BAR PILOT

New Late Night Happy Hour!

Cheap Date: The Secret Society offers a new late-night happy hour to pair with a show at the Wonder Ballroom

Posted by: Emma Hall on May 07, 2010 at 02:00PM 0 Comments

Secret Society’s famous Moscow Mule.

JUST IN: The Secret Society now has a late night happy hour. We feel giddy with insider info just thinking about it, and we’re stone cold sober.

This 1907 historic building (at 116 NE Russell St.) was a real members-only space for most of the last century, but now anyone in-the-know can afford to drop by and enjoy a vintage cocktail. For seven days a week from 10 PM-close (12 AM Sun-Thu and 1 AM Fri & Sat) stop by and get some delicious food and $1 off fancy drinks. Every week there will be a rotating “Late Night Special” of fanciful drinking food—this week it’s Pulled Duck Confit Sliders with Rhubarb Sauce and Crispy Potatoes for only $8. Also, don’t miss the flatbread of the day, such as a recent concoction that included a parsley-pimento salad, chopped hard boiled egg and anchovy fillets, served with pimento anchovy oil for dipping ($7). The menu changes each Tuesday.

Next door to the Wonder Ballroom, The Secret Society is a great place to grab a drink after a show. Consider these rocker n’ booze pairings:

May 15: Kaki King
Listen to the talented Kaki King, the first female to be named a “Guitar God” by Rolling Stone Magazine, as she slap bass-es her way into your heart. After the show, head over to the Secret Society and try the popular Moscow Mule. It’s an old 50’s drink (possibly the first vodka cocktail) made with vodka, muddled lime and ginger beer, served in the traditional copper cup. Can’t get much classier than that.

May 30th: Nada Surf
Don’t miss Nada Surf, the alternative rock band hailing from the early 90’s when they make an appearance in Portland later this month. The band’s anthems are a great way to ring in the start of summer, and you can continue the celebration at Secret Society afterwards. Order a Monkey Gland (gin, OJ, grenadine and absinthe), an aptly named drink to sip on while you still have the goofy guys of Nada Surf’s lyrics stuck in your head.

June 8th: Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
Witness Krayzie-, Layzie-, Wish-, Flesh-n- and Bizzy Bone, members of one of the biggest-selling hip-hop groups of all time who are still rocking after 15+ years. After singing all the lyrics to “Foe tha Love of $” (you know you remember them all, well maybe not Bizzy’s), drop by the Secret Society for a classy high-roller drink like a Manhattan or Old-Fashioned.

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Tags: Happy Hour, Cheap Date, Cocktails

Happy Hour of the Week

Set sail for Silk

Posted by: Graham Bell on May 07, 2010 at 10:00AM 2 Comments

A bowl of spicy noodles and a frosty beer are the way to go at Silk’s happy hour.

Posh Pearl District eatery Silk is an exotic vessel afloat in a sea of fusion restaurants, and its happy hour (Silky Hour) is the bright sail attached to the mast. All nautical themes aside, this is a place where ten dollars lets you ăn vặt (eat a snack) of legit Vietnamese fare. An extensive cocktail list is the perfect pairing to the food specials served from 4-7 pm daily, but the mixed drinks (while delicious and full of unexpected ingredients) are a little pricey for the happy hour crowd. So if you will, follow my lead and choose street fare mixed with a little high society. A bottle of Ba Mươi Ba (33), a bona fide Việt bia (Vietnamese beer), will cost you $4.50 for the import tax, but other local brews are on tap for between $4-5, including the not-so-local Japanese Kirin. Partner that with an enormous bowl of beef or chicken phở for $5 and you won’t leave with an empty stomach. And a drink is a must because that noodle soup can get downright fiery with the addition of the jalapenos and hot sauce served on the side with the traditional basil, mint, plum sauce, bean sprouts and a wedge of lime.

If soup isn’t your bowl, then the Crazy Noodles ($6), Vietnamese salad rolls ($4), crispy rolls ($5) and caramelized chicken wings ($4) are all excellent distractions. Leave the _bánh mì _($5, multiple varieties) for another day though, because this street sandwich staple only hesitantly makes the transition from food cart to fine dining. Silky Hour is good enough to impress a date or a business associate in equal portions, but it’s an occasion that doesn’t lose sight of its open-air market roots.

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Tags: Happy Hour

What’s For Lunch?

We’re through playing chicken

Posted by: John Chandler on May 06, 2010 at 11:00AM 4 Comments

What’s the deal with fried chicken in this town? How come with the exception of the broasted bird at the Reel ‘M’ Inn, and a few other outliers, there’s no joy in Chickenville?
Yes, we featured an international chicken roundup a few months back, but where is that finger-lickin’ fowl that I seem to remember from the furthest recesses of my childhood (or perhaps from a previous lifetime)? Is KFC my only option? If so, shoot me now.

The Swamp Shack, the nearly-impossible-to-resist Cajun cart on SW Fifth and Stark has temporarily pacified my cluck lust. For $7.50 the lucky luncher can walk away with two tree-trunk-sized chicken tenders fried to a delicate and peppery crunch. The meat is cooked through correctly: chewy (but not rubbery), with ghostly spices still lingering in the crust.

It also comes with a smattering of corn and mashed potatoes, but the coup de grace is delivered by the smoky, slow-burning crawfish gravy. When the chicken is deftly dragged through the spuds and spicy sauce, my taste buds ring, flash, and go “tilt” like a KISS pinball machine that’s been slapped silly by a liquored-up Gypsy Joker.

Be advised, these are boneless pieces. If part of your pleasure lies in the atavistic crunch of wing and drumstick being introduced to your choppers, well, I can’t help you. But it’s damn good chicken.

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Tags: Food Carts

Workin’ Too Hard

Can’t see my desk for the beer

Posted by: John Chandler on May 05, 2010 at 10:00AM 5 Comments

I’m getting buried in my work. I’ve been procrastinating with this, that, and the other, and things are really piling up. I need to have all of this beer consumed by Friday. Not only quaffed, but thoroughly analyzed for hop and malt aromas, mouth-feel, flavor, bitterness, carbonation, balance, and finish.

I wonder if I can get on that show Dirty Jobs?

Enough self-pity. A task well begun is half done.

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Brew Love

Apex pours its heart out

Posted by: John Chandler on Apr 29, 2010 at 11:00AM 9 Comments

Apex, the new beer bar at SE 12th and Division. (Below) A dynamite pint of Upright No. 7

I didn’t bring a coat with a hood to work yesterday, so by the time I made it over to Apex, the new beer bar on SE Division, I resembled a waterlogged wombat. However the sight of 30 lovely taps pouring everything from Hopworks Imperial Red (9.3 percent ABV) to Thomas Kemper root beer (0 percent ABV) proved most revivifying. German and Belgian styles also are well represented here.

Located in the former home of Lovecraft Biofuels, Apex has abundant outdoor seating that sadly was going unused, just because the rain was coming down in bathtubs. Inside, the renovated industrial space is freshly painted and exploding with customer chatter. The room is dominated by a lengthy bar and there’s a trio of pinball machines in the foyer. Like Hopworks, Apex has identified itself as a bike-friendly establishment, with racks for helmets and a line of wall hooks for backpacks.

There’s no kitchen, but Apex abuts Los Gorditos a newish Mexican restaurant with scads of vegetarian options, and hungry visitors are encouraged to order chow there and bring it back. Since Apex doesn’t serve hard alcohol, they aren’t required by the OLCC to offer the ubiquitous salads and paninis found at every other start-up pub.

I was seated at the bar trying to ignore the puddles that were forming all around me when I was struck by Cupid’s arrow. The beer I was sipping was insanely tasty. I’ve had good fortune with beers from Portland’s Upright Brewing, and my luck was holding. Upright’s No. 7, described as a “strong farmhouse ale” is a burly and complex Belgian-style brew with a high, dry, sour taste cushioned with fruit and spice notes. “Holy crap, this is delicious,” I said to drinking buddy Lucy. Unconvinced she yanked the pint glass out of my mitt and took a healthy pull.

“Wow, that’s really good,” she agreed. We made plans to break into the Upright Brewery that very night and purloin the entire inventory of No. 7, but neither of us had access to a really big truck. Curses! Foiled again!

On that note, now is as good a time as any to let the brewing community know that myself and editor Brian Barker are working on a big beer feature for the July issue of Portland Monthly. We’re currently quaffing quality beers from both Portland and from around the state to determine a greatest hits pick list. Got some suggestions? Let us know. The only caveat is that the beer should be available to the public year-round.

If any brewers want to drop off samples at the office, please bring us your kegs, growlers, bottles, buckets, and to-go cups. This is called research and it’s something we journalists take great pride in. And if you could bring along a big sloppy pizza or two, we’d really appreciate it. Kisses!

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Tags: Craft Beers, Southeast

Happy Hour of the Month

Last Wednesday at Ground Kontrol

Posted by: Joseph Manuel on Apr 28, 2010 at 10:00AM 4 Comments

It’s Ground Kontrol’s turn to put up its quarter Happy Hour of the Week. Located at NW Fifth and Couch, PDX’s famed retro arcade holds one of the best-kept secrets in Portland, namely a $5 cover for all the games you want to play—but only once a month. There’s Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and countless other beloved time-wasters of yore.

During the day GK operates as an arcade—21 and over entry isn’t required until 5 PM. On average nights, using your hard-earned laundry money for frustrating games (the machines don’t cheat, they simply lack human emotions) has potential drawbacks—who wants to decide the fate of their last quarter on either Sunset Riders or Spider-Man pinball? Fast forward to free play night.

OK so it isn’t technically a happy hour, but pay attention: the “barcade” management breaks down their coin-operated terminals on the last Wednesday of the month (5 PM to 2 AM) and forces them to play nice by allowing Portlanders in the know to get all the free games they want. All this for a slappingly-stupid cover of $5. And all this for the 90-plus classic games that live in this labyrinth.

The atmosphere of free play night exudes the feel of a personified MF Doom album: pounding techno reverberates wall to wall, the high-pitched wails of virtual lost lives adding to the din, and geeky commentary on topics such as “turtling” and “super-combo parrying.” Occasionally frat-boy cheers echo from the corner, where the NFL Blitz machine serves as a halfway house for ’roided-out chug-a-luggers doing their best Uncle Rico impressions, reliving the glory days—albeit on a virtual console.

Since GK is also a bar in disguise, it isn’t all just fun and (video) games. The drink menu contains 13 brews including Bridgeport IPA and Pacifico, but really, don’t be stupid—nobody wants to be that person, the one drinking craft beers or imports on free play night. The swill-of-the-realm is PBR and Miller High Life pounders for $2 each. Yes, there are also w(h)ine coolers and Sutter Home vino selections, but once again, it’s all about the inexpensive domestics. Wine at an arcade? Impossible.

The crowd can be unofficially categorized as follows: There are Wii-owning charlatans who think “nerdy” is code for cool and attend for the scene. They eventually end up watching and just hanging out to be there. There are casual gamers, who own an XBOX 36O or PS3 and play the newest releases pending free time.

Then of course there are the real gamers who live for $5 night to face genuine competition, specifically in the fighting games. Avoid these types at all costs unless you secretly crave a savage beating and words of creative smack talk about your lack of skills.

All types aside, the staff doesn’t hate—anyone 21 and over is welcome. Recommended for nostalgic nine-to-fivers looking for a vintage vacation, unemployed lovers on a cheap date, geek watchers, or anyone wishing to spend hump day pushing buttons and staring at a screen. Once again, it’s not technically a happy hour—but there are plenty of joysticks to go around.

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Tags: Happy Hour

Short Subjects

Barbecue, beer, and $5 well spent

Posted by: John Chandler on Apr 27, 2010 at 01:00PM 7 Comments

Namu Killer Korean Barbecue at SE Hawthorne and 33rd Ave. (Below) A lip-smacking order of short ribs sizzles on the grill.

ITEM Sunday morning found me staggering down Southeast Hawthorne in search of a Hangover Helper breakfast, but the waiting lists were sapping my will to live. As luck would have it, I was soon ordering several tons of meat at a brand-new Korean Barbecue cart called Namu, situated at SE Hawthorne and 33rd, right in front of House Vintage. Owned and operated by a friendly Hawaiian headbanger named Gary Evans, along with his friend Clint Colbert, Namu only has a few entrees but they’re all worthy and my hangover was soon smothered in healing barbecue sauce. The pulled pork sandwich ($5) is a huge, drippy mess of tender Sweet Briar Farms pork served with cabbage and a breathtaking homemade honey horseradish on a toasted bun. It’s a sweet and smoky sensation, as good as any I’ve had in the area. The toothsome and tangy Korean beef ribs ($7) are marinated in ginger, green onions, garlic, brown sugar, and soy sauce, and come with a scoop of rice and peanut sauce. Do not overlook the kim chee, cucumber salad, and sesame spinach that garnish this massive meal. The greens are deftly prepared and really pack a peppery bite. And for my non-animal-eating readers, you can get all of these lovely shrubs in a $4 rice bowl spiked with peanut sauce. The cart has only been in operation for a few weeks, but it’s a wonderful and welcome change of pace from the taco wagon brigade. Namu is open daily from 11-7 and orders can be phoned in at 503-828-4260. Tell ’em the Bar Pilot sent ya!

UPDATE Stopped by Namu last night for the veggie bowl. It’s a spicy, satisfying safari of flavors. And proprietor Gary Evans wanted the world to know that the cunningly crafted Namu cart was built with the invaluable assistance of Alpine Design.

ITEM Congratulations, it’s a beer! Apex, a new beer bar that I first mentioned here is now open for business and awaiting discriminating swill seekers of all shapes and sizes. Located at 1216 Southeast Division Street, it’s another former industrial space with garage doors that roll up when the weather cooperates. More importantly, they’ve currently got 30 taps running (owner Jesse McCann is shooting for 50) mostly in the $3.75-$4 range, though some of the hard-to-find Belgian varieties teeter toward the $9 mark. Still feeling the pinch? Not to worry, they also have Hamms for the financially embarrassed.

ITEM Be sure and tune in for the latest installment of Happy Hour of the Week (coming soon), as intern Joseph Manuel spends all of the money he had saved to pay back his student loans at retro video game parlor Ground Kontrol. On the last Wednesday of each month you can play all the Street Fighter II, Galaga, NBA Jam, and Frogger you want for a dinky $5 cover. Constant button-pushing can build up a powerful thirst, so take advantage of $2 Pabst tall boys.

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Tags: Food Carts, Cheap Date, Craft Beers

Happy Hour of the Week

Bountiful beer at Widmer Gasthaus

Posted by: Emma Hall on Apr 23, 2010 at 09:00AM 2 Comments

Photo: Emma Hall

Welcome to Widmer week. While tasting the new Widmer Braggot, at the brewery, I spied the Widmer Gasthaus across the street and figured it would be wise to stop in for Happy Hour. I asked one of the brewers, Doug Rehberg, what he recommended over there. “I go for the Hop Jack or Alt—usually anything with a lower alcohol content.” I guess that’s what happens when you’re up to your elbows in beer all day. Rehberg added that the pigs in a blanket were a must-try as well.

Photo: Emma Hall

Good call on the piggies, Doug. The pigs in a blanket ($4.95) were awesome, mostly because they’re made with mini bacon sausages instead of the customary li’l smokies. These are lovingly swaddled in a flakey, buttery, um, blanket. And they pair wonderfully with a woody Widmer beer. However, I found the real standout snack to be the pretzel with fondue for only $2.50. (A plain pretzel is a dollar less but be sure to shell out that extra buck for the sensational Swiss fondue—I’m having a hunger flashback just thinking about it.) The fondue sausage sampler is another worthy option ($6.95) and the Bourbon Bock Cheeseburger ($5) looks like a real mouthful.

Pints during happy hour are $3-4, which is a major steal considering all the unique local beers you can dip your beak into. Of course, you can quaff a Widmer staple such as my personal favorite, the W ‘10 Pitch Black IPA. At 6.5 percent alcohol content, this burnt hoppy wonder is a yearlong special release that demands your attention. I first tried it at this year’s Zwickelmania gathering and haven’t looked back since.

Photo: Emma Hall

However, if you’re looking for a beer that’s even more memorable, try the current Collaborator brew. Right now it’s a chocolaty malt number called Ale-X. The Collaborator Project is just one way that Rob and Kurt Widmer pay-it-forward from their own humble roots. Homebrewing club the Oregon Brew Crew (of which the brothers are long-standing members) has an annual brewing competition in which the best beer—regardless of style—gets brewed by Widmer and served at the Gasthaus.

The bar is housed in an old hotel, and they’ve kept this aesthetic but added a few modern, sporty touches. And since the crowd at Happy Hour include clusters of folks from 21-80+, it’s an ideal place to bring out-of-town guests to show off what Portland is really all about—namely beer.

The only less-than-happy aspect of the Widmer Gasthaus Happy Hour is the time: Monday-Friday from 2-5 PM. Yikes! But hey, isn’t tasty and affordable local beer a reason enough to sneak out of work early? I’m sure your boss won’t mind—just don’t tell him it was my idea.

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Tags: Happy Hour, Beer

Hello Sparky!

A meandering conversation with Hal Sparks

Posted by: John Chandler on Apr 22, 2010 at 09:00AM 5 Comments

Hal Sparks is funny! Catch him tonight at Hawthorne Theater at 7 PM or Friday at 10 PM at the Bagdad.

As promised, I managed to finagle an interview with one of the comedians appearing at the Bridgetown Comedy Festival which starts tonight at venues on SE Hawthorne. Ladies and gentlemen, Hal Sparks!

“Now who’s Hal Sparks?” my girlfriend asks.

“Oh, well, let’s see.” I sputter in reply. “He played Michael Novotny on Queer as Folk, he’s on Talk Soup, and he’s got a metal band called Zero 1.”

“Doesn’t help,” she says.

“He’s on VH1’s I Love the ’80s, and ’90s. He’s a smart-alecky guy who reminisces about Pac-Man and stuff.”

“OK. I think I can picture him.”

Sheesh, you’d think I wouldn’t have to trot out the dude’s resume, but he’s definitely a “you’d know him if you saw him” celebrity. At the moment Sparks is in Los Angeles motoring around in his car. I welcome him to the interview by blasting a barrage of feedback into his ear, courtesy of my ancient phone recorder.

HS: Wow, thanks for that!

ME: Uh, just trying to keep you on your toes.

HS: That’s a painful place to be. Can you imagine how annoying it would be to live life on your toes?

ME: That’s why I was forced to give up ballet lessons. That and I weigh 250 pounds.

HS: You probably just didn’t apply yourself. I attended the plus-size ballet last year and it was really spectacular.

Just like that, we’re off and riffing. Sparks has never been to Portland before (he does have a lot of Twitter followers here) but he’s looking forward to hanging out with his comedic brethren (and sistren) at the Bridgetown Comedy Festival. Think of it: More than 100 comics bopping around, checking out the overpriced tie-dye and hemp clothing up and down Hawthorne!

HS: Most comedians are socially retarded enough to sequester themselves to green room/stage/hotel room, so they probably won’t be wandering around much. They might knock on your door in the middle of the night asking for DMT or mushrooms, but that’s really rare.

ME: Well, Portland does have more strip clubs per capita than any other city so there’s plenty to see.

HS: Spectacular!

ME: Yeah, if you enjoy looking at women removing articles of their clothing to the tune of “Pour Some Sugar On Me” you should be fine.

HS: I’m a huge fan. I’ll do some frontline reporting if you need an inside man.

I was highly curious about what dozens of comedians do when they’re all congregated in the same place. Do they tell jokes or steal material? Are there comedy cliques? Do observational comics hate prop comics? How does this work?

HS: There’s lots of us who came up together through the ranks, all around the same age, and many of them are dear friends, but I never get to see them. We’re always in different cities working. That’s the coolest part about the festival, all rumors of competitiveness aside, it will be nice to see all the comics I know personally.

ME: Are comics competitive?

HS: They used to be more competitive. There used to be just four TV stations, and if one guy got “the job” everyone else was screwed. Now, if a guy get’s a job—and he knows you—you might get another job. There’s at least a reason to be supportive.

ME: So you need to pretend to like them and suck up—

HS: Yeah, lots of opportunities to be fake which is really fun.

There was more—much more. We talked about Twitter, web TV, cable access TV, the death of the Borscht Belt, and his upcoming Showtime special. Sparks is very busy so we made plans to acknowledge each others’ presence at the festival.

HS: I look forward to meeting you. You sound like Jeffrey Lebowski.

ME: There are a lot of us Lebowskis in Portland. Speaking of which, do you have any Portland-centric material? You might want to brush up on a few beard jokes.

HS: One thing I learned during my four years at Second City is to assume the audience is smarter than I am. I always try to talk to the top of the room.

ME: Yeah, there should be a lot of Comparative Literature degrees in the audience.

HS: I should be OK then.

We’ll soon find out. Break a leg Hal! And thanks for bringing your friends to our comedy-strapped community.

Post script: There will be a new comedy club opening in July on SE Ninth and Hawthorne where the Chelsea Ballroom used to be. It’s the first West Coast operation from the owners of the Helium Club in Philadelphia. Get ready to laugh Portland! And Hal Sparks is already booked to perform there.

Hal Sparks will be appearing tonight at 7 PM (Thursday) at the Hawthorne Theater, and on Friday at 10 PM at the Bagdad. Probably other places too.

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Tags: Interview

A Comic Invasion

Bridgetown Comedy Fest brings the funny

Posted by: John Chandler on Apr 20, 2010 at 09:00AM 1 Comments

Maria Bamford. (Bottom) Tim Meadows. They are both really funny! I’m laughing already!

Cheer up! Big deal, so you still don’t have health insurance. They say laughter is the best medicine, ergo, attending this week’s Bridgetown Comedy Festival should be better for you than a complete physical with a half-dozen chest x-rays. Event organizer Andy Wood, himself a seriously funny fellow, deserves several rounds of applause for making the fest happen and for rounding up over 100 comedians (many of whom you’ve actually heard of) to appear up and down Southeast Hawthorne beginning on Thursday.

Like who? you ask, wallowing smugly in the security of your own pig ignorance. How about Maria Bamford? She—along with Brian Posehn, Patton Oswalt, and Zach Galifianakas—toured as part of the Comedians of Comedy in 2007, and is a fixture on Comedy Central. She also starred in her own web series called (fittingly) The Maria Bamford Show, which she performs in her parents’ attic after an alleged nervous breakdown and must be seen to be believed. It’s brutally funny. (Warning: there are some cuss words in this clip. Please cover the ears of impressionable youngsters).

Who else? There’s SNL alum Tim Meadows (The Ladies Man!); Oscar Nunez (Oscar on The Office); Tig Notaro (The Sarah Silverman Program); Hal Sparks (Queer as Folk, Talk Soup); Scott Adsit (30 Rock); Steve Agee (The Sarah Silverman Program); and Lizz Winstead (co-creator of The Daily Show).

Do not sit on your hands (they’ll go to sleep and eventually start hurting). Get your tickets and laugh your ass off—that’s an order! And stay tuned, ‘cause I’m working on an interview with one of the participating comedians. You won’t know which one till tomorrow or the next day. Ain’t I a stinker?

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Tags: comedy, Events

Happy Hour of the Week

Made in the shade at Jade Lounge

Posted by: John Chandler on Apr 16, 2010 at 09:00AM 6 Comments

The exterior of the Jade Lounge. (Middle) Veggie tempura and the last banana fritter. (Bottom) The Stephalicious

I’m not sure if it’s the shiny green walls, the preponderance of low-hanging light fixtures or the waitress’s sultry voice, but the Jade Lounge exudes tranquility. If Nurse Ratched had only thought to have medication time here, McMurphy might have eventually chilled out and become as docile as “Broom” Bromden. Of course, that wouldn’t have made for a very liberating literary experience, so let’s scratch that idea.

The Jade Lounge is the verdant little shoebox adjacent to Il Piatto on SE Ankeny. Why an Italian restaurant would want an Asian bar attached to it is a mystery best left for Phillip Marlowe, but the unlikely juxtaposition seems to work just fine. No cultural confusion; no one freaking out and demanding baked ziti or garlic bread. At least not when I was there.

Happy Hour at the Jade is 5-7 on weekdays with a buck off well drinks, beer, and wine, but your best bet is Tuesdays and Thursdays when the delectable appetizers go for $3 all night long. Of course, there is nothing wrong with tucking into the usual pub-grub suspects found elsewhere: fries and onion rings still dripping with searing, heart-stopping vitality; nachos made up of leftover tortilla chips and three-bean dip grudgingly assembled by the dishwasher, bartender, or escaped lunatic who happened to be hiding in the kitchen. What’s not to love? My beef is boredom—not nearly enough establishments stray far from the established chow template.

It’s the variety and quality of Jade Lounge’s $3 plates that has me returning like a boomerang with a bad case of the munchies. The tempura veggies are lightly battered in rice flour and fryer-timed to a delicate savory crunch. The cloying density of the yam fries is both muted and accentuated with the addition of a soy-wasabi catsup, while the rolls (seafood, salad, and pork) are made with snappy-fresh ingredients and obvious care.

My dessert pick is the madly addictive banana fritters. The corn-meal shell, liberally sprinkled with cinnamon, serves as a tasty prelude for the sweet gooey filling that makes me think of some long-lost auntie’s homemade banana pudding hastily shoveled into my crying pie-hole. Ah, memories.

Among the half-dozen taps are worthy entries from Deschutes and Ninkasi, as well as that can’t-miss exchange student Trumer Pils. Since it was a warm day I asked for something tall and invigorating from the specialty cocktail menu, and the waitress immediately steered me to the Stephalicious ($7), a palate-reviving combo of vodka, fresh-squeezed orange and grapefruit juices, and a float of chambord, a blackberry liqueur. If I could live in a universe where my desires became reality, there would be one of these waiting for me as I come in the door from work every night. Unfortunately, times are tight and we had to layoff our manservant.

Still, this heartbreaking domestic situation leaves me with a compelling reason for falling by the Jade Lounge—especially on Tuesday and Thursday. The rest of the week I must content myself with tequila and Tang. It’s my own invention and I call it the Tanquilalizer. It’s not tranquility, but it will have to do.

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Tags: Happy Hour, Cocktails, Craft Beers, Cheap Eats

Prickly Will Go Quickly

Widmer’s Braggot Ale is a terrific tipple

Posted by: Emma Hall on Apr 14, 2010 at 02:00PM 3 Comments

Photo: Emma Hall

Based on volume sales, Widmer Brothers Brewing Company is Portland’s top banana. Thankfully, resting on its laurels isn’t part of the game plan. The Widmers dropped their newest reserve release, Prickly Pear Braggot Ale (a strong follow-up to last fall’s Cherry Oak Doppelbock) at a brewery tasting event on Tuesday, and I was fortunate enough to be among the assembled sippers. Coming in at a cool 10 percent alcohol content, this sweet brew goes down easy—just make sure you have a designated driver or cab fare.

The brewers (Joe Casey, Ben Dobler, and Doug Rehberg) have a track record of experimenting with honey, so a braggot was agreed upon as the next logical step. As for the inclusion of the intimidating-sounding prickly pear, brewmaster Casey is from the Southwest. While he was browsing through a list of possible ingredients, the prickly pear juice jumped out as a natural choice to blend with the honey and make the proposed ale more complex. Though the braggot tastes mainly of the spicy-sweet—almost medicinal—honey from Montana, the prickly pear juice lends the brew an earthy bite that balances out the sweetness. The brewers discovered that, on its own, the prickly pear juice looked and tasted very vegetal, almost like V8. So they opted for a red prickly pear hoping that it would affect the color of the beer, and ended up with a glass of burnt orange beauty.

Photo: Emma Hall

So just what is a “braggot” anyways? It’s half mead and half ale. Technically, a braggot should have at least 50 percent of its fermentable sugars come from honey. However, in order to make this a legal quaff, the Widmer crew had to get as close to 50 percent honey as possible without going over. In that case, the tasty brew would be considered a wine mixed with a beer, which isn’t legal.

Though they don’t pretend that the braggot will be every drinker’s cup of (alcoholic) tea, Rob and Kurt Widmer are well aware that discriminating beer fanciers appreciate their offbeat brews. With their own roots deep in home brewing, the brothers still enjoy playing mad scientist with exotic ingredients and recipes. And they sure had fun with this one: the brewers found themselves mired in two inches of honey during the mixing process. “It was sweaty, sticky fun—for about the first hour,” said brewer Ben Dobler. You can check out the process on YouTube.

And if you need another excuse to tip this lovely limited reserve, hear this: some studies show that prickly pear might even lessen the effects of a hangover. Rob and Kurt couldn’t confirm that their new brew was actually hangover-free, but they welcome any input from willing participants.

You can score your own bottle at a local higher-end bottle shop like Belmont Station on SE Stark or John’s Market on SW Multnomah for $9.99. And if you really like it, stash a couple bottles away for a later date: mead notoriously lends itself well to age.

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Tags: Beer, Craft Beers