from Chad Kennedy, Laurelwood's Brewer

Christian, Paul and I will be at Concordia Ale House pouring a few special beers for your enjoyment. As it now stands they'll have our UberAltus, Cask Strong Pale (aka Bunny Hop), and the last keg of Green Elephant (this was the lineup as of this morning). The last two beers aren't even available at the brewery so I hope to see you there. I believe the festivities start at 6 or 7.

All day long on April Fools, Amnesia will donate a percentage of all sales to the Oregon chapter of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Like you needed encouragement!

We have 40 different breweries on hand for this years festival, which means over 80 different beers to sample.

This event is all about educating your taste buds by sampling and comparing a variety of drink from hand-crafted beer, wine, cider, mead, and distilled spirits.

We encourage responsible drinking by featuring live music suitable for dancing or listening, food courts with gourmet items, and from the cooking stage renowned Chefs demonstrating cuisine using the "spirits" offered at the festival.

Our venue provides areas for sitting, strolling, and purchasing unique items offered by exhibitors and arts & crafts vendors. We have an attached heated outdoor smoker's tent offering a comfortable area where a cigar vendor offers additional beer and fine tobacco items.

This Sunday we will be featuring the Anchor Steam Brewery from San Francisco. We plan on pouring five beers, including their new Bock.

Cost of the tasting will be $6, including snacks. Time will be, as per usual, from 3 - 6pm.

labodegapdx.com/events.html

They are now doing their Sunday tastings every week, alternating between beer and wine. Pretty cool!

Pierogi Extravaganza at the Polish Hall

The "Pierogi Extravaganza" last week was a success, then we will repeat it this Sunday. Grandpa's Cafe is serving different kinds of pierogi - potato and cheese, sweet cheese, cabbage and mushrooms - this Sunday from 12PM to 2PM.

Which is your favorite? Mine are the sweet cheese pierogi.
A serving of pierogi is for $5.

More information about pierogi can be found at:

home.comcast.net/~dyrgcmn/Pierogi/pierogi.html

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierogi

Family Pictures at the Polish Library

Would you like a picture of your family, with your friend, or of yourself?

A professional photographer will take pictures at the Polish Library
this Sunday from 12PM to 2PM.

The photographer is Kirby Harris, (360) 574-7195, brideschoice.net

With easy access from the 4 busline (just cross the Failing Ped Bridge) and the yellow MAX, this is a no-brainer.

Saturday April 22, from 10am to 4pm, Hair of the Dog Brewing Company will be hosting their first Earth Day Sale. The postcard I received promises Blue Dot Double IPA in bottles! If that's not enough to get you there I'm sure Alan will have some other surprises up his sleeve. Last I heard, there was still some Rose Cassis, a special recipe Rose featuring black currants, which was brewed and bottled last fall.

(If you drive there, the googlemap will give you a good idea where it is, but it makes it look like SE 23rd actually goes through to Holgate. It doesn't! Hair of the Dog's How to get there will help you a lot if you are driving or bicycling.)

It's not everyday you have a potato holiday, is it?

here's what the flyer says:

$5.00 for serving of 4 potato pancakes with choice of
-applesauce
-sour cream sauce
-mushroom sauce
Come join us for this potato holiday, Saturday and Sunday, April 29 and 30, 12pm-5pm, 3832 N Interstate (at the Portland Polish Hall and Library Association)

Just a quick note to let you know about this Sunday's tasting. It does fall on Father's Day, but we will be doing the tasting anyway. Fortunately, it is something Dad might just love. Belgian beer! If you've spent any time at the shop here, you probably know that we view Belgian beer to be one of the finest products made on God's Green Earth. We will be showing the entire lineup of the Van Steenberge brewery — six different brews in all! They make a very diverse line of ales, including a few that are considered to be among the greatest beers made in the world. So come on down and taste the rainbow (is that a Skittles reference? — I'm not quite sure).

Time, as per usual, will be from 3-6pm. Cost will be $8 and will include the mandatory AmberSnacks. Every week she simply outdoes herself. I expect more of the same.

I go by AJA frequently, and it never seems full. Sometimes, it seems empty. Not a good advertisement. Yet, it's been at this location for over a year, so there must be something good going on, right? Asian fusion can't be too bad, can it?

We went for Sunday breakfast, at about 11am. There were two other tables in the place. We start by ordering coffee ($2) and iced tea ($1.50). The coffee was diner coffee; the iced tea, some sort of fruit tea, rather than the black tea we were expecting.

The menu only lists breakfast items: half a melon or grapefruit ($3), granola or oatmeal ($5), pancakes or french toast ($7), an egg-meat-starch plate ($8), 3 omelets ($8-$9), a scramble ($7), a hash ($9), 3 benedicts ($8-$9), and a traditional japanese breakfast with miso, koda rice, and fried egg ($6). So we order the Vanilla Crusted French Toast with Real Maple Syrup and the Chinese Sausage and Mustard Greens Omelet with House Potatoes.

Maybe five minutes after we order, the waitress comes back: they don't have any french toast. Huh? She has a new, different menu which has more and different breakfasts (6 different benedicts, 5 different omelets, 5 different egg dishes), plus a couple salads, soup, and sandwiches. So we order a Three Cheese Omelet with chedder (sic), swiss and manchego.

My partner starts to grouse; he would have liked to have ordered a sandwich, like the kobe beef burger, but wasn't given the opportunity. But his scone arrives: 'dry like the desert' he claims.

Then our omelets come. The chinese sausage omelet, with the contrast of the sweet slightly spicy sausage and the bitter greens, should be good, but we realize that in fact it's the chinese sausage, sauteed spinach and manchego omelet listed on the second menu. These things don't taste bad together, but there's no real zing to them, and the melted mess of sausage chunks, spinach and cheese lie beneath a puffy layer of eggs, rather than sandwiched lovely between two layers of eggs.

I'm not really a fan of puffy omelets, but hey. My cheese omelet is okay, just underseasoned. I wonder if the egg even saw any salt or pepper in the kitchen? The potatoes are chunks of yellow potatoes boiled through, then fried, but they don't show much browning from the frying. They too could use a little bit of seasoning. And the toast is like bruschetta. I love bruschetta when there's a contrasting topping, but there's no contrast here.

While everything was okay, nothing about the experience makes me want to go back again.

• Portland Food and Drink

Every now and again, I go to a place that I really want to recommend, and really want to love. But it'll have a fatal flaw. You know where I'm going...

Appetizers ($2.25-$3.50)

• hummus
• baba ghanooj
• ful madummas
• tabboule
• feta appetizer
• labne

Sandwiches ($4-4.50)

• falafel
• schawerma (beef)
• kafta
• chicken
• eggplant
• vegetable
• arayes

luncheon platters ($6.50-$8)

• shawerma (beef)
• chicken filet
• shish kebab (lamb)
• chicken kebab
• vegetarian kebab
• grape leaves
• mujadra
• munazle

My experience: I'm greeted by the owner who tells me to sit anywhere. All the two-tops are dirty, so I sit at one in the main room. After ten minutes, his wife notices me, and asks if she can help me. He immediately appears, apologizes, and brings hummus, pita, and a glass of water. He says the hummus is gratis.

The hummus is fairly standard Lebanese restaurant hummus, which is to say, perfectly fine. The pita has been reheated, and has the taste and texture of cardboard.

My shawerma with baba ghanooj arrives: the beef is yummy, though thoroughly covered in onions. The baba is smokey and richly eggplanty, which I love.

Too bad about the pita, I think. The owners are nice enough, the atmosphere is a combination of cloth table cloths and the acropolis meets star wars mural—I love that. The lunch prices are great, and the dinner prices just a bit higher. And, they make good on a mistake.

But the problem is, there are now a plethora of Lebanese places that make pita on demand, and it arrives to your table as a pillow of glory. Now, pita that might have been made earlier in the day, or came in a bag, just doesn't cut it.

And then, I get the bill. I can't read the writing (maybe it's arabic?) so I'm not sure what I was charged for, but the $8 meal I was expecting was actually $11. Looks like I was charged for the hummus. At this point, I'm late to be back to work, and I've lost patience—I don't want to argue with them, I just want to get out. So I pay and call it good.

If it weren't for the pita, I'd give them another chance.

We won a school auction of a Acadia gift certificate, so it was time for a splurge.

We were last at Acadia maybe 5 years ago. It was expensive and underwhelming. But, they had donated this gift certificate to a friend's elementary school, and it was time to give them another chance. After all, it's for the kids!

We ordered a decent bottle of wine which didn't seem exorbitantly marked up off the short but sweet wine list, and settled in to try a number of things. We started with the Barbeque Shrimp ($10.95).

Barbeque Shrimp is four large Louisana Gulf head-on shrimp in a butter, worcestershire, garlic, white wine, lemon and pepper sauce. It was terrific, and the sauce was decadent and lovely sopped up with Pearl bakery baguette.

Next was salads. I had the Bleu Note ($8.95), with fourme d'ambert (bleu) cheese, toasted pecans, and pears aside salad greens tossed in balsamic vinaigrette. My companion had the House Salad ($6.50), salad greens tossed in a creole mustard vinaigrette topped with crumbled egg. They both were gorgeously presented, perfectly dressed, and really really good.

My companion chose to do the 3-course $25 dinner. You get your choice of the house salad or a caesar, one of the starred entrees (which is everything but the barbecue shrimp, filet mignon, pork chop, or the taste of new orleans [crawfish etouffee and soft-shell crab]) and dessert. What a deal! It's available all night on Tuesday through Thursday, and before 6 and after 9 on Friday and Saturday.

So he had the Shrimp Acadian ($18.50), which was jumbo shrimp with shrimp and crawfish stuffing atop slices of crispy luscious eggplant. Oh, and there was a tomato beurre blanc sauce. Really really good.

I went for broke and had the Royal Street Filet Mignon ($29.95) atop grits. The grits were wedges of crispy-fried goodness, crunchy on the outside, smooth and creamy on the inside. The filet: well, that was incredible.

We finished with a slice of the gooey lemon cake which was really one of the most lovely desserts I've had in a dogs year. Wow.

Now, this wasn't inexpensive. Our bill was $119 for two, including a bottle of wine and a bottle of Abita Turbodog. Was it worth it? I think so. It was a really great meal, and for a special occasion, yum.

Now, if you want a cheaper experience, stay away from the sauce, go for the 3 for $25 deal, or better yet, go on Mondays when they offer 8 entrees for $10 each (as well as the regular menu).

More pictures of Amnesia Brewing

Looking out upon Mississippi Street, there's some good people watching. It's an unpretentious place to sit and have a beer. They have seven taps plus cider, with their Desolation IPA, Dusty Trail Pale, Slow Train Porter, and the ESB usually on. When we visited, they also had two seasonals (Copacetic IPA and Belgian Dubbel Whammy), and Caldera Pils filling out the beer menu. Pints are generally $3.50, with 50 cents off during happy hour (4-6 Monday-Friday).

They also have some food, which is pricey and underwhelming. But they do all their cooking on the grill under the tent; in fact, the smoke and charcoal-starter fumes was so thick that I couldn't even drink my beer—which is pretty darn thick. Obviously, the tent is wheelchair accessible, but I'm not sure about the pub itself. And, there is table service, but it's a bit 420 affected.

Other press
• BarFly

Okay, full disclosure: I know the owners socially. I met them after eating at their place several times and being wowed. That said, oh... my... g-d! This place, for me, is like dying and going to heaven! There's Anchor beers on tap, and wines by the bottle or glass—not cheap, but nothing outta line expensive. Bring a couple friends so you can order lots. Begin with a meat or veggie or combo plate. I haven't tried the veggie plate, but man, it looks good. And the meat plate is good. Salami (from Salumi, I believe) to die for. Next, the caesar salad. Garlicky, beautiful, and adorned with anchovy if you wish it. This is one of the three best caesars in town. And the plate is huge, an abundance of riches.

Hope you didn't fill up on appetizers cuz it's time for the 'za. Now, there are lots of arguments about what style pizza this is—is it Italian, is it Connecticut, or New York? I don't know from pizza, I just know that it doesn't get much better than this. Certainly not in Portland, at least. Thin crust that is perfection, crispy and wonderful, baked hot-hot-hot, topped with sparing amounts of exquisite ingredients.

Everytime we go, we order one pie (for two of us—it's good sized) and wish we had ordered a second. Because it tastes so good!

Drawbacks: parking can be a problem. And this place is popular—forget about going during restaurant prime time unless you don't mind waiting in line. The service is sassy and casual (which I appreciate). It's a small place, and it's easy to spend a lot of money because, gosh, you gotta get the caesar, and the meat plate is so good...

This tiny hole-in-the-wall is a welcome surprise. There are maybe 10 tables inside inside this old-stylee chinese-influenced thai place. First, you go up to the counter and order. Aroy has 8 luncheon plates, a curry special, and 43 different appetizers,soups, salads, and entrees. They also have Thai iced tea & coffee, and coconut ice cream with jackfruit and crushed peanuts! A luncheon plate is simply that entree, no soup, no eggroll, but the serving is significant and quite potentially firey. And if you want it hotter still, the proprietors are happy to supply you with hot sauce, hot pepper oils and other condiments to raise the heat level. They are only open 'til 8 pm weekdays, 6 pm on Saturdays.

Nobody would claim this is great food. But it's very edible, and you get lots of food.

Here's the set-up. Walk in and order from the giant board of burritos, tacos, tostadas, quesadillas, taco salads, nachos and combo plates. Choose from 4 types of chicken (chile verde, mole, asado & chile colorado), chile verde pork or carnitas, carne asada or ground beef. Then there's beans: black, pinto, refried (all vegetarian). There's grilled veggies, and the option to swap in spicy garlic prawns or mahi mahi.

Prices range from $3.50-$9.50, most in the more expensive range.

Just like in a Mission taqueria, you follow your food down the line, so you can specify none of this or more of that, as you wish. (Unfortunately, that's where the resemblance to a Mission taqueria ends) Pay up, and take it back to your table. That's it.

In spite of having a small play area, this is not overrun by children, so it's quite pleasant for the child-averse.

They have maybe a half dozen beers on tap, and, of course, many margarita options. It's non-smoking until 9:30 pm.

Of course, there are downsides. If you want a beer or a drink, you'll need to go into the bar and purchase it, separate from your food. Getting a seat on the sidewalk is hard during good weather—it's popular. There is exactly one table salsa, and it's nothing to write home about.

A craftbeer on tap is $3.50, and the taps include:

• Newcastle Brown
• Deschutes Obsidian Stout
• Shiner Bock
• Sierra Nevada pale
• Caldera Dry Hop Red
• Lagunitas Pils
• Lagunitas IPA
• PBR

• Hamms
• Rainer
• Guinness

• Bud
• Bud Lite
• Negra Modelo
• Hornsby's
• Pacifico
• Czechvar

They open at 4pm.

Other Press:
• Trendy East Burnside has a flip side, too: Bar of the Week: The B-Side Tavern
  Joseph Gallivan, The Portland Tribune, Apr 28, 2006

Join us for our annual Barleywine & Big Beer Tasting/Festival March 10 & March 11 (Friday and Saturday) from noon to 10 p.m. There is no entry fee, and drink tickets will be $1.50 each (good for a 4 oz. taste). Tickets can be purchased at the bar during the festival.

For an almost complete list of beers check out here oregonbeer.org/barley.html

Other beers featured include Hair of the Dog's Doggie Claws, Laurelwood's Organic Deranger Imperial Red Ale, and Lagunitas Imperial Red.

When it comes to taking visitors out to dinner, there are just a couple places I consider. Cafe Castagna, Ken's Place, and Bastas. These are my special occasion places, places where the atmosphere is good, the service is good, and the food, of course, is good.

Bastas is my favorite Italian. In a former Tasty-Freez. Yeah!

Though once you step foot inside, you might never know it. You enter into the sophisticated bar, and unless you're doing their excellent happy hour, you eat in either the garden room or the other room (I'm sure it has a name). They offer, of course, lots of wine, including by the glass, and a couple beers on tap.

Our downfall is the appetizers. There are quite a few, and they all appear to be yummy. The carpaccio is a full plate of raw thin-sliced beef dressed in olive oil and parmesan, with lemon on the side. The caesar is not as garlicky as I generally like but is still one of the best in town.

Entrees. Yum. The pasta is a little less spectacular than other dishes sometimes, however, it's good. But there is so much to love amongst the entrees. The $19 steak is the best $19 steak in town, cooked to order, nested with the most decadent mashed potatoes around. The crispy fried chicken (is that Italian?) is also so very good, crispy and moist and delicious. Their version of cioppin is a delight, with lots of broth to soak up. And the lamb chops cause my partner to go into fits of pleasure.

Desserts also are good, though a little bit of a let down for me after the whirlwind beauty of the appetizers and entrees. But the fact that you can park in their lot, right there around the restaurant, is pretty darn good.

Downsides: it's a former Tasty-Freez, so when it gets full, it's like a bus station. The chairs are fine if you don't spend too much time in them, but they're torture in a long formal dinner. And, I tend to spend too much money there.

more pics of Beaterville Cafe

Breakfast entrees are the usual cafe entrees, waffles, scrambles, and omelets, ranging from $3-$10. The Green Eggs and Ham, a frittata-style scramble with pesto, green onions and feta, and served with chunky seasoned red potatoes and toast or croissant, while devastating on the arteries, is a personal fave. Biscuits and gravy features one of the better sausage gravies in town. And huevos, a layering of tortilla, black beans, eggs, sour cream, salsa and green onions, is lacking the ranchero sauce, but it is really addictive all the same.

You can substitute tofu or 2nd Nature eggs, too—nice!

Lunches are the big triple S: soups, salads, and sandwiches, not a huge menu, ranging from $3.25 to $7.

The Berlin Inn is one of those places that I remember on the way to some place else, and think, I made the wrong decision. It's not terribly close to home, and I don't eat german all that often, so it's just not on my radar. Which is silly, because it's quite good.

This small place, stuffed to the brim with germanica, is popular with many, though it might be a bit much if you're claustrophobic. Stairs, small rooms, and tight turns make this definitely not wheelchair accessible.

The weekend (or should I say, wockenende) frühstück is a relatively small menu. There are several veggie items, including buttermilk and German pancakes, and blintzes, several meaty dishes like pork chops, chicken schnitzel, or leberkäse with eggs, 3 omelettes, and 3 benedicts. Everything but the pancake/blintze/North Sea Toast comes with your choice of bratkartoffeln (think, German home fries) or potato pancakes.

They offer three German beers on tap: today's selection was Allgaüer Hefeweizen, Spaten Premium Bock, and Salvator Paulaner. If you're interested at all in the local beer scene or German beer, be sure to chat with Marty—he's a wealth of knowledge and loves to share.

Prices range from $6-$12.50 a plate, and portions, as you might imagine, are huge. We got the Best of the Wurst omelet, and the leberkäse plate. Each was a gut bomb of food. Our potato pancakes were unlike any I've ever had: throughly, pan-fried until they were like crocquettes, but the omelet and leberkäse were both good. I needed a nap afterwards.

Unfortunately, I love banh mi 7 days a week. What's a girl to do?

Well, Best Baguette offers the answer. They appear to be a chain (at least, the place is designed down to the seams) that offers fast food banh mi, sandwiches, vietnamese appetizers, dim sum, gelato, and asian drinks, including bubble and milk teas. But wait, it gets better: they have a drive thru window!

Interestingly, the menu is entirely in english. They offer 15 types of banh mi which include all the typical ones, plus a Saigon Bacon sandwich, a Vegetable sandwich (greens and pickled veg), pork roll and egg (Saigon style), and the one untranslated sandwich, nem nuong (which is a char-broiled pork paste). The prices range from $2.25 to $3.50, and the sandwiches are foot-longs. They also have french sandwiches ($3.75-$5) and croissant sandwiches ($2.50$4.75).

They bake the bread on premises so your sandwich is all warm and freshly made. That said, the ficelles they bake appear to be commercial par-baked ones, like the kind you find that Safeway uses. It makes a very soft bread, and one with no tooth to the crust. Vietnamese baguettes and ficelles do tend to have a softer crust, but usually not this soft. The picked veggies come in a little baggie so you can add as much or as little as you'd like. They were stingy with the jalapeno.

Not realizing they were foot-longs, we ordered a half-dozen, including a parisian ham and cheese (ugh), a pate, a grilled beef, grilled chicken, and bbq pork. As noted, I hated the parisian ham & cheese. It used american cheese— that is so wrong! The pate had an unidentified white lump in it that might have been cheese, so while the pate itself was fine (a little thin, but hey), I shyed away from the white lump. But the grilled meats and bbq pork were fine. They weren't Binh Minh, that's for sure, but in a pinch, it's a banh mi, and it doesn't come wrapped in cellophane.

So, we ordered a half-dozen sandwiches, a couple viet coffees, and the total came to $18. I think they comped us a coffee and threw in an extra baguette.

They have a good selection of gelato, and a huge selection of drinks. Not just the avocado, jackfruit, and durian shakes, but a huge selection of Asian (and not Asian) sodas and the like. Jarritos, for example.

Anyways, this is a great option if you're jonesing for a banh mi after 5pm.

Ah, Biddy's. In spite of owner changes and venue changes, they've never forgot what makes them tick. It's a modest place, wood and smoke, covered with political posters and beer geegaws, but mostly political posters, some in Gaelic, most in English.

But probably what you're interested in is the beer, irish whiskey, and a smidge of food. We ate, it was nothing really to write home about, everything between $3-$8. They do offer cheese fries, served with steak fries with not quite enough cheese. But the fries were good.

They offer music every night of the week, a quite a bit of it free. Given that this is a reasonably small place, you'll probably actually want to like the music, but they keep the events calendar on the web site up to date.

Now beer, that's something. They serve imperial pints of
-Stella Artois
-Pyramid Hefeweizen
-Harp
-Pilsner Urquell
-Macs
-Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale
-Deschutes Black Butte Porter
-PBR
-New Belgium Fat Tire
-Bass
-Smithwicks
-Full Sail Amber
-Bridgeport IPA

with

-Beamish
-Guinness
-Boddingtons

on a beer engine.

The beer we had was good, and as we were there early, it wasn't too smoky. With a Irish jam session happening in the middle of the room, it was tremendously pleasant.

• BarFly

Like any other type of sandwich, banh mi benefit hugely from being made fresh in front of you. You can frequently get banh mi at Vietnamese groceries and some restaurants as a grab-and-go, wrapped in cellophane, and they just are no where near as good as a fresh sandwich.

Bread makes a difference too—if you can find a place that bakes the bread fresh, you can bet the banh mi is going to be good. And Binh Minh is a bakery as well as a banh mi shop.

Binh Minh is a phone booth of a place around the corner from the Pacific Super Market. They have a couple tables indoors that aren't really designed to be sat at for more than a couple American-sized people, and a couple tables outside. You go to the coolers and pick up your beverage, a gelatin dessert, shrimp flavored chips, etc, and then step over a step and order from the sign board on the wall.

Foodwise, I'm told it's pretty traditional. There are eight sandwiches, most $2.50: the Vietnamese sandwich (banh mi cha thit nguoi, $2), meat ball (banh mi xiu mai), barbeque pork (banh mi xa xiu), lemongrass chicken (banh mi thit ga nuong), Vietnamese pork (banh mi cha lua), fish (banh mi ca), pate (banh mi pate), and shredded pork (banh mi bi).

There are five soups and stews: fish soup (chao ca, tom, $5), Vietnamese rice noodle with pork (bahn cahn tom, xa xiu, $5), egg noodle with beef (mi bo kho, $5), beef stew with french bread (banh mi bo kho, $3.95), and french bread with round egg (banh mi op-la, $3.25). You can add extra meat or vegetables for 50 cents more.

I haven't tried any of the soups or stews, but I've had all of the sandwiches, and, wow, there's not a bad one in the bunch. I particularly enjoy the pate, but the lemongrass chicken is also great, and an option you don't always find elsewhere.

In addition, they always have some stuff in the hot case: steamed pork buns, and spring rolls for sure.

The sandwiches, let's face it, aren't huge: they're about the size of a skinny hoagy, so plan on getting two or supplementing it somehow.

The staff aren't terrifically friendly, but they know english well, and they're really speedy.

Stopping in to Binh Minh is always a treat—I think their banh mi are the ones to beat.

Cash only!

• Vietnam's far, but tasty lunches are nearby
• Hot Chefs, Cheap Eats

Micha writes (10/2001),

"Limited ale selection although they pour Fat Tire Amber Ale which sits well with me. Their Indian chicken tandoori pizza is really tasty, although they use some weird pre-packaged crust. Also good salad with "African herb" dressing - that's what the waitperson called it. No idea what's in it. Lemon and then a lot of things which are not lemon."

Mirfy adds: "Andrea does a great job of having a good red wine available by the glass!"

For many of my friends, the allure of the place is the garage door. Binks is about as big as a gas station, but it's certainly an enjoyable hangout spot, with good salads, and pizza made to order. And, they have one of the best jukeboxes in Portland!

more photos, including the beer garden

So, of course there's beer (Terminal Gravity IPA, Sierra Nevada Pale, Widmer Hefeweizen, Fat Tire, and Guinness, among other things). Pints are $3.50 (Guinness, natch, is more). They offer free WiFi, video games, video crack, pool, and shuffleboard(!), as well as a spacious and excellent beergarden, open noon to dusk. I mean, I wish my backyard looked this good. And, you can reserve it for your party, and/or bring your own grillables, which is great since the food there is limited to snacks.

Oh, and need to take away some beer? They're licensed to sell beer to go.

• BarFly

We had heard that breakfast at Bob's was good, so we headed out there one Saturday. Their info isn't kidding: it is only about 15 minutes from Portland by car.

You go into the Whole Grain Store, and the counter to order food is back and to the left. Don't be surprised if there's a line and you have to slowly inch by the breads. Sooner or later, you'll get to the front and you can order.

After you order, you take your number and claim a table, either on the first floor, on the patio, on the second floor. Water, coffee, and pop are self-serve, and the stations also include maple syrup, butter and honey. Someone will deliver your food and make sure you have everything you need.

The breakfast menu is rather sparse: 16 items, omelettes ($7-$8), breakfast eggs ($4.75-$7), cereals ($2.50-$4), a fruit bowl ($6) and a kids plate ($3.50). There is also a vegetarian menu of 10 items ($4-$7), most vegan. All the menus are online.

So where are the carby things that you think of when you think of stone-ground whole grain goodness? It seems they are relegated as sides (or on the veg menu). After all, they offer vegan and non-vegan flapjacks made from buttermilk, 10 grain, or buckwheat, as well as buttermilk waffles, and vegan and non-vegan french toast. I would have liked to have a multiple carb breakfast, but building your own plate is expensive, or so it seemed at the time. We ended up having eggs and cheese grits with scratch biscuits. The grits were excellent, and the whole-grain biscuits were yummy, flakey, and a little messy.

The next time I go back, I'm definitely going to try the flapjacks. Maybe with a side of cheese grits...

The downsides are definitely that Milwaukie isn't so close for those of us who live in town, and it doesn't look like you have a lot of public transit options on Saturdays. And Saturday morning probably means a wait in line. The meat products are turkey based. And everyone from Clackamas County is there on Saturday. Including Bob and Charlee Moore whose grandparently visages appear everywhere, and they eat there too!

This is definitely worth the trip, especially during the week, for Bob's Red Mill fans, vegans, and whole grain enthusiasts.

I was attending an event at the Oregon Convention Center, and the "restaurants" in the OCC were closed. I couldn't bare the thought of going to Burgerville or Big Town Hero, nor could I stand the thought of seeing if American Cowgirls served lunch. The OCC was kind enough to provide a restaurant list, and of the three non-chains listed, I picked Bogarts.

Bogarts is a neighborhood bar, and it appears to have been here long before Metro and the State of Oregon built their buildings. It's tiny and dingy and redolent of stale smoke and the desperation of people playing video crack. I sat myself in the small non-smoking section (what a joke), looking over the giant grill that makes up the heart of the business.

It became immediately clear that its a family business: the daughter got me a beer, her mother cooked my burger, her aunt was doing something else. Micros on tap included Black Butte Porter, Fat Tire, Widmer Hefeweizen and Drop Top Amber.

Everything on the menu ranges from $6.50-$8: 1/3# burgers, hot and cold sandwiches, salads. Sandwiches come with chips, potato salad or cottage cheese. And while my burger was nothing to write home about, it wasn't bad—and I loved the option of cottage cheese!

I really appreciated the human touch there: the staff calling me honey, watching them interact, and give directions to someone who wandered in off the street. And in the end, I liked the quiet, the feeling I wouldn't be rushed out, the chance to sit and think and embellish my notes.

I hate to damn Bridges with faint praise, but it's a neighborhood joint. Mind you, they're reasonably friendly, generous with the food, relatively popular, so much so that there's frequently a wait, and their food is consistently not bad. It's just inconsistent about being great.

Bridges is a sunny little corner breakfast joint. There are a couple booths, and quite a few tables, but it's crowded enough that wheelchair access would be a hassle.

It's smoke-free inside, and they have an awning hanging over some picnic tables on the Russell Street side if you prefer the company of your dog, or want to people-watch the folks going in and out of the Nike Outlet store. There is some exposed bike parking, and a gravel parking lot behind for the motor vehicles.

The menu is split into Benedicts ($9.50-$10.25), Omelettes ($8-$9), and Specialties ($7.25-$9.25). There's a dazzling selection of food items: burritos, french toast, fruit plates. You can also get cocktails and mimosas ($4.50-$6.50), bottled beer ($2.75-$3.25, selection varies, though usually it's some Wolaver's Organic Pale, Deschutes ales, Fat Tire, and Henry's), and wine by the glass.

Most non-carboload dishes come with potatoes. These are garden variety roasted potatoes, and like most places in town that serve them, they're not very good. They tend towards mushy.

This morning, we ordered a classic Benedict, and the Eggs Fiesta. The latter seems like it should have an exclamation point—whadda name! But sadly, the Fiesta, while its individual components were okay, there was nothing about the combination to write home about.

The benedict was fine. No complaints. Local canadian bacon, nice sauce, eggs just right. If only the potatoes were better.

You know, there are some addresses where you just think, oh g-d, what rubbish is here now? You know, addresses that are cursed? The former location of Epicure, La Prima Pizzeria, Irvington Corner Table, Rustica, and probably a half-dozen other places whose names I've blocked out because it was such an underwhelming experience, is now the locale for an underwhelming brewpub. Or it will be a brewpub once they get the brewery properly licensed.

If you are familiar with Old Market Pub, and/or like their beer and food, well, there you go. I'm told that the menu is the same at Broadway. I'm not surprised at all that places like Old Market Pub survive on the west side; the west side is so underserved for any type of edible inexpensive food that places that have no excuse for surviving hang on for years.

The space is dotted by big screen TVs and has the ambiance of a bus station; except in this bus station, there's lots of unfinished wood.

Let us begin with the menu. Appetizers and the beer list make up the front page. There is an artichoke-spinach-cheese dip, onion rings, 2 types of fries, 3 quesadillas, hot wings, and nachos. Prices range from $3.95 to $9.95, with most things, including the corn chips and salsa, ringing in at $6.95-$7.95.

We didn't order the $6.95 corn chips and salsa. There's TOFTT and then there's sheer stupidity.

Soups & Salads range from $3.95-$9.95, that lowest price being a cup of pub-made soup, the latter being an entree caesar with a 1/4 pound of shrimp. Are they cocktail style or deepfried, prawns or bay shrimp? Who knows?

Entrees vary widely. There's a pasta ($12.95-$13.95), gyros ($8.95-$10.95), chicken fingers ($9.50), 10 inch pizzas ($9.95), fish-n-chips ($9.95-$12.95), burgers ($6.95-$9.45), and sandwiches ($8.60-$9.90. Vegetarian options (a garden burger, 3 veggie pizzas, and the gyros) are few and far between. Just about everything comes with potato chips, and there are up-charges galore: to sub in fries, to get dipping sauce, to add salsa (!) to your nachos.

Broadway Grill has about a dozen taps of Old Market Pub beers. We asked our teenage waitress for her recommendation, and that worked about as well as you might expect. We ended up with a couple of lackluster beers. Then we ordered food.

Now, honestly, I hadn't heard anything good about this place, but I was hoping in the way that I always do, that this would be a good place to get dinner. So with that inherent, unproven optimistism...

I had the "1/2-pound beer-battered fish & chips", halibut with the shoestring fries. The fries were okay, but the fish, yikes. It was an awful grade of halibut, if it was halibut; it had no taste, and a distinctly wrong texture. Halibut is a firm white meat fish with a fine texture. It should flake into chunks when you cut it, or put it in your mouth, and it should have a sweet mild flavor. The deep-frying and beer batter were adequate. Wait a minute, scratch that. At 12.95 for a half-pound, what a rip off!

My companion got a "big corned beef reuben" ($8.95), which he described as the worst reuben he had ever had. For one thing, it wasn't big. The sandwich had too little corned beef, and what little corned beef it had wasn't very good. It wasn't bad, it was just something you'd expect in a Denny's reuben, if they served reubens (do they? I have no idea). The overall sandwich was greasy. Well, at least we had our fries.

What I don't get is that when we were there, the joint was jumping. Lots of folks there, eating and drinking. Is NE Broadway this starved for pub grub? I guess so.

CLOSED

To all our customers

First, I'd like to thank each and everyone for dining with us for 16 long years. But the sad news is, we are being forced to close our business due to the owner of the building. He wants us to vacate the premises by July 31, 2007. We hate to close the doors to you at this location. But you may visit us at 3126 N.E. 82nd Ave. across from Madison High School (503-252-1343). We would appreciate it if you would not dine here in honor of El Burrito Loco. I feel we were robbed of our business and you continuing to dine here would support the building owner if he try's to open here with our same food recipes. Thank You once again. Hope to see you soon!!!

The Original El Burrito Loco owner's

I stopped by this evening to try to pick up a burrito, and saw the place emptied out, with the owners hanging out at the door. It appears, according to the owners, that they've been forced out by their landlord. They're asking folks to please:
1. Do buy food at the Burrito Loco on 82nd, across from Marshall High
and
2. Don't buy food at whatever goes into their new space.

The Mercury has more details.

(there's a thread about Burrito Loco's closing on Portland Food and Drink Discussion Forum)

more pictures of Byways

First, let's look at breakfast, which runs til 11am on weekdays and all day on the weekends. The coffee is good, and hot. The menu looks like the usual greasy spoon fare: eggs & protein, omelettes, pancakes, hash. In fact they serve four different types of hash which look beautiful and taste even better. Griddle fare includes buttermilk pancakes, but also amaretto french toast, and super fabulous blue corn hotcakes with pecan butter. Eggs are treated respectfully and are always tasty. Potatoes are well-cooked home fries—not my fav, but hey. And, I don't know that this is the best bacon in town, but it's sure the best bacon I've had in town for quite a while.

Lunch is more of the same, stuff that sounds unassuming and unexciting until it's in front of you. They have malts, brown cows (coke with vanilla ice cream), rootbeer floats, stewarts sodas and arnold palmers (lemonade & iced tea). The lunch menu is the three Ss: soup, salads, sandwiches. The prices range from $3-$9, and the salads range from tuna salad, chef, cobb, greek, back to chicken salad. French fries accompany all the sandwiches, and they're thick on one side, thin on the other!

The counter makes great seating if you're there by yourself, and the booths, by the display case of vintage travel souvenirs are great if it's quiet or you're in a small group.

This is a small place and popular, so on the weekends, bring the paper and plan on a wait.

Just saw this on extramsg.com:

Happy Hour or France on the Cheap
If a Paris café seems too far to travel for your evening repast, Carafe offers food and drink specials during happy hour —Monday through Friday from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Pair a Slow-roasted Pork Sandwich ($3) or Goat Cheese Spread on walnut crostini ($3) with a French Martini with vodka, crème de Framboise and pineapple juice or a Jupa Gin with gin, fresh squeezed lime juice, sugar syrup and tonic. Carafe's Happy Hour menu also offers beer, wine and aperitifs...and of course, pommes frites ($3).

Main (non-happy hour) review is in Food, downtown

Wallbangers (915 SW 2nd Ave), the bar with dueling pianos, appears to be no more. At least, there's paper over the windows, and not a lot left in the building.

And in Pho Van news, the Pho Van on Hawthorne (3404 SE Hawthorne Blvd) is now open as of lunch today (Wednesday, March 1, 2006). They're open everyday (but Monday!) for lunch and dinner, with the same menu as Pho Van on 82nd's lunch menu (eg, no Bo bay mon, or whole catfish).

Pho Van Bistro (1012 NW Glisan St) in the Pearl might be closing for remodeling. When? Hmm, not entirely sure. It may not even close. Who knows? Anyhow, the rumor is that they want to incorporate the popular dishes into a new menu for a new high-end restaurant called Silk.

via ExtraMSG and Pho Van. Thanks, Nick!

We ordered a couple of gorditas and a chile relleno burrito on a recent visit. Prices here are pretty reasonable as long as you stay away from the soup and meals. Burritos range from $3.75-$4.75, tacos from $1.50-$1.75, tortas in the $4 range (except the Cubana, $7), tostadas, sopes and gorditas from $2.50-$3.

They offer some meats that are a little out of the ordinary for most innercity taquerias: suadero, the tender beef from the lower-part of a rib; buche, pork stomach cooked in lard; and tripas, the tube that connects the two stomachs in beef cattle. They also make their tortillas for tacos by hand, which is always a good sign.

The telenovella was on the TV, so we enjoyed our Jarritos while waiting for the food. And then, out it came, along with some red and green salsas.

The chile relleno burrito was good. It has pinto beans, rice, cheese, lettuce and the chile relleno, and it's a filling meal.

The gorditas were a little disappointing. I like to pick my gorditas up and eat them, which I couldn't do with these, because the structural integrity wasn't there. They were a little crispy, but to my mind, gorditas should be just a little more gorda than these were. I had tinga in one, which is pork or chicken stewed in chipotle in adobado sauce. Chilango's uses chicken in their tinga, and while you usually find it shredded, Chilango's serves chunks of stewed chicken. It was tasty, but if I hadn't ordered tinga, I might just think it was pollo; it wasn't terribly very spicy or flavorful.

I had carne asada in the other gordita, which had very good flavor, but wasn't completely cut up, and was very chewy. Still, I appreciated the slice of fresh avocado in each gordita—a really nice touch.

So. I was less than wowed, but everything was okay really.

ExtraMSG has noted that they serve the food of the ethnic Koreans in China. The thing is, you don't see that much reflected in the menu. I'm told once you're trusted, or once you're persistent enough, you get some pretty damn incredible stuff that isn't on the menu.

This was our first time, so we ordered off the menu. We ordered BBQ pork, a good-sized serving with dipping sauce for $5, and potstickers. The potstickers were crunchy and thoroughly steaming hot when they came to the table—we inhaled them, in spite of the temperature.

The atmosphere is post-fast food. A couple of fridges are in the dining room, and everything is clean, but not showy. Signs in chinese and korean advertise specials, while crabs scuttle around their tank.

I had the seafood & bean curd in clay pot, which was excellent and very mild: a lovely flavorful sauce, fresh seafood perfectly cooked, lots of veg and tofu which had absorbed the sauce. My copilot ordered the seafood noodles with gravy, a new-to-us concoction of broth, egg noodles, more perfectly cooked, perfectly fresh seafood, egg, and of course, a moo goo gai pan-like sauce—very mild, curious, and quite good.

They offer two free refills on sodas as well as beer, wine and sake.

At the end of the meal, I offered that the kim-chi really looked good, and it was like I had said the magic words. Oh! Just ask for it next time, the waitress said, clearly pleased that I had some lick of sense. Next time I will ask about the signs, oh yes...

Chino Sai-Gon was formerly Saigon Kitchen, and like the old inhabitant, Chino serves from a Chinese, Vietnamese, and Thai menu. When we were there, the place was fairly quiet: a couple of families, us, a latina who ordered five or six entrees (they looked good, too), a parking garage attendent eating white rice and drinking hot water.

We ordered pot stickers (6 for $4.95), charcoal chicken ($7.50), a bowl of wonton soup (large, $5.95) and wonton egg noodle soup ($5.95).

The charcoal chicken came first. It's a classic play-with-your-food handroll experience, and one of my favorite things from the old Saigon Kitchen menu. This included a large oval plate of sweet and spicy grilled chicken covered in sesame seeds, a large salad plate with lettuce, cilantro, diced carrot & daikon, mung bean sprouts, and thin rice noodles, and of course, the rice paper circles to wrap everything in.

While some places (Pho Van pops to mind) have elegant hot water sleeves to soften your rice paper, Chino gives you a giant plastic bowl of steaming water. It works fine, it just takes up a lot of space... especially when you consider that the handrolls take up the whole table by itself.

So, you dip the rice paper until it's pliable, you fill it with stuff, and then roll it up like a salad roll (or a burrito), and dip it in the accompanying peanut sauce. Yum. If you like playing with your food, I definitely recommend this: it's generous and tasty.

Pot stickers were another big success. These came straight from the pan, toasty brown on several sides, and really rather big, stuffed full of some unidentified meat, probably pork. They were the best pot stickers I've had in recent memory.

So, of course, we hadn't even finished our appetizers and the soup comes, and at this point, I'm almost full. Our table is completely full of dishes.

Now you might be wondering, what is the difference between wonton soup and wonton egg noodle soup? Well, the former has a spicier broth, and a lot of iceberg lettuce. Both have the wonton and the bbq pork and the occasional shrimp. The wonton egg noodle had a nice chickeny broth and thin egg noodles, and it came with its own small salad plate of cilantro, leaf lettuce, sliced jalapeno and quartered lime.

The soup in the end was fine, just nothing to write home about. It really could be a meal in itself.

So. The menu is huge, with over 150 items on the Chinese-Vietnamese menu, with just about everything under $10. The thai menu has an additional 17 items. Menu items are in English, overwhelmingly, so don't bother looking for pho or bun, look for beef noodle soup or vermicelli noodles. Still, some things are unclear: hot & sour soup: Vietnamese or Chinese?

We will definitely return, especially for those potstickers and charcoal chicken. But the rest of the menu is a crap shoot. I'll update this entry as we try new things.

Clays is a little place, with a couple picnic tables out front, and a number of tables and booths built for people who tend to routinely overeat. It's not fancy, and everything is nicely mismatched and vaguely, humanly, kitschy.

The menu is impressive: smoked BBQ hot wings as a starter ($8), chowder/chili/gumbo ($3.75-$4.75), salads ($3.75-$10.25), sandwiches ($7.75-$9.75), BBQ platters ($10.75-$14.75), and even veggie delights (their words, $7.75-$9.75). BBQ purists will freak: there's catfish and salmon, and that's wrong. But I'm not a purist—I don't care unless someone makes me eat it.

When I was there, they had a bunch of beers on tap:

• Bayern Doppelbock
• Widmer Hefeweizen
• Amnesia IPA
• Anchor Steam
• Bud
• Jamaican Red

I ordered the brisket platter, and my companion the BBQ sparerib platter, and naturally, these are huge portions, piles of meat smothered in a sweet, not terribly hot sauce, with chunks of potatoes in ranch sauce (aka, home fries with garlic sauce), a vinegary slaw, and not-quite Texas toast.

My brisket seemed a bit lean, and the sauce bugged me, but it was nicely cooked. It just blanches before fattier, crustier briskets like Campbells or LOW. The pork ribs, however, were sweet, juicy, and moist, very tasty ribs. The slaw was sharp and complex. The potatoes—eh. Value for the meal, though, was very good.

Our service was incredible. Our server was the sort who was there when you needed him, and if he was there when you didn't, you sure didn't know. It was the sort of effortless seeming service that you should get with a very good meal, and here in Portland, frequently don't. So that was a tremendous pleasure.

I'm curious about the wings, and I've heard great things about the cold smoked seafood platter (like a lox platter, just not), and the turkey in the garden salad.

The highlight for me was the dessert. We got the apple crisp ($4.75), topped with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream, and wow! It was just a modest crisp, nothing fancy, but so very good, a combination of soft and crunchy and creamy. Next time, I'm gonna leave more room for that!

Do you like fish? Or are you celiac (gluten-allergic to you, bud)? Or pining for the northern midwest? Need to feel that Green Bay Packers spirit? Get thee to Corbett Fish House. If you don't like fish, you could have chicken, a gardenburger or a salad. But if you like fish, well, you could sure do a lot worse than here.

The menu online isn't up to date, sadly. Appetizers include a number of seafood you'd expect, plus sweet potato fries, packer fries and deep fried cheese curd. Now, the latter is just plain wrong, which explains why it disappeared off our table as soon as it arrived. Packer Fries are their great french fries covered in melted cheddar and pickled jalapeno. The jalapeno is easy to pick off, for those who chose to. Prices range from $2.50-$12.

They offer soups, salads, sandwiches, which I'm sure are great ($3.75-$13). But the fish and chips are the thing ($10-$18). For those of you who care, they follow the Monterey Bay Aquarium guidelines. They have:

• prawns
• oysters
• yellow perch
• walleye
• halibut
• chile-fried catfish

They also have fish tacos, three different types made with halibut and chile-fried catfish, which are yummy, huge and filling.

Everything that is gluten-free is clearly marked, and that is most of the menu, so celiacs have lots of choices here. It's also wheelchair accessible (though there is a lip at the front door).

Of course, fish and chips requires beer, and Corbett offers a full bar. When we were there, they had on tap:

• Mirror Pond
• Alaskan Amber
• Fish Mudshark Porter
• Widmer Hefeweizen
• Terminal Gravity ESG
• Walking Man IPA
• PBR
• Michelob Light
• Pilsner Urquell
• Guinness

Happy hour is 3-5 daily; no drink specials, but they do offer 8 items for $3.95:

• deep fried cheese curds
• fried oysters or chicken strips & fries
• a catfish sandwich
• calamari
• a caesar
• bay shrimp cocktail,
• oyster shooters.

CLOSED

I mention to the barber that I'm hungry, and immediately, Du's is mentioned. Have I been to Du's? OMG, Du's is so good, blah blah blah. And I admit that I've smelled Du's when I've ridden my bicycle by. The aroma of grilled meats coming out of that place is incredible, the sort to make you hungry again when you've just eaten. And suddenly, Du's sounds like the best idea EVAR.

They claim they have the best grilled teriyaki in town. They may just be right. They have 9 menu items, not counting sides or drinks, each between $5.50 and $8. Mostly, it's chicken, beef or pork teriyaki, though they also have a tofu bowl and yakisoba. I didn't see anyone order the tofu bowl or the chicken teriyaki salad; the resounding favorite was the chicken & beef teriyaki.

In no time flat, and I mean, less than five minutes, I had a groaning container of salad, rice, and teriyaki. The salad is dressed with a poppyseed dressing that I had been warned about— it's good, though all iceberg lettuce. The rice was rice, and the teriyaki was steaming hot grilled meat, a little dry but really tasty with the rice and a bit of teriyaki sauce. You can also get hot sauce, or a side of kim chee ($2.25).

The dining room has nothing going aesthetically, but hey, do you need that really? Especially since it appears they stuff even more food on the plates, and two people can eat and drink pop for under $20? No beer, but hey, you don't come here to hang out. You come here to eat teriyaki.

A little girl glued herself to the counter, watching a woman cleaver chop up pieces of chicken with big eyes. "I've been coming here since before you were born", a business man said to her, obviously just having pulled himself away from work at 8 o'clock at night. And even at 8, there were a steady stream of customers.

more photos of Echo

Let's start with the restaurant itself: with brick walls and an insanely high ceiling, a beautiful wood bar, and some nice wood accents. Wood booths line the floor to ceiling windows. The atmosphere is cozy. The outside eating area is in a space between two buildings, with bamboo at the end that faces MLK, heaters, and homemade lanterns and a fountain. It manages to be shady and breezy and thoroughly pleasant.

When we went for brunch, there were two folks working the front of the house: the bartender, and a waiter. This was fine initially, but as the patrons started streaming in, they were in the weeds.

The menu is varied and inexpensive: biscuits and gravy, french toast, pancakes, eggs & meat, frittata, as well as small plates, salads and sandwiches, most in the $5.50-$8 range. Some of these things seemed to be different just to be different, like the french toast, made from zucchini-carrot bread in an orange juice-rum batter. We ordered a cup of coffee (a bad idea: stick with espresso or alcohol), the dos heuvos (2 eggs, bacon, potatoes or grits and biscuit or bagel) with grits and biscuit, and the frittata with salad.

While we waited for food, the staff kept our coffee and water glasses full. The water carafes have slices of cucumber floating in the water—nice.

About a half hour later, out came the food. The frittata was overdone, browned, on the outside, and too thin. The crab filling tasted fishy, and the hollandaise that topped it was gelatinous and had a muddy flavor. The accompanying salad was almost dry, with very little sign of a dressing, nonetheless balsalmic vinagrette.

The dos heuvos were good, cooked to order, though the biscuit was drier than dry and didn't really taste like anything. I opted for grits, which were made with a white sharp cheddar and thyme: my dining partner thought they tasted weird, but for me, they were the highlight of the meal, and some of the best grits I've had in Portland.

In the end, I think the recommendation that I've heard for dinner at Echo also applies to brunch: keep it simple and you're likely to be happy.

more pics of Fat Albert's

I asked for a suggestion, and was told to order the Kim's Fav, an omelet with cheddar cheese, bacon, and avocado with sour cream and salsa. Which is how I ended up with a breakfast that should have quite rightly killed me. I felt like I should feel like I had participated in a Roman orgy while eating it, and truth be told, it was very good, but didn't feel very decadent (which I quess just tells you how low I've fallen).

Biscuits and gravy should have been better. The biscuits were fresh and huge, but the gravy was bland and barely tasted of sausage. I remember it being better, so maybe its just an off day.

The salad eater omelet, filled with veggies, comes sauteed on request, and man, that was good. The veggies were perfectly cooked, right on that line between raw and overdone. Hashbrowns are shreddy and nice, especially with the Special Aardvark Habanero sauce on all the tables. Coffee was good, not exceptional, and breads are from Grand Central. Oh! And, they have a housemade raspberry jam that is addictive.

All in all, a solid breakfast joint with some real care put into it. The downsides, of course, are how popular it is, how chock-a-block full of tables it is (while it probably is wheelchair accessible, I wouldn't try it during primetime on a weekend). But, once you get seated, the kitchen is fast, the staff sassy and constantly bringing coffee and water, and it's a fun funky place.