Dave Knows Portland

The Virginia Cafe is dead, long live the Virginia Cafe

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vc.jpgA whiff of varnish, not the bar-y spice of cigarette smoke, greets us as we enter the new Virginia Cafe (820 SW 10th Ave).

On Monday the bar moved from its old (since 1922!) space on Park. Thursday we needed a beer.

The new location is smaller. The bar is on the left now. The booths, almost snug-like, are the same as before (including the broken off coat hooks). Natural light, not filtered through gossamer smoke, permeates the new space; larger windows face west and command a view of wide 10th Avenue, passing streetcars, and the pale facade of the Central Library. The restrooms, in the back past the lottery machines, are still clean.

The menu, service, and drinks, however, are all, comfortingly, the same.

I like the new VC. It’s more convenient; I’m at the library a lot more often than Nordstrom’s.

The Fire on the Mountain success story

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fireonmountain.jpgArguably Portland’s best buffalo wings restaurant, Fire on the Mountain (4225 N Interstate) is profiled in BusinessWeek‘s Success Stories feature.

The gist of the article is that restaurants don’t fail as often as one would think because of lack of capital, or poor location, but that restaurant success is largely influenced by the strength of the concept, something Fire on the Mountain’s owners had:

“The more I researched, the more confidence I gained,” says [co-owner Jordan] Busch, who had been kicking around the wings idea since he was a teenager. He already had the whole concept mapped out in his head: It would be someplace with the ambiance of a local sandwich shop rather than a sports bar—someplace where everybody could feel comfortable. There would be a big chalkboard menu, live music, and a rotating gallery of local artists on the walls. Busch says most of these details were things he just had a gut feeling about.

(Though their non-concept bases were well covered too; in my opinion the North Interstate location is great, and the article tells us they had a $100,000 investment to start their business.)

Biscuits [and gravy] aren’t for sharing*

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Biscuits and gravy (b&g) are not hard to find. In fact, they’re ubiquitous. But Portland’s best?

Candidates

Arleta Library (5513 SE 72nd) claims to have Portland’s Best Biscuits-n-Gravy.

Slow roasted pork loin comes thinly sliced, nestled between two sweet potato biscuits and smothered in rosemary sausage gravy

They are pretty damn good, but the best? I would label them the best non-traditional b&g I’ve tried. Sweet potato biscuits though, that’s kinda weird (though delicious).

For typical ginormous portion, diner white and fluffy sausage gravy-style b&g I strongly recommend Kelly’s Olympian (426 SW Washington). Kelly’s Olympian’s b&g (a full order contains your calorie needs for the weekend) and a Bloody Mary chased by a pint of Old Speckled Hen are the perfect hangover cure, look it up.

The b&g of Overlook Family Restaurant (1332 N Skidmore) is a solid choice too.

Honorable mention

For a Chinese-American variant of b&g, you can’t go wrong with the Maple Leaf‘s (7129 SE Foster) breakfast egg foo young. When I lived in the neighborhood I used to frequent the Maple Leaf, an amazingly undiscovered gem out on 72nd and Foster, home of inexpensive American and Chinese food and great service. Last time I visited you could get a massive portion of the breakfast egg foo young and a constantly re-filled coffee for under $5.00.

Not quite

Apologies to vegans, but Paradox Cafe‘s (3439 SE Belmont) vegan biscuits and gravy are inedible. It’s impossible to make good biscuits without butter and/or cream. My ex used to make a fantastic non-vegan vegetarian b&g, however (Gimme Lean Sausage Style is a remarkable thing).

In my sights

I’ve tried the vegetarian b&g at Gravy (3957 N Mississippi Ave), but haven’t tried the regular ones yet, so I’ll withhold judgement there. Their vege b&g is second only to my ex’s. (But the best use for their vegetarian gravy is in the gravy fries!)

After seeing this post, and photo, at altportland I’m looking forward to trying the b&g at Podnah’s Pit.

The write up about The Tin Shed Garden Café (1438 NE Alberta) on PortlandFoodandDrink.com also has me salivating:

. . . solid, down-to-earth stuff like biscuits and gravy, done very well. And that’s the word of two former Southerners. The biscuits are crunchy around the edges, fluffy in the middle, and if you prefer, they also have apple wood-smoked bacon gravy.

Inexplicably I have yet to patronize the Tin Shed.

The best?

One of the highlights of my nascent blogging career was locating poutine in Portland. So I’m optimistic this post will pay dividends. Help me find the best b&g in Portland!

*Overheard on the 4 Fessenden a few months back. I didn’t catch the context, but the sentiment is clear, and irrefutable.

Yet another paean to Portland, this time with slideshow

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The steady stream of New York Times articles about Portland’s quirks and merits continues in Wednesday’s paper: In Portland, a Golden Age of Dining and Drinking.

At first it was a sort of underground stop for food and wine lovers who had heard word of small, fascinating restaurants run by young, talented chefs serving a bounty of local produce. It’s underground no more. Portland has emerged from its chrysalis as a full-fledged dining destination.

And there’s a slide show too!

On a side note, has anyone else noticed how every article in the national press about Portland uses the phrase “at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers?” This one does in the second sentence.

Portland is an eatin’ town, just not a sweet tea town

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Debbie Moost, a visitor from North Carolina, enjoys a recent trip to Portland:

The News and Observer – Foodie finds joy in ‘eatin’ town’

So in Portland, I let the forks fall where they may. Not being able to let go completely, I still checked with the usual suspects — food writer friends and online chat groups — but didn’t book every day.

Besides, I’d heard that Portland was what I like to call an “eatin’ town,” with people practically flinging fabulous food at you on every street corner.

Amongst other experiences and observations, she sips ales from Bridgeport at 10:30am, actually enjoys a fruit soup at Park Kitchen, and commiserates with a sweet tea deprived expat North Carolinian server at Eleni’s Estiatorio.