A Culinary Retrospective on the Business Fall Forum 2024

Two short weeks ago, on October 25, SBLC celebrated the Business Fall Forum for 2024, titled Contracts with Benefits: How Contract Drafting Can Do More for Clients, People, and the Planted. During the event, guest speakers travelled from around the country to speak about how to contract in a way that’s more responsible to the community and to international human rights, more helpful to clients, and how to utilize design-thinking principles or emerging concepts such as relational contracting. But whether you were student or faculty, private practitioner or public servant, transactional attorney or litigator—all were equally treated throughout the day to the invigorating meals catered by SBLC clients. We celebrate the delicious and beautiful creations of these businesses, teams and families, and thank them for helping make the event such a success!

Breakfast – Panadería Pastries – La Casa de Mamá

Those arriving early in the day were treated to an array of sweet pastries, courtesy of the vegan Panadería La Casa de Mamá, including a selection of colorful conchas, crispy empanadas, coffee, and Mexican hot chocolate.

The Conchas were a perfect blend of crisp exterior and soft interior, with a sweetness not so overpowering that it would slow you from eating multiple in a row. For me, though, the empanada was the highlight. The empanadas featured a wonderfully crumbly and firm churro-like exterior, and the moment you bite through the crust you hit the sharp sweetness of the rich jam within.

What really blew away several of the attendees, though, was the hot chocolate. Strong, rich and spiced; even a sip brings an intense bouquet of complex flavors that linger on the tongue. I must admit the intensity of it was a bit of a shock to my palette – a welcome kick to help start the day off.

You can find La Casa de Mamá at https://www.lacasademamapdx.com/.

Lunch – Arepas– La Arepa

Lunch was a variety of arepas—Venezuelan stuffed cornmeal cakes—and salad from the family-run La Arepa, offering a perfect selection of proteins (chicken, beef, impossible meats and other vegan options). The warm, filling arepas and a chilled lemonade made for a wonderful comfort food to recharge with over a stimulating discussion on design-focused contracting over the lunchtime speaker session.

You can find La Arepa at the food trucks at 6035 NE Halsey St, Portland, and at 5716 SE 92nd Ave, Portland.

Afternoon Tea – Juice & Esquites – Xocotl

Afternoon snacks were provided by Xocotl, a Mexican juice and smoothie bar here in Portland, offering freshly-pressed juice blends as the perfect refreshments between lunch and the dinner reception. The juice blend I had received was cool, fresh and delicious, but the star of the show was the esquites—a Mexican street snack—that was similarly made right on site, warm and fresh.

I had somehow never encountered this fascinating snack until that day, and it blew away any expectations I could have ever had before trying it. Fresh corn kernels in a vegetable broth, lime juice, chili flakes, and Mexican cotija cheese doesn’t sound (at least to me) like it should result in a pleasant flavor or texture profile, but the result was actually a perfectly balanced mix of sweetness, saltiness and acidity that accentuates the texture of the corn itself. My only regret is that there wasn’t more to go around, or I would have gone for seconds and thirds of both drink and street corn!

Xocotl’s founder shared, “We are very grateful for the support provided by the Lewis & Clark Small Business Legal Clinic to our juice bar. Since we began our journey, the SBLC staff has supported us with affordable legal services—from helping with our trademark registration to reviewing lease agreements and drafting our employee handbook. As a BIPOC business, we trust and rely on the services they provide to our community.”

You can find Xocotl at 3295 SE Division Street, Portland.

Written by Stuart Barker.