The first food piece I ever wrote was a review of Good Dog/Bad Dog: Sausages For All, in downtown Portland. My friend Brian Covey and I, editors at our school paper (The Cardinal Times, Lincoln High School) were wandering through downtown one night in the 1991-92 era and came across this new place. We were easily lured in by the promise of meat. It was great. We befriended the owners, brothers Ted and Brian Gamble, and wrote a review of the place for the paper. As I recall, we tried to sneak the phrase “damn good sausages” past our hard-as-nails faculty advisor, Mr. Bailey. I can’t remember whether we succeeded.

My favorite meal at GD/BD was the “mag chair”–that’s the Chairman of the Board sandwich, a sausage patty with mozzarella and tomato sauce, made with their “magma dog” extra-spicy Italian sausage. Later they allowed you to order any sausage “facemelter style,” with sauteed jalapeños and Tabasco sauce. Not everything at GD/BD was spicy, but I don’t think I ever ordered anything that wasn’t.

Laurie just emailed to tell me that the downtown GD/BD closed in October. Ted and Brian had already sold it years ago, but I’d been after that and it was still good. There’s still a location at the airport (past security, which is too bad, because the airport is near Laurie’s parents’ house) and one at Washington Square mall in southwest. I can’t vouch for the quality of these, but they’re worth a try.

If I had a time machine, I’d go back to 1992 and find my younger self, assuming I could pick him out among all the longhaired kids listening to _Nevermind_ on their Discmen. “Younger self,” I would say, “I have news from the future: writing about sausage is going to become your career.” I wouldn’t mention the Kurt Cobain thing.