FOOD & DINING

Fine dining guide, restaurant reviews, food and drinks from Portland and throughout Oregon

The difference between brewers and civilians is never more acute than at the onset of winter, when the difference between SAD and SAMM is most evident -- the first being Seasonal Affective Disorder, which afflicts many an Oregonian during the dark months, and the second being Seasonally Activated Malt-o-Mania, which sets visions of malt, glorious malt, dancing through the brewerly brain.

Stronger beers begin with more malted barley, hence malt-o-mania. More malted grain boils into a thicker wort, which gives yeast more food to make more alcohol. And because maltier beers tend to be sweeter, Northwest brewers often take the opportunity to add even more hops to balance -- or unbalance, as is sometimes the case hereabouts -- that sweetness with the bitterness and aroma of hops. And before you know it, you have a beer such as Full Sail's Wreck the Halls or Walking Man's Ho Ho Homo Erectus or Roots Organic Brewing's Epic Ale, some of whose malt is smoked over mesquite charcoal and cherry wood soaked with cherry juice and generous lashings of 15-year-old Scotch whiskey.

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Two new westside barbecue joints have debuted. North of Burnside, Tim King has opened Slabtown Ribs and Barbeque, next door to Acapulco's Gold Mexican restaurant, which King also operates. The menu includes an eclectic array of regional barbecue favorites.

Meanwhile, downtown (next to The Oregonian building, in fact), Uncle Wally's BBQ and Catering has begun smoking, after owner Bruce Hunter decided to relocate from Wilsonville. In addition to the standards, Uncle Wally's offers the likes of beef tri-tip and a smoked cabbage side order, plus a range of nonbarbecue items. (Slabtown Ribs and Barbeque, 2606 N.W. Vaughn St., 503-227-2903. Uncle Wally's BBQ and Catering, 1406 S.W. Broadway, 503-820-1123.)

Growing up in 1960s Portland, fine dining choices were few. Long-departed favorites of my parents' and grandparents' generations included the Captain's Corner on Southwest 12th, where Brazil Grill is now; Canlis, at the top of the Hilton; and Nendel's in the then-western frontier of suburban Portland between West Slope and Beaverton.

One restaurant elder that has survived the vicissitudes of time is The London Grill, which has been regally ensconced in the lower level of downtown's Benson Hotel for nearly 50 years.

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The rumpus room is making a 21st-century comeback. At these three Portland homes, the basement bar is causing a commotion.

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How can you make brownies without butter? Cookies minus eggs? Or scones with no cream? Pretty deliciously, it turns out.

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Opening a 5,500-square-foot restaurant amid Old Town's charitable missions and forlorn storefronts would seem a roll of the dice even if the economy weren't in shambles. But plucky restaurant people love formerly gritty up-and-coming neighborhoods, and Christopher Handford sees opportunity and change for the better where others might notice weak foot traffic and shabby surroundings.

Continue reading "Davis Street Tavern coming to Old Town" »

Hot Pepper Chicken Bath doesn't sound like anything you'd find in a spa, but this signature dish at Lucky Strike, a new Sichuan restaurant in outer East Portland, will open your pores quicker than any botanical elixir or mud wrap.

Picture a bowl with a hundred dry hot red peppers covering the surface and chunks of chicken that, like sinners struggling through hell's flames, are buried beneath those tongues of combustion. You dig deep and extract the morsels. Freed from ignition, your mouth remains aglow with five-spice happiness.

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Pasta whiz Tommy Habetz (former chef at Ripe and Meriwether's) holds fast to his aspiration of opening a Roman-style trattoria. But he says now is not the right time. Instead, he and Nick Wood (his sous-chef at Meriwether's) decided to launch Bunk Sandwiches, a low-key breakfast-and-lunch joint in the happening central eastside.

"Everybody loves sandwiches," Habetz says. "We just want to do them really well, offering a mix of classics and more adventurous stuff." That means a meatball-and-Parmesan hero or a sandwich of salt cod, chorizo and olives. Habetz's masterful way with meat, and special touches such as hot pepper relish, seasonal roasted vegetables and poppy-seed hard rolls from Fleur de Lys bakery, should make Bunk's sandwiches soar.

Bunk Sandwiches is open 7 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Saturday; 621 S.E. Morrison St., 503-477-9515

Continue reading "Tommy Habetz wants to make you a sandwich" »

The e-mails started flying late today among Multnomah Athletic Club members about a new chef coming in January.

"Check this out," wrote one member. "Philippe Boulot, no less! Now maybe I won't drop my membership."

Check this out, indeed. Chef Philippe Boulot, who put The Heathman on the national dining map, will become the athletic club's executive chef on Jan. 15.

Continue reading "Multnomah Athletic Club adds Philippe Boulot as its next chef" »

This pioneering all-vegan North Portland restaurant served its last meal a week ago. Proprietor Adam Berger, who also operates Ten-01 and Tabla restaurants, attributes the closure to "too many changes" (the vegan plan was scrapped) over a short time, aggravated by its status as a "specialty concept" in a "demanding town."