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Portland: Good Food Done Right
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From the salt sommeliers at The Meadow to tea pioneer Steven Smith Teamaker, last week we brought you the best in Portland retail. Join us for part two of our series as we eat our way through the ever-expanding culinary utopia that is Portland and see why the city is all about good, honest food done right.
Clyde Common
Adjacent to the super-hip Ace Hotel, Clyde Common owes much of its success to cocktail zeitgeist Jeffrey Morgenthaler. On-trend boys and girls belly up to the bar to sip artisanal cocktails like a Figu: black mission fig vodka with Earl Grey tea and bitter orange. The Clyde bar is one of the few trend-setters serving barrel-aged cocktails, such as the house-aged Negroni, an improved version of its original self after it has matured for two months in Tuthilltown whiskey barrels. Morgenthaler makes liberal use of revival ingredients with a modern approach. His wildly popular Autumn Leaves gets its deserved following for the warming cinnamon tincture included before the final shake. Come for the cocktails but don’t leave before indulging in a few hearty snacks such as the farmer’s cheese ravioli with nettle pesto and toasted hazelnuts, and the near-perfect chicken-fried chicken livers, pan fried and served over bitter greens with a side of citrusy mayonnaise, a superb play on textures, crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside.
Clyde’s kitchen skillfully serves up simple, honest food without the need to drop the location of every babbling brook or farmer’s name associated alongside. But mind you, the ingredients at Clyde Common are all impeccably sourced. Clyde truly represents Portland’s reputation as a new bohemian mecca, with staff job titles such as “idea collector” and ironic staff uniforms, including the night servers’ t-shirts reading, “Le Pigeon”, a progressive restaurant across the river.
Like Cacao, the folks behind Clyde Common work arduously behind the scenes so you can kick back and enjoy some of the finest cocktails in town.
Pok Pok: Lord of the Wings
Originally a ramshackle takeout window, Pok Pok brought a whole new experience to Portland in the form of sweet porky goodness, chili- flecked noodles and otherworldly Thai-style bbq chicken bits. Owner Andy Ricker is often referred to as Lord of the Wings for Pok Pok’s fish-sauce chicken wings (currently, the house cooks off 1,800 pounds of chicken a week) and is reputed to be the country’s foremost Thai grilling expert.
What makes Pok Pok unlike typical Thai restaurants in the US is that Ricker and his crew are obsessive about details and authenticity. Here are a few examples: they add limestone paste to the sticky rice to mimic the hard water in Thailand, use an authentic coconut press to squeeze their own milk, and infuse the restaurant’s drinking water with pandanus leaf as it would be in Chiang Mai, perfuming the water with an essence similar to roasted coconuts. Fresh sugar cane is pressed daily for cocktails and to sweeten drinking vinegars. Ricker is quoted as saying “We bend over backward to get this stuff right. There’s no other way to do it.”
The takeaway with Pok Pok is all about authenticity. We’ve all heard from a family member or friend of an Indian, Thai or Vietnamese restaurant they swear is closest to what they had while travelling abroad. Thing is, Andy Ricker is not a Thai expat. He’s a white guy who never ate this kind of stuff until he was an adult. Yet he has nailed this region of Thai street food better than any other Thai place simply because his passion and determination drives him to find the most authentic ingredients to best represent this style of cuisine, rather than settling on substitute banal ingredients found easily here in the States. People travel more than ever, they know how food should taste, and they will reward you for your efforts when you go that extra mile and deliver on authenticity.
Olympic Provisions: Meat
Olympic Provisions is home to both a European-style restaurant as well as Oregon’s first USDA-certified salumeria (meat-curing facility). Housed in a magically restored cereal mill in Portland’s lower southeast industrial neighborhood, Olympic Provisions hits all the right cues in terms of high quality, sustainable, local and authentic, focusing on clean, bold flavors of the Pacific Northwest. They recently won multiple blue ribbons at the Good Food Awards in San Francisco for their saucisson d’Arles, Loukanika and pork liver mousse in the charcuterie category, and their Corno de Toro peppers in the pickles group. In fact, these folks are so spot on that one might think them a little too serious and even a bit pretentious, yet peek behind the curtain and you see they are having a great time while making killer products. From their approachable and adorably illustrated cured meat product guide to their 2011 Valentine’s Day promotion, you really get a sense of their good-time side. Imagine being the lucky recipient of a “Singing Salamigram,” where Olympic Provisions and the lead singer of vocal group the Tumblers delivered a "bouquet" of five salamis and an original song written especially for meat-lovin' Valentines in the Greater Portland area. All for a mere $75. Nice one, guys.
Take away: In the same vein as Whole Foods Market’s recently implemented five-step animal welfare rating, expect hyper-local, high-quality meat to evolve into meaning taste and animal welfare, rather than just aging and/or marbling.
The Pie Spot Food Cart: Reimagined Iconic Favorite
We are convinced that pies from The Pie Spot, handed merrily through the window of their groovy turquoise camper van, make the dough-encased delights taste all the better. Yeah, we’ve read all the top-trend roundups out there and know that pie is topping all the lists lately, edging frosted cupcakes and even doughnuts into fad dereliction. But pie is part of our heritage, our American culture. Pie is at the center of our national food holidays. Thankfully, Ashley Ragsdale and Jessica Woods are self-proclaimed freaks for pie. They have taken the classic dessert (and the savory sort, too) and reimagined the iconic format in a smaller, more fun and whimsical size, encouraging portion control and permission to go on and eat real food made from real, honest ingredients. Their Pie Hole is a bit of genius, as its diminutive size encourages us to share (and taste!) more than one variety. Must-try flavors are the seasonal marionberry and the savory winter squash, bacon and pecan.
Take away: Expect to see more diminutive treats in the coming months as in-store bakeries attempt to capture on-the-go occasions where consumers are looking for fresher, higher-quality indulgences in lieu of so called “better-for-you” offerings of low-fat, sugar-free commodity treats.
Ditch the 100-Mile Rule
If we are to consider Portland’s culinary landscape as a portal into the future of American food culture, it is clear that there is a movement toward consumers engaged in fresher, higher-quality ingredients and an appreciation for foods once considered overtly indulgent (i.e., butter, duck fat, offal, cream-top yogurt). While it is doubtful that consumers across the US will begin keeping honey bees and mixing up bitters in their kitchen, it is likely that several food trends that are de rigueur in Portland will soon become part of mainstream food culture. Expect consumer curiosity in ingredient origin and authenticity to increase, as well as the desire to engage in transactions with people who love what they do. This is the cornerstone in communicating that you are a sustainable brand. It may not be necessary to use fleur de sel or single-estate cocoa beans in your product, but communicating you are serious about food, while being playful and approachable, is how to translate your “localness” to mainstream. Portland does it right!
For part one of our trek through Portland food culture, click here.
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