totally agree with Abe, there is no weaker side than chips. I am always astonished when I see this as a side, esp in an actual restaurant. Dude, I can get this shit for $1 at new seasons but I DON'T because it is BORING TO EAT. At least make it a fries so I can be glad I fucking LEFT MY HOUSE
Hi! This is a good conversation to read, lots of topics covered. I eat meat sometimes but I want to keep it a rare thing. I too feel pretty "fuck you" about places with two boring vegetarian options. Especially if the vegetarian option is bread-based or wheat noodle-based. When I eat out I want hippy yet thoughtful, wholesome, satisfying, and plant-based.
It's surprising to hear that in a city like Portland, with its high concentration of food-conscious people, proper veggie options are still a struggle to find when you want to make a nice meal of it.
Up here I think the food is pretty good, considering. My favorite restaurant in town, A-Town Bistro, has a seasonal menu, so stuff doesn't remain so stagnant. If you have the quinoa salad in the summer, you'll have to eat something else in the winter. Right now they have an eggplant stack. They also have chicken and waffles that shows up out of the blue sometimes. Still, all the fancy cooks are pretty meat-obsessed these days so the choices are limited.
Did you guys hear the America's Test Kitchen interview with Mollie Katzen? She seems pretty legit. If someone else could make me food from the Moosewood cookbook (or any of her other books) every night I would definitely go back to being a vegetarian. Maybe I should take that on as my next project.
@joey There are tons of great veggie options in Portland - this is about a very small part of the city that is "Industrial" so eating options of all kind are a bit tough to find. I did find a great food pod though, and the Sheridan's options are fantastic.
There are lots of veggie heavy and veggie exclusive restaurants but lots of the new exciting foodie restaurants due tend to lean heavily on trendy meat culture (duck fat fries, etc.) but most are conscious of locally sourced and using lots of the animal so thats good but these places should be aware of a demand for more meat free options.
Clarklewis: Less of a "cool vibe" since I last went, years ago. Food still awesome. Not a lot of veggie entree options, but the salads and soup were radical. The kind of veggie salad plate where you want to lick it afterwards. Large wine.
produce row was bad at food, good on old school atmosphere but then someone bought it and made it fancy. new crowd. new fake original tin ceiling, made things expensive. sad to see an old standby of the past get all new portland cheesy but in this case the old shit was not that great. new vibe seemed pretty lame to me but then again im a new portland hater, so wtf do i know.
actually i really was impressed with that "asian" bowl place on water. went back. bunk sandwiches are good but also really fucking greasy and small and expensive and the line is like wtf long
the sheridan grill is a summertime classic. i would always check the special. fun "genuine old school portland experience".
its disappoint that the pho place across the street got bad after the one dude left.
i fuck with that sparky's pizza. i ride for it. its doughy and cheap and thick and heavy and they have lots of different flavors and the vibe is unpretentious
is that japanese place still open on burnside? if so, fuck a whole bunch of "asian" biwa bullshit and get some real deal good japanese food lunch at that place
Michael's, if you eat meat, makes amazing meat sandwiches in an old school style
Montage experimental lunch service. i dunno tho
this retiree couple were doing hot dogs and sausages cart style at lunch on 3rd and washington for a while. legit.
i just feel like sizzle pie is the jam. whenever i am anywhere near there it is just a no-brainer, unless I am feeling fancier for some reason they expanded in there and now it's so mellow! used to be kind of a slammed nightmare with the insane speed metal blasting and nowhere to sit. SIZZ PIE RULES. Great 'za, great salads, great veg options, great brewskies, sometimes a pretty gnarly music situation but that just puts a li'l edge on all the Neo Portland bourginess of our times and I am fine with it
god you think the meat fetishizing is an issue in PDX, you should see DC. There's like one food truck with reliable good vegan options, and i think they're shutting down.
it's just so weird HERE because this used to be so vegan-friendly a town! And now it's like "would you like bacon in that milkshake? You wouldn't? Well...uh...we can't make them without bacon"
well that makes me feel better! I just see so much weird bacon fetish and single-veg option at the places I go but maybe you are right and it is just that the places I go on the reg have changed
Time is crazy. Andrew was just telling me that when he first met me I would REGULARLY go to MCDONALDS and get apple pie there because it was vegan. This is completely unimaginable to me now and I have NO memory of doing it.
I agree with @UncleBoatShoes2011, all the vegan places are still here, and there are more of them too - our city has just grown up, so of course there are lots of meaty places, we're now both setting and following national food trends.
ALSO, in light of your argument I'm also realizing that my view of food culture is further skewed because for several years I've been reading the horrible New Yorker food reviews, which are all about, like, spending $400 on an infant piglet basted in its own tears, and which infuriate me. But I wasn't reading the New Yorker back in Olde Portland days, so I never got this window into How Regular (Rich) People Eat, yet now I realize surely 'twas always thus. I stand corrected! You guys are totally right.
ALSO it seems like since my youth there have arisen a ton of food tv shows where like Anthony Bourdain goes to India and eats a live monkey and then turns to the camera and calls vegetarians "pussies." But Bourdain was eating that way before he was ever on TV. Being exposed to the terrible way other people live their lives has skewed my perspective. I will go live in a cave now
I would hit Anthony Bourdain with a baseball bat if I could get away with it
Where is your all-time favorite most beloved place to eat in all of Portland, like if you were going to really celebrate something or you could only eat at one place one more time for all the rest of your life?
Honestly I think mine is Lovelys, specifically when they have the radicchio or escarole salads on the menu. I have simple tastes. But I am interested to hear other people's!
I JUST DON'T LIKE SHARING Because I'm always hungrier than everyone else I like to know how much there is so I can emotionally prepare I like getting lots of little bits JUST FOR ME
Comments
totally agree with Abe, there is no weaker side than chips. I am always astonished when I see this as a side, esp in an actual restaurant. Dude, I can get this shit for $1 at new seasons but I DON'T because it is BORING TO EAT. At least make it a fries so I can be glad I fucking LEFT MY HOUSE
And get rich. WFM 58.75+1.19 (2.07%)
I DON'T KNOW.
I really love walking down the street to Buelah when I am too tired to deal with life and getting a stupid PB & J with chips.
This is a good conversation to read, lots of topics covered.
I eat meat sometimes but I want to keep it a rare thing. I too feel pretty "fuck you" about places with two boring vegetarian options. Especially if the vegetarian option is bread-based or wheat noodle-based. When I eat out I want hippy yet thoughtful, wholesome, satisfying, and plant-based.
It's surprising to hear that in a city like Portland, with its high concentration of food-conscious people, proper veggie options are still a struggle to find when you want to make a nice meal of it.
Up here I think the food is pretty good, considering. My favorite restaurant in town, A-Town Bistro, has a seasonal menu, so stuff doesn't remain so stagnant. If you have the quinoa salad in the summer, you'll have to eat something else in the winter. Right now they have an eggplant stack. They also have chicken and waffles that shows up out of the blue sometimes. Still, all the fancy cooks are pretty meat-obsessed these days so the choices are limited.
Did you guys hear the America's Test Kitchen interview with Mollie Katzen? She seems pretty legit. If someone else could make me food from the Moosewood cookbook (or any of her other books) every night I would definitely go back to being a vegetarian. Maybe I should take that on as my next project.
Large wine.
Thumbs up, if someone else is paying!
ALSO: FYI: STUMPTOWN WAS OPEN THIS MORNING!
THANK YOU STUMPY!
actually i really was impressed with that "asian" bowl place on water. went back.
bunk sandwiches are good but also really fucking greasy and small and expensive and the line is like wtf long
the sheridan grill is a summertime classic. i would always check the special. fun "genuine old school portland experience".
its disappoint that the pho place across the street got bad after the one dude left.
i fuck with that sparky's pizza. i ride for it. its doughy and cheap and thick and heavy and they have lots of different flavors and the vibe is unpretentious
is that japanese place still open on burnside? if so, fuck a whole bunch of "asian" biwa bullshit and get some real deal good japanese food lunch at that place
Michael's, if you eat meat, makes amazing meat sandwiches in an old school style
Montage experimental lunch service. i dunno tho
this retiree couple were doing hot dogs and sausages cart style at lunch on 3rd and washington for a while. legit.
they expanded in there and now it's so mellow! used to be kind of a slammed nightmare with the insane speed metal blasting and nowhere to sit.
SIZZ PIE RULES. Great 'za, great salads, great veg options, great brewskies, sometimes a pretty gnarly music situation but that just puts a li'l edge on all the Neo Portland bourginess of our times and I am fine with it
You (YT) used to go to vegan places here WAY MORE when Jona lived here. It used to be Junior's, Vita, and one or two more.
Portland vegan great options:
Blossoming Lotus
Canteen
Bye & Bye
Sweet Hereafter
Portobello (Fancy!)
Natural Selection (Fancy!)
Homegrown Smoker
Sonny Bowl
DC Veg
Papa G's
Sizzle P
Veggie Grill
Van Hahn
Vege House
Harlow
Junior's
Los Gorditos
Paradox
The Farm
Native Bowl
Proper Eats
Native Foods
Bombay Chaat House
Prasad
Wolf + Bear
Vege Thai
Brass Tacks
Dalo's
Thai Food Cafe
+
Many More!
I guarantee you that's more than the past you are referring to
I just see so much weird bacon fetish and single-veg option at the places I go but maybe you are right and it is just that the places I go on the reg have changed
Time is crazy. Andrew was just telling me that when he first met me I would REGULARLY go to MCDONALDS and get apple pie there because it was vegan. This is completely unimaginable to me now and I have NO memory of doing it.
Am I still me
ALSO it seems like since my youth there have arisen a ton of food tv shows where like Anthony Bourdain goes to India and eats a live monkey and then turns to the camera and calls vegetarians "pussies." But Bourdain was eating that way before he was ever on TV. Being exposed to the terrible way other people live their lives has skewed my perspective. I will go live in a cave now
I would hit Anthony Bourdain with a baseball bat if I could get away with it
Where is your all-time favorite most beloved place to eat in all of Portland, like if you were going to really celebrate something or you could only eat at one place one more time for all the rest of your life?
Honestly I think mine is Lovelys, specifically when they have the radicchio or escarole salads on the menu. I have simple tastes. But I am interested to hear other people's!
#trends
#smallplates
Because I'm always hungrier than everyone else
I like to know how much there is so I can emotionally prepare
I like getting lots of little bits JUST FOR ME