Today Sarah Mirk tipped me off to a blog post from last summer on ediblegeography.com concerning gentrification and cupcakes. The post focuses on the work of Dr. Kathe Newman of Rutgers University who, while trying to find data sources related to urban change, stumbled on the fact that recently gentrified neighborhoods seem to have one thing in common: cupcake shops. Or, as Dr. Newman explained in an interview with cakespy.com, “...a fantastic little place to get cupcakes. I'm always dragging home very pretty little cupcakes for my children while on research trips."

It’s an interesting idea to track the way a community changes by marking the evolution of food venues. However, I don’t think cupcake shops work for Portland. When I was living on Alberta Street back in the day, I watched places like the punky Chez What? give way to places like mannered Ciao Vito, but there was nary a cupcake joint in sight. The community was moving swiftly towards gentrification, though not necessarily to precious bite-sized baked goods. Today there are artisan bakeries on Alberta, including Petite Provence and Random Order, but they sell fine pastries and pies respectively… Does that count?

Aside from cupcake shops and little Italian joints, I’m interested to know what food venues you, Blogtownies, would use to mark our city's patterns of gentrification? Coffee roasters? Brunch Spots? Cart Pods? Give us your wisdom.