Shrimp are popular the world over. Many devoted eaters even save the tails and shells of shrimp for stock or broth. The shrimp's strong swimming stomach is what most American's are familiar with. But rarely, in this country at least, do we see a shrimp’s head, much less eat one. 

Recently, at a dinner at Simpatica Catering and Dining Hall, I had the chance to enjoy this delicacy. Usually discarded long before consumption, eating whole shrimp is messy, but the head alone is worth the extra napkins.

Simpatica hosts formal dinners Friday and Saturday nights. It is not a walk in restaurant, but a reservation-only dining hall, a serious foodie haven. Each menu is its own entity of mostly Northwest fare, planned individually and served by course.

It has taken me years to fall in love with the egg sandwich.  As a kid, I barely even ate eggs and loathed most sandwiches.  I could not comprehend why someone would combine the two.  The sandwich, as I saw it, was no more than a poor excuse for a real meal, and eggs were only edible when smothered in enough cheese to mask all their taste and texture.

The first time I enjoyed an egg sandwich myself was New Year's Day, two-thousand and one. Two friends and I sat in front of a chain restaurant too prevalent to bother naming, and inhaled sausage, egg and cheese on croissants.  Breakfast had not even been my objective in the short ride, much less a breakfast sandwich, but our driver bought me one anyway, and I was unable to refuse.

A cold, January dawn met us in that east coast parking lot, unforgiving and cruel.  It was close to eight in the morning, and still none of us had
slept. With no leaves on the trees surrounding the strip mall, the wind tore through the car, inhibited only by conifers and weak human architecture.  In my hands, destiny.  Still drunk but sober enough to know it, I was crossing a great barrier: I was loving an egg sandwich.

Let’s face it: Portland is a foodie city.  Even a good drunk desires a solid meal, no matter if the drop ceiling is falling in the dive around the corner.

Your bartender can be tattooed in all the wrong places with a voice like a broken combine, so long as those russet tots come fresh out of the fryer.  The steer that died for your burger ought to have lived a decent life, and a local cheddar should grace what’s between that made-fresh-this-morning bun.

A posting on the Oregonian's blog says that FoodandDrinkPortland.com reported yesterday that Roux, the high-end Cajun resturant in the Arbor Lodge neighborhood, is closing.
From FoodandDrinkPortland.com:

"Restaurateur Dwayne Beliakoff and partner have decided to pull the plug on Roux, his Cajun restaurant in North Portland. According to Dwayne, he felt like he either needed to reinvent the space as a different type of restaurant, or pull the plug. “Since the bills are paid, we felt like it was a good time to re-focus and go a different direction”.

At this point, Beliakoff is going to be working on Violetta at Director Park, a small venture in the new public square behind Fox Tower, along with a coffee shop on the lobby of the new tower going up on Stark St. behind Jake’s Famous Crawfish."
READ THE ENTIRE POST

Byron Beck's blog posted an email from owner Dwyane Beliakoff today: "We've had a wonderful run of things here in NOPO, but times as they are, we simply can't afford to keep a fancy place like us afloat with a happy hour economy."

~Cassandra Koslen

A good dive is a simple thing. It requires some cheap beers for when you’re broke, a few nice drafts for better times, a healthy selection of liquors for a good night of trouble, and decent munchies. But what if your neighborhood dive had all these things, plus a great bar menu?

Dustin Berkholtz, owner of Duckett’s Public House at 825 N Killingsworth St. which opened this April, calls his bar a work in progress.

He shouldn’t sell himself short: In addition to the usual bar décor of neon beer signs, flashing pinball machines and a mirrored wall of booze, Duckett’s sports a decent menu. 

FROM PRESS RELEASE:

 TIP A COP SPECIAL OLYMPIC FUNDRAISER AT GRAND AVE. RED ROBIN THIS SATURDAY

On Saturday, April 18, 2009, members of the Portland Police Bureau will serve as wait staff at the Red Robin restaurant, 1139 N.E. Grand Ave., to earn money in support of Special Olympics Oregon. Bureau members will work four-hour shifts in uniform supervised by real Red Robin wait staff. Any tips earned by Bureau members will be donated to Special Olympics Oregon.

~ Cassandra Koslen

Al Forno Ferruzza’s recipe for success

Transplants delight:  There are places in Portland where pizza’s being made right. 

Pizza, like all good baking, is an art.  To achieve perfection, certain standards must be consistently up to par. Anyone can melt cheese over a pile of marinara and dough, but this does not a good pie make.  

“It’s in the way we operate the oven,” explains Francesco Ferruzza, co-owner of Al Forno Ferruzza on Northeast Alberta Street.  Francesco and his son Stephan opened their new bakery and pizzeria in late February, gracing Northeast with affordable, excellent, pizza.

photo by Jason E Kaplan

Late 1940s and ’50s Latin jazz floats softly out the speakers inside Café Cubano, a new restaurant that opened in December at 5225 N Lombard St. Chef and owner Jorge Luis Castañeda jokes that he never would have thought to be sitting where he is. This is the music he grew up with and, like most of us, spent his youth rebelling against. The food, however, has always been a perfect fit.

New coffeehouse, restaurant and music venue for NE 

By Carolyn Neuhausen

Just try to say “Rumpspankers” without a self-conscious giggle. It’s more than just a silly word, however; it’s the name of an local eclectic café-restaurant-music venue-coffeehouse hybrid. 

The cafe was open for a year and a half on Northeast 42nd Avenue and has been open at North Dekum Street and Northeast 7th Avenue since the end of July.

   Relatively new to Woodlawn, the resturant is often a easy place to find a table on Sunday mornings when lines at resturants on nearby Alberta Street are out the door.

The restaurant’s décor is shabby-chic (more shabby than chic), with vibrant colors and a variety of decorative styles. A pillow-strewn bench lines one of the walls in the long and narrow dining area. Tables accommodate more seating inside and outside tables allow for front porch dining. The walls are adorned with paintings and street-scene murals and various folk art. 

 SENTINEL NEWS SERVICE

Brad's Restaurant opened on October 7th in the former Dad's location.  For those of you who believe in redemption, there is a very pleasant kids' playhouse and toys where alcoholics used to brawl.  The family-friendly pizza & burger restaurant also features wi-fi, arcade games, and an extensively-cleaned-up interior.  The walls have been painted and a gorilla lurks in one of the windows.

(from Best Taverns Tour January 2008)

By Roger Anthony
Mock Crest Tavern – 3435 N Lombard
The inventory: Six lottery games; one video game; one computer; four TVs; backgammon game with one black piece missing.
The story: New owners have taken this longtime landmark into the high-tech age. If the Mac by the west wall is taken, you can sometimes borrow a laptop. Or you can bring your own; they’ve got their own Wi-Fi network.

yum E-San Thai Cuisine
8233 N Denver Ave.
(503) 517-0683

Restaurants and Bars Mentioned in Previous Issues

The Alibi, 4024 N Interstate, 503-287-5335
(2/08, pg 15, Interstate Date)
(3/07, pg 3, Karaoke)

The Albina Green, 5128 N Albina
(1/07, pg 12 and 6/07, pg 17, Restaurant Review)

Amnesia Brewing, 832 N Beech St.
(6/07, pg 17, Restaurant Review)

Big Kahuna’s, 8221 N Lombard
(6/07, pg 17, Restaurant Review)

Belgian Embassy, NOW The Liberty Glass  938 N Cook St, 503-517-9931

Flame on! McKee turns up the heat at Roux

By Andrew R Tonry

Not long ago The New York Times dining section ran a cover story on the up-and-coming Portland restaurant scene. One of the chefs drawing much fanfare in the feature was Le Pigeon’s Gabriel Rucker, a 26-year-old who’s been garnering heaps of praise for his relative youth and creative dishes. Lost amidst all the foie gras, though, is another young chef doing yeoman’s work in our very own backyard: 27-year-old Sean McKee.