee Cordial

3rd course
New York style cheesecake with gingersnap + caramel.
Beer Pairing-Blitzen Prancer Winter Ale

Special thanks to Jesmika Moreno for designing this beer-pairing menu.

Please email us to inquire about custom full service catering.