Sitting on the bus with 40 other foodies from IACP last week, I embarked on a culinary journey to some of the best entrepreneurial establishments in Portland, Oregon.
The tour began at 7:15 in the morning, boarding the bus to head to our first stop at Cacao,
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a haven with chocolates from around the world, from assorted bars to hot chocolate. A cup of a rich, creamy, steamy chocolate, warm from the oven miniature croissants, and a sample of sea salt caramel awaited each participant.
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A welcome treat at such an early and cold morning. Even a cocoa based perfume
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and body lotion can be found at CACAO www.cacaodrinkchocolate.com 414 SW 13th Avenue. The two owners consider themselves “chocolate curators”, preserving the legacy of fine chocolates.
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A satellite store is housed in The Heathman Hotel if you are walking down Broadway and need a cup of cocoa, quick!
Smith Teaworks, www.smithtea.com, a new venture by “serial” entrepreneur Steve Smith,
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features small batch loose and ready-to-drink tea. Smith began his tea companies with Stash Teas, moved on to TAZO teas -subsequently sold to Starbucks - and now, Steve Smith Teaworks. All the teas are hand mixed and packed, from tea leaves from around the globe.
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Black teas, green teas, white teas, herbal teas. All beautifully packed. All sold at this northwest location.
After six cups of tea, we headed across the Willamette River to the gentrified Mississippi neighborhood. Located in a parking lot next to a brewery and across the street from Pastaworks
sits a cottoncandy pink food cart called The Sugar Cube,
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located at 4237 North Mississippi Avenue. Kir Jensen
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has transformed a very organized and tidy permanent fixture cart into a miniature bakery. She produces all her goodies from this cart, with a menu fit for any fine dining restaurant. Samples of almond paste based cake with fresh rhubarb and lemon cream were handed out to each one of us, all served on antique china cake plates. Lovely.
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Back on the bus to another Mississippi Avenue staple for the gourmands in the area.
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The Meadow www.atthemeadow.com at 3731 N. Mississippi Avenue is an emporium that would be my choice of neighborhood haunts. Shelves lined with 300 types of chocolate, 90 salts from around the world, salt blocks,
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fresh flowers that exemplify the word “beauty” and another wall lined with bottles of fine wines.
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Chocolate, salts, flowers, wine.
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Can you imagine working here? Mark Bitterman and his wife, Reed College graduates, began selling flowers and a few chocolates years ago to a world-wide known establishment for the finest in salts, which are shipped to all corners of the globe.
Now we are getting a little hungry. Just a little. So, next stop on the eastside of the river is the innovative kitchen of Chef Jason French - Ned Ludd’s Located at 3925 NE MLK Jr. Blvd, this bistro is the wave of the future in neighborhood eating establishments.
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A garden, tended by a professional farmer, produces enough product to provide seasonal fresh ingredients for the restaurant from mixed greens to broccoli rabe to rhubarb. A wood-fired oven cooks a majority of the food served - not only pizza, but roasted trout, vegetables and pork loins. It is a “handcrafted” bistro. Almost everything is grown, cooked and/or baked on premise. Delightfully decorated with eclectic lighting, tables and wall art, Ned Ludd’s is refreshingly non-pretentious.
Our lunch of hand crafted charcuterie,
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mixed greens with radishes
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roasted pink trout with leeks and fennel
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and an apple/rhubarb cobbler made for a relaxing 2 hour lunch with appropriate local wines.
Back on the bus to our next location - Ristretto Roasters located at 3808 North Williams, again in the NW area of the city. Specialty coffee roasters Dins and Nancy greet their customers at this “coffee lab”, a neighborhood gem where customers relax with laptops, sip on their freshly roasted coffee and nibble on locally baked pastries.
Across the street is Pix Patisserie , a Portland fixture. Known for its eccentric and distinctive European flare pastries, Pix has transformed pastry chef Cheryl Wakerhauser into a celebrity in her field.
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Our last stop was the New Old Lompac Brewery/Side Bar located two doors down from Pix, across the street from Ristretto Roasters at 3901-A North Williams Avenue. Known for its handcrafted ales and lagers, Lompoc is one of the dozens of breweries that make Portland the city with the highest number of breweries per capita than any other city.
An enlightening tour, to say the least. From chocolates to salt to gardens to coffee and pastries. These establishments are the heart of the culinary scene in this gorgeously green city.
It is why people are here to savor the wines, the beers, the farm-to-table cuisine and and of course, to enjoy the amazing scenery of the Pacific Northwest.
