The Oregon Brewery Running Series Podcast

Today on the Oregon Brewery Running Series podcast, we’re talking about one of my favorite places to eat in the whole world, Laughing Planet. If you’re not from the Portland area, Laughing Planet is a small chain of local, quick service restaurants in the Portland Metro (also with locations in Bend, Eugene, Corvallis, and Reno, Nevada).

Laughing Planet is hard to classify as one particular food category. They offer burritos, bowls, and salads, but it’s not Mexican food. You have to experience it. Michael Firth, the General Manager at my local Laughing Planet location, in the Hollywood district of NE Portland, describes it this way.

In today’s episode, we’re going to be talking to Michael and the owner and CEO of Laughing Planet, Franz Spielvogel, about what makes this place so unique. You'll get to learn:

• How Laughing Planet came to be
• What makes Laughing Planet a farm-to-table restaurant
• Their approach to creating nutritious, delicious food
• How they are trying to create a happy, fun dining experience for both their employee's and guests

Why We Love Laughing Planet

Laughing Planet holds a special place in my heart. When we moved to Portland from Minneapolis, our stuff was delayed, and I swear we ate at Laughing Planet for a week straight. It never got old, and we continue to eat there around once a week. Part of what keeps us going back is not just the delicious, healthy food, or the fact that my kids love it (which is a huge bonus), but also the friendly people who work there. They never even let us clean up after the kids have thrown a ton of food on the floor!

Laughing Planet is one of the Oregon Brewery Running Series small business partners in 2017. We reached out to them because they are a company we aspire to become. Their values seem to align with our own, and with what we hope to grow into as an organization that gives back to the community. Consider all the good they do the next time you eat there.

About the Podcast

The Oregon Brewery Running Series Podcast is a weekly show dedicated to inspiring Oregonians to Get Active, Have Fun, and Give Back. We host untimed family-friendly 5K fun runs that start and end at some of Oregon’s best breweries. Register for our next run using promo code LaughingPlanet5 to save $5.

We’re taking a break from the podcast this week. We’ve been hard at work getting all of our 2018 event registrations up, and combined with the Thanksgiving holiday, family gatherings and some travel; it seemed like a wise time to take a break to relax just a bit. We’ll be back next week, but we do have a quick announcement about something new we’re trying; Since it’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday and all of that, we thought we’d offer you the chance to get your holiday shopping done early. Rather than buying your beer and running loved ones one of those beer guzzling helmets, or another pair of running socks, we have a better idea. We now have gift cards to our upcoming season of beer run fun!

Kickoff Party

We also want to give a quick plug for our kickoff event on January 13. It’s nearly sold out, but we still have a few spots left. Our good friends at On Running are throwing a big party to help us launch the 2018 brewery running series season. It’s entirely free, and attendees will enjoy a taco bar, beer samples from participating breweries, goodie bags and massively discounted event registrations to all of our 2018 events. It’s a fun way for us to launch the year and reward you with some great deals.

So check back next week for new episodes. Over the next few weeks, we have a recap of the season, including interviews with some of you guys after our final event at Stickmen Brewing back in November. We’ve got an interview with Stephen Wright the president of the Oregon Road Runners Club, and you'll also get to hear my conversation with Jake Stout, a local PT and performance coach. And of course, more brewery owners and local runners.

Cheers to a truly happy holiday season, and don't forget to stay active, have fun, and give back.

The Oregon Brewery Running Series is about three things: Getting Active, Having Fun, and Giving Back. Our name may lead you to believe it’s all about beer and running, but that’s just how we accomplish it.

We get people active by hosting 5K fun runs that start and end at great breweries. These are family-friendly events where people can run as fast or as slow as they want. It doesn’t matter, partially because it’s not timed, but also because the idea is just to get your body moving. A lot of good comes from that.

The second thing, having fun, also doesn’t need an explanation. Yes, our runs involved craft beer from some of the best breweries in Oregon and now Southwest Washington, but the fun doesn’t simply come from what’s in your pint glass. There’s something inherently enjoyable about getting together with like-minded people. Runners and craft beer enthusiasts are some of the nicest folks you’ll meet. The runners high is real, and we have a blast celebrating the accomplishment of finishing a 3.1 mile run by pairing good beer with great people.

The third thing, giving back, is less obvious, but no less important to us. When Drew and I started this in the summer of 2016, it was important to us that we partner with non-profit organizations doing good in and for our community. We wanted to help, to give back to the great communities we live in. Currently, 10% of our proceeds go to help the work of The Oregon Brewshed Alliance through Oregon Wild, and also the Portland Parks Foundation, the fundraising arm of the incredible Portland Park and Rec department.

We’re proud to announce a third non-profit partner. Life Vest Inside is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that inspires, empowers and educates people of all backgrounds to lead a life of kindness.

Today on the Oregon Brewery Running Series podcast, you’ll get to hear my conversation with Jason Hattrick, a local volunteer for Live Vest. He’s also a Kindness Ambassador and a Dance for Kindness Group Leader. We talk about the movement that is Life Vest Inside, what exactly Kindness is, why all of us need more of it in our lives, and a few tips for quickly showing the next person you see a random act of kindness.

We’d love to invite you to one of our next 5K fun runs that start and end at great breweries in Oregon and now a few in Southwest Washington. November 4 we’ll be at the Hopworks location in Vancouver, and next week, November 11, we’ll be in Tualatin at Stickmen Brewing. Use promo code LVI5, for Life Vest Inside to save $5 on your entry.

Resources and Links

• Kindness Boomerang Video
• Kindness Boomerang Book
• Kindness Boomerang Tour
• November 4, Run at Hopworks
• November 12 - Dance for Kindness

In 1984, BridgePort Brewing (initially Columbia River Brewery) opened in an old rope factory in what is now the Pearl district of Portland, Oregon. Back then, they produced a whopping 600 barrels (these day’s they have a capacity around 100,000). This was shortly before the law changed allowing brewpubs to sell alcohol in the same place it was made.

Dick and Nancy Ponzi, BridgePort’s founders (who you may recognize more for their vineyard), teamed up with a few other local brewing legends to get the law changed. Names you may recognize like Kurt and Rob Widmer, Mike and Brian McMenamin as well as and Art Larrance, Fred Bowman, and Jim Goodwin, of Portland Brewing. Their goal was to legalize the brewpub, a place where breweries could make and sell their beer, something not happening at the time in the United States. Well, good news, it passed! The rest is history of course and the craft beer revolution had begun, with BridgePort sitting at the center of it. No matter what you think about BridgePort today, the significance of their role in helping to establish Oregon as a beer mecca is undeniable.

On this episode of the Oregon Brewery Running Series Podcast, I’m talking with Jeff Edgerton, Brewmaster at BridgePort Brewing. If this is your first time hearing about what we do, we host 5K fun runs that start and end at Oregon’s best breweries. Register here and join us for our next run!

Back in February of 2017, we hosted a 5K fun run with BridgePort as part of our winter series. At that time, I had the opportunity to sit down with Jeff and pick his brain about all things BridgePort beer. He’s been there since 1998 and has been in the beer business longer than that, so there was a lot of wisdom to absorb.

Jeff and I talked about a bunch of topics related to BridgePort, as well as what’s changed over the years in the craft beer scene here in Oregon. He also shared some beer tips with me, like why you shouldn’t drink it too cold, the reasons they choose specific ingredients for their recipes and some of the science behind it (Jeff's background is in biology). Jeff also describes, in detail, the stories behind the three beers we shared together.

Notes:

• BridgePort Homepage.
• Register for our next 5K fun run.
• Full video interview.

We had the pleasure of chatting with Bryce Morrow, co-founder and co-owner of Oregon City Brewing. We have a 5K event there on Saturday, March 19, 2022. Please register here then join us for a day of fun with great OCB beer!
COMPLETE SCHEDULE HERE!