Friday, January 30, 2009

New Specials are Coming...

The Spanish Tuna special that was completely overlooked last year is making an appearance... and we've got a few more delicious requests that are coming too.... stay tuned - when you ask for something we really do try to get it in the rotation as soon as we can. Keep in mind we do make every effort to emphasize seasonal ingredients.

In order to get the first notice of the specials be sure to sign up for "noodle news" on the website... and then watch your email - the newsletter is coming soon!

Thursday, January 29, 2009

New Flavor - DRY SODA

Just a quick note - our distributor brought us a new flavor in the Dry Soda line: VANILLA BEAN! It's yummy... like a not-to-sweet Cream Soda. Delicious with our tiramisu if you aren't a coffee fan (which is the ultimate pairing with the tiramisu... but I digress).

Available at both locations: Broadway (the original) and Downtown (too!)

Monday, January 26, 2009

Rising Prices... REDUX

Okay, I'm just going to throw this out there. Some people may not like it - but I feel like it needs to be addressed and that's what this blog is for.

Over the weekend, a family member of a former employee came in and complained about the price increases and the impact that it had on his order. He used to get 2 orders of Cheese Bread and 2 sides of Alfredo for a certain price (which, by the way, was NEVER full retail on the sides of sauce, but since he would always tell the staff what he paid no one ever questioned it). When he came in this weekend, he increased his order by 50%, but the total price was now twice what he was used to paying. He had a fit. Wouldn't listen to how much our costs have gone up since his sister worked for us over three years ago... didn't care that being a new location with MUCH more expensive rent was going to cost us more to operate.

NOTE: I'm editing the rest of this post since I've now had time to calm down and realize that it doesn't matter how much of a stink one person raises - I can't change the fact that costs have gone up. Those of you that come and appreciate what we do - put out high quality food for a good value - don't need the lecture. Anyone that doesn't appreciate it won't understand. Therefore it's time, energy and space wasted.

My thanks to our loyal customers that understand pricing in 2009 cannot be the same that it was in 2003.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

We've had a lot of requests for our focaccia bread to be available for sale... so we are going to give it a try. We will have loaves of focaccia - plain will be $5 each, flavored $6 each, these are 1/4 sheet pans - roughly 9 x 13 size, should make several nice size sandwiches or handle a couple of dinners easily. Once we are sold out for the day, that will be it until the next day - so come early to get the best selection. So far we've tried kalamata olive and a roasted garlic with parmesan - both taste great!

So let us know if you have any special requests for flavor combos - custom orders may be a slightly higher price depending on the ingredients you want. And if you KNOW you want bread for a certain day, you can call in an order - otherwise they will be on a first come, first sold basis!

Thanks for all your support - we are LOVING meeting new friends and seeing familiar faces in our new location!

Janet & Rob

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

1 Week...

It's official - we've been open one full week now.

Lots of people are asking how it's been going, so I figured I'd let you all know:
Lunches are great! We are finally getting the flow of this new place, and the hang of how to expect the traffic to come in. Plus we worked out some new systems, that given a few more days to perfect, should make the dining in experience even smoother.
Dinners are still a bit slow. Man, people weren't kidding when they said that they roll up the sidewalks at night! This is good news for you though - since you can come down, have EASY parking and get a table with little to no wait!
And of course, we don't want to neglect our original location on Broadway - they are doing steady as well, and we want to assure you that you can still visit them for lunch or dinner, Monday through Friday.

Oh - I should mention that here - the Broadway location will be CLOSED on weekends effective immediately. We want to be able to accomodate more people on the weekends, so it just makes more sense to have down town open. This also creates some more room for us to cater to private party requests that we get - we will be able to accomodate private parties up to 30 people at that location on the weekends. Email Janet at willamettenoodle@comcast.net for more information.

Ok - it's almost 7 - where IS everyone??? Please come see us for dinner downtown soon!

Thursday, January 8, 2009

drum roll please...

Ok - we did it kind of on the sly... Sent out an email to our "Noodle News" subscribers and turned on the open sign. And people actually came! :) We love our customers. Would you believe though - the first table to walk through the door didn't know who we were? Mom and a few kids were waiting for Dad to get off work in the neighboring office tower. That's okay - we hope they'll be back lots!

We are working out a few kinks in our new location... for one thing it's nearly 3 times bigger than our tiny little building on Broadway. This makes for an interesting dilemma: more room for customers (this is GOOD!) but the layout isn't as efficient either - which means we have to back-track, re-learn our habits and generally try to fit a square peg in to a round hole.

So, we are doing a MINI opening... just the opposite of a GRAND OPENING. That will come later. In the mean time, come on in and check it out! If you are used to the Broadway location I think you will find we kept the same feeling, but "did it up" a bit. New paint, lighting and a few other details turned the old space into something that definitely resembles the original WNC.

A couple of notes: Our Credit Card processing equipment is MIA. Please bring cash. Or there is a very convenient ATM at our neighbor, Bank of America. Also, please let us seat you. With this many tables, if we don't seat you, it will be harder for our staff. THANKS for your understanding! We can't wait for you to come by...