W+K PORTLAND

Goodbye Half&Half

Then

Now

Hello Co-Workers,

In the year 2000, shortly after Wieden + Kennedy moved to its home in the Pearl, a friend and I opened up a tiny little cafe across the way from Powell's Books. We named it Half & Half. We made a wren our mascot, had a taxidermy display, sold cigarettes and fluffernutter sandwiches, and didn't put out a tip jar until our customers yelled at us.  We were the only coffee shop selling Stumptown coffee in a 5 mile radius. A lot has changed in 10 years. I like to think that Half & Half contributed to the food and arts culture in more ways than just making great pie and deviled eggs. We invented more than 300 sandwiches, and painstakingly named every single one. We sold coffee delivered to us by bicycle. We made iced sweet tea for all you displaced southerners. We served unemployed musicians, artists, architects, students, strippers, construction workers, freaks and ad-folks with equal zeal. You can find us in a YACHT video, a Gus Van Sant movie, and a TV spot for the Oregon Lottery. If it wasn't for Half & Half, I probably wouldn't be working at Wieden + Kennedy. And now, after 9 years and 7 months in business, we are closing shop. On April 30th, we will make our batches of deviled eggs and iced coffee and we will say goodbye to a community that helped create some of the best 500 sq feet the world has to offer. Half & Half could not have existed in any place but Portland, in any time but the last decade, and without the customers and staff who supported and sustained it.

On April 30th we're taking customer portraits outside the cafe and we'll be making sandwiches, deviled eggs and serving Miller High Life until we run out of inventory. We have the space till midnight, so let's see what happens. 

Courier Coffee Roasters will be taking over the space at 923 SW Oak. We've been serving Joel Domreis' hand roasted, bicycle-delivered coffee since 2007 and I know the neighborhood is in excellent hands. 

Fans of the Half & Half are encouraged to visit our page on Facebook and contribute stories or images for a scrapbook zine we hope to have on our 3,495th day of business.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=28256532398&ref=ts

Thanks everybody,

robin

Get yourself (quickly) over to the Half and Half for their last week of coffee, sandwiches and banter.

 

Thanks Robin and Jeff, the Half & Half will be missed.

seven-figh-nine-figh

We love her. She loves us. She loves someone more. So Washington D.C. is stealing our flannel-wearing, relentlessly-cursing, lesbian, "loving" project manager away from us.

As protest to her departure, we wore "I'd switch teams for Grogan" shirts and retired her phone extension as an act of gratitude for her 10 years of humor, scandal, harassment, hard work and dedication. The entire agency will feel her absence and I'm sure a phantom "seven-figh-nine-figh" will echo through these walls forever.

15 years, 3,400,000 wildpostings and 11,000 sticks of butter later, Lonnie Winter retires.

Lonnie Winter, our fearless print producer and agency baker of everyones birthday wishes, retired today. Family, friends and the whole damn agency showed up to send her off with a hand tunnel, dancing cupcake, a facebook account and some tears.

But maybe Dan put it best. She’s the matriarch of the agency, here when we are bad, here when we’re really bad, and always there to give us a cookie and tell us it will be alright.

Lonnie, we love you and we wish you the world in your retirement!

bring back devil's lunch box, please.

Sorry to be Debbie Downer with this posting but we have some bad news for all the W+K'rs who frequented Devil's Lunchbox.

It is with great sadness that I inform you that Devil's Lunchbox will be closing at Wieden + Kennedy. Today is our last day.

We opened on October 8 with no money, two clueless compadres, and lotsa love for W+K.
We're now five very-clued-in compadres with even more love than ever for W+K.

We can't thank each and every one of you enough for supporting us to this point.

Thank you Wieden + Kennedy. It's been an honor.

Godspeed,
dana
nikki
rachelle
aurora
and chef amy

19 years= jumanji!

Gwen Nelson has been the voice and face of Wieden and Kennedy for 19 years. An absolute stunner and very sweet woman who has had much more impact on this place than the person who is behind the desk at reception.

She has been interviewed by Oprah, been a security guard and certainly a baby sitter for this big family. Today we celebrate her and her retirement which will hopefully include a beach soon.

Goodbye Nik

Yesterday, I gave notice at work. Like picking an itchy scab, I wondered if it was the best idea. But at the end, it felt so good. The last two years have been great: The job has taught a lot, taken me around the country a bit, not been too stressful, and put some clams in my bucket. Portland has been relaxing, comfortable, cheap, and wet. I've played lots of Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2, eaten a lot of nuts and fruit. I've seen a few friends smile and fart, cry and explode, come and go. It's been a far happier time than anything I've done domestically since finishing school.

But my feet are itchy, and it's not just fungus this time. The next few months will be exciting, especially as June rolls around and J. and I board a plane for Thailand. Hopefully China and/or India and/or Japan will be in the itinerary too. Details to come.

Check out Nik's site here. And check out his latest side project, www.lookzlikedongz.com. Here is a short promo video.

Also, check out Nik's Facebook Dordles application.

Bon Voyage

Part of everyone's reality is saying goodbye to friends. A couple of our friends, Fritz and Anna, are leaving studio to fulfill their own destiny's. How about we all go out to lunch and take the piss while we are at it. Good luck to you both and don't be a strangers.

You spell pretty

In honor of Tanya Alger's final week here at WK, we held a spelling bee. An appropriate event in honor of someone who has spent the last 14 years proof-reading all of our adverts so's we's be lookin smarts and stuff.

Here are a few of the gems that got some of our best.
Diffident
Enunciate
Blatherskite
Swindleable
Miasma
Bavardage

After several rounds It came down to Jane Monaghan and Ginger Robinson for the title. A hard fought battle that found ginger throwing a dagger with the word "Ecclesiastic" (sp). Thanks to all the contestants.