Birthday celebration at The Observatory

Last week I celebrated my 40th birthday, and my sister and best friend, Emily, celebrated her 38th birthday.  We're both Gemini's (the twins) and have always been called "the Hunger twins" by our friends (although that had nothing to do with astrological signs).  Although we're two years apart, my birthday is June 19th and hers is June 20th, so we've always celebrated together. 

Last year was a weird birthday, because I was 6 months pregnant, and Em had just had her surgery to remove her brain tumor (on June 1st of last year).  She'd spent two weeks in the hospital, and then a week in a rehabilitation unit.  We weren't even sure if she'd be released from the hospital by our birthdays, but she was just a few days before.  So we were super happy that the surgery had gone well, but her left leg had been completely paralyzed from the surgery.  She's regained some usage of it now, but it's still nowhere near 100%, and she walks with a limp and has to use a cane much of the time.  However, by our birthdays last year it was a whole different story, and she had very little usage and actually had to use a walker.   When I think back to a year ago I realize just how far she's come.  That was a really dark time for us, so this was a much better birthday.

My wonderful boss, Trang, and my co-worker, Jennifer, had treated me to some high class wine at Oregon Wines on Broadway the day before (on my actual birthday), and Julian took us both out to dinner on Em's birthday the following day.  We went to The Observatory, which is in the Montevilla neighborhood, at 8115 SE Stark.  http://theobservatorypdx.com/

One thing that drew us in was their cheese plate - Julian doesn't eat uncooked cheese, and I absolutely LOVE cheese plates.  So Em and I shared one.  It was amazing.  The cheeses were delectable and as you can see they do not skimp on the portion sizes.

We also got some of their oregano fry bread with some yummy dipping sauces (only $4 but we would pay more for it).

I didn't take pictures of our entrees before we dug in and ruined any photo op.  I had a special, which was a blackened snapper caesar salad.  Em had the Idaho Trout Piccata with saffron rice and peppers.  Julian had the pulled pork sandwich. 

The food is super delicious, and the service was great.  It didn't hurt that our server happened to be Em's old co-worker from The Jam on Hawthorne (where Em worked up until the seizure from her brain tumor).

Chillin' before the meltdown he had from being so tired (it was after 7pm after all).

Here we all are!  Thanks Julian for a great dinner.

Coppia's....Fancy

Last Friday night we went to a new restaurant, Coppia.  Coppia's is an Italian restaurant in the Pearl that used to be Vino Paradiso.  It's actually the same owners, and went from being a wine bar to a Piedmont-style eatery with good wine.  I'd been to Vino Paradiso a handful of times, and always liked it.  Our restaurant group is going there as their next dinner and we couldn't make it, so we thought we'd check it out with our friends Brandy and Dave. 

The restaurant was really nice - definitely a little updated since it was Vino Paradiso.  Now that we have a baby we're not going to many places like this.  It was baby friendly (although ours was the only kid in the place), but is a restaurant in the Pearl all the same.  It wasn't cheap...hence the "fancy" designation.  But it was good. 

We got a few dishes.  I got the bagna caoda for an appetizer, which is kind of like fondue, it's a creamy, buttery dip served with bread and veggies.  Dave and Brandy got a salami plate.  For our main dishes, I got the golden stuffed trout (very good), Julian got the fresh fettucini with smoked trout and shaved brussels sprouts.  Brandy can't have dairy, so she got the same fettucini dish but they were able to exclude the dairy (and Dave actually said he liked it better than the creamy version).  Dave got the butternut squash risotto.  Everyone loved their food, and they do have a great wine selection. 

Coppia
417 NW 10th Ave., Pdx
www.coppiaportland.com

Brandy, myself and Hank

Brandy with Hank

Julian holding Hank, with Dave

My dish: golden stuffed trout with grilled fennel and polenta with a mushroom sauce

Julian's dish: handmade fresh fettucini with shaved brussels sprouts and smoked trout

Dave's dish: butternut squash risotto, hazelnuts and leeks

Brandy's dish: fresh fettucini with smoked trout and brussels sprouts (non-dairy, custom version)

Hank is past his bedtime and ready to go

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Dinner at Tapalaya

A couple weekends ago we went to Tapalaya with our good friends, Brandy and Dave.  Tapalaya is a cajun/creole small plates place here in Portland, on "restaurant row" in the Kerns neighborhood.  Julian and I have been to Tapalaya a few times, but not recently, and we'd been planning on going here with Brandy and Dave for almost a year.  Having Hank sort of delayed things - but we finally made it happen!  And we even went the week of Mardi Gras, how fitting.

We all enjoyed our food - between the four of us we got quite a few things and we shared most of it (that's the best part of small plates, you get to try so many different dishes).  A few highlights were the crabby mac n'cheese, pulled pork slider, seafood jambalaya, Crawfish fritters, smothered brussels sprouts, collard greens and salmon croquettes. 

Tapalaya
28 NE 28th Ave.
www.tapalaya.blogspot.com

Julian out front

Clockwise, from left: Brandy, Julian, Dave and me (Hank's in his car seat)

Julian and Dave

Brandy holding her little buddy, Hank

Salmon croquettes (yummy)

 

Restaurant review - Otto

Last Friday night Julian and I attended a dinner with our dinner group at Otto, which is a newer restaurant on 18th & Hawthorne. We'd been wanting to check it out, and it was a bonus that we could walk there. It was nice to go to a dinner group outing, we hadn't been to one since mid-May, party due to general craziness and also due to budget constraints. These dinners do tend to add up because they're usually at "fancy" restaurants, which we've really cut back on.

We had a nice time, and sat near a super nice couple that we'd never met before (and near other great people too of course). Liz, another dinner group member that is a sweetie, even gave us a cool book for little Hank, which everyone got a kick out of - it's called "Go the F*ck to Sleep" and it has a minimum of one cuss word per page, but usually more. Funny - but probably not something we'll be reading Hank to bed any time soon. But that was so darn nice of her to think of us and I'm sure we'll share it with him someday.

So on to the restaurant...it was not packed, which isn't a good sign for a Friday night. I'd seen the menu on-line and it was the same one when we got there, which is always nice (when you have something already picked out). Julian and I started with shrimp fritters and a salad. Each were $7. The fritters were literally 2 small fritters with a quinoa tabbouleh salad and it was tasty but way too small. I only had one bite of salad, I didn't want to eat all of it on Julian, and it was nothing to write home about and was underdressed. It was also the only salad on the menu - which is not cool because I almost always order a salad and like a choice. For our main dishes we shared a Neptune roll (lobster, shrimp & crab) that was $13 and the grilled sturgeon over corn succotash for $17. Both were yummy, but the roll came with absolutely nothing else (at least throw in some potato chips!) and the fish was a very small portion. The dessert was great though - I got the salted carmel gelato with espresso poured over it - really good and worth it for $6.

The wine list was not great, with 3 red wines by the glass: one for $9, one for $10 and one for $11. Too expensive. I'm a big fan of a good priced house wine in the $6 or $7 range.

So overall - good food, but not enough bang for the buck. We didn't feel ripped off, but we probably won't be going back either. Not one person had leftovers to take, or food left on a plate sent back to the kitchen - not really a great sign when our bill was as huge as it must have been. I would recommend they tweek their menu to be less expensive if they want to survive - Portland already has enough fancy pants restaurants and I'd hate to see them go out when the owners moved all the way across the country to start this place.

Lady's Brunch at Country Cat

Last Sunday my friends Amanda, Liby and I went to brunch at Country Cat (a great restaurant in the Montavilla area).   I'd never been to brunch there and was impressed!  I got the grilled cheese and smoky tomato soup.  Amanda got (I think) the corned beef hash and Liby got the hazelnut pancakes. 

Liby brought her beautiful little darling, Hazel.  What a cutie pie!  I just realized that hazelnuts should be Liby's favorite!!

After brunch Amanda had to take off, and our friend Thea joined up with us.

We all walked up to the antique mall on Stark.  I ended up buying my Mom a really cool succulent arrangement in a vintage white planter and a set of moose antlers that Julian will paint for our baby's room.  These both turned out to be big hits - I gave my Mom the planter yesterday for Mother's Day and she loved it!  I knew she would since we both love succulents and I wanted to keep it for myself.  Good sign.  The antlers turned out to be perfect too - they're a perfect size for a space above one of the windows.  I can't wait to see what Julian does with them!

This week.......

Last week was fairly uneventful.....We did go to Accanto for lunch on Saturday.  This is the cafe side to Genoa on Belmont (the fancy fixed price place).  We'd been to the cafe once before, for dinner, and weren't all that impressed.  Lunch was amazing though!  I got a tuna sandwich.  It came on a delicious baguette.  I thought it would be too crusty, but it was so soft and yummy.  Looks like most of their sandwiches come with pickled veggies - that are really good.  Julian got a pulled boar sandwich, he said it was similar to a pulled pork, but maybe a little "gamier".  Hopefully a meat eater knows what that means, I don't think I do.  But he loved it.  We were so impressed.  We've added this to another favorite place we can walk to.  It's time for another chance on dinner at Accanto.

Saturday night we went to the Bagdad and saw Due Date.  This was similar to Planes, Trains and Automobiles.  I'd heard it was, and I would agree.  But it was still really good - different enough from PT&A that I stopped comparing the two after a while.  I recommend it - I laughed pretty hard.

That brings me to an interesting observation.  While we were at the Bagdad we noticed a blind guy went to the movie as well.  We both thought that seemed odd.  Do blind people "watch" movies too, and just follow the dialogue?  I guess so.  Seems like it would work for some movies better than others.  Due Date was a simple comedy, I could see enjoying it by just listening.  No silent movies for blind people though!  Boy did they miss out.

That made me think of when we went to Walla Walla a year and half or so ago.  We rented a tandem bike to ride around their beautiful wine county.  We'd already rented the bike and were waiting for them to bring it up to the front.  While we're standing there a really tall blind guy walks in with a very short girl and says he wants to rent the tandem bike.  We just looked at each other because we'd already rented it (little did he know) and were really wondering how a huge blind guy was going to ride a bicycle (even tandem).  Once we tried getting on that bike we really had a good laugh at that idea because we struggled with trying to ride it and we're two (fairly) able bodied, sighted, people.  I could only imagine this tiny girl up front trying to navigate this big bike with a blind giant person on the back......I kind of wish I'd seen that.

Restaurant review - Roost

Last Friday night Julian and I checked out a new restaurant, Roost, which is on SE 14th & Belmont.  Their website is http://www.roostpdx.com/.  It's in the corner spot that used to be the bar Squeeze.  I'd been to that bar once, it was kind of lame, I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did. 

I heard about Roost a few weeks back, I believe it was the restaurant review in the Mercury (or was it WW?).  The review said the food was great, but that on the few occasions they'd been there it wasn't very full.  The reviewer was concerned that the restaurant wouldn't last for that reason.  So we decided to check it out. 

The night we went it was very busy, which is always a good sign.  We got one of the last remaining tables.  The bar was also available (no one at it when we came in), but there wasn't much to see there - the kitchen is near the bar, but the bar doesn't offer a really great view of the goings on (which can be a nice form of entertainment in some restaurants).  The decor was spare, to say the least.  I think the only thing on the white walls was coat hooks on the two opposing walls.  It could use a bit more decor to make it feel a little less like a 3 month old restaurant.  The service was attentive.  We got 2 appetizers to share - deep fried brussels sprouts & creamed mushrooms over toast -both very good.  The portions were generous, especially the brussels sprouts.  For entrees, Julian got the open-faced "burger".  It was beer wrapped in caul (stomach lining).  Julian said it was really good.  His burger came with a ton of fries (we wouldn't have ordered 2 apps if we'd known that!).  I got the potato crusted dover sole over wilted escarole.  This was basically a few (I think 3) breaded pieces of sole that were pan fried, over the escarole.  The dill pickle mayo that it came with was basically just tarter sauce.  Overall my main dish was pretty basic, but good.  I don't recall them having any specials - I would be more interested in a special next time since the other non-meat selections are really limited.  They did say their menu will evolve with the seasons.  I'm sure we'll check it out again at some point, but it will be once the menu changes and there are (hopefully) a few other things to choose from.

Restaurant Review - Lauro

Lauro (SE Division), Friday December 31st

Lauro is a newer discovery for us.  We live within walking distance (almost 7 years in this neighborhood) yet never went to Lauro until a few months ago.  I could kick myself for not checking it out sooner, but I didn't think there would be many non-meat options.  It turns out that's not true - they've consistently had fish options every time we've gone - some on the menu, some as specials.  And they are amazing.

We went to Lauro most recently on Friday, December 31st.  We didn't have a reservation, and it was more crowded than usual (not surprising since it was New Year's Eve).  We sat at the bar since a table in the corner of the restaurant was opening up.  We noticed the people at this table were there a long time with their coats on - in retrospect a bad sign.  After we finally got sat we had no one appear at our table for a very, very long time.  I wasn't sure who our server was, but we were hungry and had people waiting on us (coming to our place after we were done).  The person we thought was our server glanced our way once in a while, but never came over.  I finally yelled "excuse me" to get his attention.  This didn't work, but I did succeed in startling a woman sitting at the bar.  But it did work to get a woman server to come over. 

Our starters came out quick, the main courses took a little more time.  They have reasonable wine prices ($6 house red, which is a good wine).  I got a beet salad (very good) and Julian got fries with a great garlicy aioli.  My main dish was a fish special - steelhead w/cous cous.  Julian got a pork dish off the menu.  Both of ours were very good.  Mine wasn't all that hot - I think it was sitting for a while before making it to our table.  But the flavor was so good it was easy to overlook. 

Then we had another service issue - no one else appeared to check on us or to give us our check.  I had to start doing what the couple before us did - stand up near my table with my coat on (and cash on the table).  Our server finally came over and offered to comp our meal.  We didn't allow that, we paid because the food was great, even if the service was terrible.

Even after this awful service we'd go back - but we'll never fall for that corner table again!  We've always been sat in the middle and had no problems.  Another other night would be a better choice to go, too.