Portland Burger Tour - Paleys Place

Last night on the burger tour we visited Paley's Place. I have to say that personally it was one of my favorites so far! When we arrived the bar area was full and that is typically the only place that the burger is presented on the menu, they made an exception for us and sat us in the dining room and allowed us to order the burger.

The environment was absolutely lovely. It is a very high class dining area and we are happy we somewhat dressed for the occasion. After taking our order we were served complimentary hors d'oeuvres on silver spoons. The first one was a falafel with Tahitian sour cream and pomegranate seeds. We were then served a loaf of soft bread and butter. The burgers took a little bit longer than most because they grind the meat to order. They literally ground the beef for our burger immediately before they made the patty! The burger arrived with a green salad with vinaigrette dressing and pickled mixed vegetables. I can honestly not rave enough about this burger. The meat was by far the most tender and delicious hamburger meat I have ever eaten. The burger came with a soft brioche bun, caramelized onions, homeade ketchup and mustard aioli sauce. As extras some of us added cheese, either gruyere or blue, and also bacon which was tender and maple seasoned. We all ordered a side of fries which came with an aioli mustard. The dessert menu looked incredible but the burger was so tasty and rich that we passed. They brought us chocolate and fig mini cookies with our check.

The service was wonderful and the whole atmosphere and experience of Paley's Place was one of my favorites yet. See the crew's ratings below:

Kendra's Ratings

Environment: 10

Burger: 9

Side: 8

"I loved the high class environment and the burger was so rich and flavorful."

Chris' Ratings

Environment: 7

Burger: 8

Side: 4

"The burger was phenomenal and tender and the environment and fries were a little salty for my taste".

Ron's Ratings

Environment: 9

Burger: 8

Side: 8

"I have never had a hamburger this tender before."

Lisa's Ratings

Environment: 9.3

Burger: 8.7

Side: 9.5

"The fries were excellent and the blue cheese on the burger was perfect with the tender meat."

Kenzie's Birthday

Last night we celebrated the birthday of my sister-in-law, Mackenzie, at our place with a dinner and game night! We started the evening with a game of "Sorry". I served a casual dinner of pizza and salad. For dessert I made a dirt cake which has become one of my favorite fun desserts to bust out at a party or as a gift. The cake is made up of layers of crushed oreo cookies, chocolate pudding and homeade chocolate mousse. It is served in an actual flower pot and topped with gummy worm candies. If anyone is interested in my recipe just let me know!

She loves teal and purple so I arranged a little bouquet with those colors.

I also had to deck out my side table with some more festive, fall goodness. Loving season decor!

Tour of Casa La Barber

A few people have asked me for a virtual tour of our little home so I snapped a few photos yesterday to share!

This is the front of the little place in Newberg! It is a little weird to think of myself as a homeowner still but we are are really enjoying the process of "nesting".

This is our living room which is what you see right when you walk in the door. We have tried many different furniture arrangements since moving in to be able to accommodate many house guests but this is the one we have landed on for now. I am dying to get some more artwork for the walls and to get rid of the current curtains!

Our kitchen is attached right off of the living room. I have a slight obsession with Italy and so the style of the kitchen is based on Italy. All of my dishes are Bistro Chef dishes. Soon I will have Trattoria artwork for the walls in here as well. We added the chandelier when we moved in to spice it up and make it look a bit more modern.

Down the hallway from this is the "Man Cave", 2nd bathroom, my office and then the master bedroom. This is Chris' man cave office, every gamer and electronic geek's dream.

My office is my inspiration zone for my photography work. Sadly I don't spend nearly as much time in here as I would like to. I really love the design and appreciate how modern it looks. I have a love for modern design but somehow everything but this room transformed more into a traditional look.

I love nothing in my house as much as I love this king sized bed. I have never slept in something so comfortable and big. I am proud of the artwork on the walls. I went to the garage sale of a Nike textiles designer. He designer the fabrics used on Nike shoes. He had these macro shots of textiles hanging in his home for many years but was upgrading his space and wanted to sell them. After some negotiating (I can never pay full price) I was able to grab these for $10. They add a great modern element to the room and help tie in the grey color scheme from the offices.

I didn't include shots of the bathrooms because they are just...bathrooms. Sorry for the blurry, dark images. I should actually be pulling out my camera for all of this work but by the time I finish a day of work and a night at the studio, I am tired of holding a camera!

Hope you enjoyed the tour of our little place and I am happy to have people along for the journey of designing and making this space home.

Portland Burger Tour - Grain and Gristle

Next up on our burger tour was Grain and Gristle in Northeast Portland off of Prescott. This was #9 on our Top 10 Burger List.

G+G was a small rustic bar that was very woodsy and homey. There are not a lot of seating options for larger groups so we were really lucky to only have a 10 minute wait. The bar is made of polished, halfed logs and all of the benches and chairs were natural wood. We had a wonderful, friendly waitress who did a great job serving us and explaining all of the biggest menu hits. Our whole gang ordered the one burger that was on the menu and made our own modifications to taste. According to our waitress, G+G has their own butcher where they get the meat to grind fresh daily. The burger has a buttery soft bun, a thick burger patty with a delicious crispy crust on the outside, pickles, lettuce and a smear of aioli. I ordered mine with blue cheese (choices were blue cheese or cheddar) and the men in the group added bacon. The recommended side was onion straws which you can substitute instead of fries for an extra dollar.

We really enjoyed G+G and are look forward to next on the list! Check out the whole group's ratings below.

Kendra's Ratings

Environment: 6

Burger: 6

Side: 5

Chris' Ratings

Environment: 6

Burger: 7

Side: 5

Ron's Ratings

Environment: 6

Burger: 7.5

Side: 7.5

"Good service, bright dining area, ask for extra napkins if you get blue cheese on the burger or the onion rings."

Lisa's Ratings

Environment: 6

Burger: 6

Side: 6.4

"Very friendly, nice neighborhood feel."

Counting Down Portland's Best Burgers

Chris and I have embarked on a lovely adventure with my parents. We are on a quest to find the best gourmet burger in Portland. We are using the newly released list from The Oregonian that shows their picks for Top 10 Burgers in Portland.

See the list here.

First up on our list was Branch Whiskey Bar off of Alberta. I ate the "Alberta Burger" which was the classic and recommended burger. This burger was great and so much meat I could barely get my mouth around it! The burger had blue cheese, housemade pickles and a spicy remoulade sauce. The specialty side was duck fat fries and believe it or not, these were wonderful and didn't taste too gamey.

For our rating system we decided to rate the burger places for the overall environment which includes service, location and venue appeal. We, of course, will be rating the burger and then we will also rate the side dishes that we got (we try and stay consistent and order the recommended or most popular sides).

The whole crew's ratings are below!

Kendra's Ratings

Environment: 5

Burger: 5

Side: 6

"These fries were so good and I have never tasted anything like their housemade pickles. Delicious!"

Chris' Ratings

Environment: 5.5

Burger: 5

Side: 8

Ron's Ratings

Environment: 4.8

Burger: 7

Side: 7.5

Lisa's Ratings

Environment: 4.7

Burger: 5

Side: 7.2

Fall is Here!

Now that the weather is getting cooler and the rain is starting to come down, I think it is safe to say that fall is here! I got crafty last night and did a little bit of decorating to make the house a bit more cheery. Since we just moved in, I still don't have a lot of decor pieces so I am gathering as I go.

I started with my kitchen side table. I bought two packages of paper leaves from Dollar Tree and then wrapped the wire to make fall garland. I felt like this looked more real than some of the pre-made garland strands.

Next I took a vase and layered apple and vanilla potpourri. I tied a plaid and gold ribbon around it and set it on top of some leaves as the final touches. This piece is on my kitchen table.

Lastly for my living room centerpiece I used a basket lined with leaves to hold 3 baby pumpkins.

Who Am I?

Hi, my name is Kendra Barber and I am a fashion photographer. This is how I'm known and what you will find if you Google my name. But I am more than that. I am a brand new wife (as of July 2014), a new homeowner (as of May 2014), an avid garage saler, a goodwill shopping expert, a lover of family, a reader, an explorer, a cleanliness and organization freak, an interior decorator, a party thrower, traveler and a lover of words and quotes. Since my social media of all kinds is dedicated to my photography, I created this as an outlet to appreciate all of these other things. If people read it then that is great but "The Rest of Me" is dedicated to showing myself more than anybody that there is value outside of work and that even though all these other things don't get the media attention of my photography work, that they are still a valuable part of me and deserve being explored.

So here is to me....Not behind the lens.