The Meadow opened its doors in Portland, Oregon in 2006. The original idea for the shop was to create a place that felt like coming home, surrounded by things we felt most passionate about: gourmet salt, craft made chocolate, cocktail bitters, wine, and fresh cut flowers. The Meadow settled in an off-beat neighborhood surrounding Mississippi Avenue in North Portland; the homegrown vibe and close-knit business community were a natural fit from the start. In 2010, we opened shop full of salt, chocolate, flowers, and cocktail bitters in the West Village of New York City. This was a natural idea for Mark, who was born on Perry St, and has lived, dined, and played there off and on for many years. In 2013, we opened our third shop back in our hometown of Portland, Oregon on beautiful NW 23rd Ave, which was named as "one of America's best shopping streets" by US News and Travel in 2013. In 2019, in collaboration with our Japanese partner, we opened our fourth shop in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan.
Bitterman Salt Co's mission is to shine a light on your own personal love of cooking and eating. Salt is not just the most powerful enhancer and the quickest and most cost-effective way to make the most of every meal--it is your connection to nature and the people in your life. Sharing amazing salts is all we do. We see it as a sharing of values. Our salts are sustainably made, by hand, and left in their richest, fullest, most natural state. When we say "Flavor First!" we mean everything that flavor brings, from proper nutrition to ethical sourcing to wonderful stories bout the people and places where salt is made. We carry products we believe in. Craft salts are profoundly rooted in the diverse culinary traditions of the food you serve - the ultimate quality, local ingredient. Most are utterly unrefined, ranging from 3% to 33% trace minerals. They come from beautiful places and beautiful people. Kosher is an artificially refined chemical with mechanically processed crystals. Industrial sea salt is no better, refined to 99.8% pure sodium chloride and standardized for global chemical markets. Cheap salt is spun from the industrial maw, an abstraction, a chemical, NaCl. There is no love.