NW Westover and NW Everett in Portland Oregon
The Cameo has gone out of business as the poor review might have predicted
Marianne and I decided to give the Cameo Cafe another try. We'd been there a few years ago, and weren't impressed. It had, indeed, dropped off our list of places to go. It was Saturday morning, we wanted breakfast out, and the Cameo was relatively close. Besides, this was NW Portland, and there was a place to park--a miracle in itself.
As is was a fine summer morning, we decided to sit outside at a sidewalk table. The atmosphere was perfect. After checking with some authority inside the restaurant, the woman who was playing the role of Matre’d allowed us to sit where we wanted. We chose a nice table at curb side. Ordering began without the normal fanfare of requests about coffee, cream or other beverages. I had the Chef's Special (corned beef hash with hash browns and eggs); Marianne had the 1/4 Acre of blueberry pancakes with an egg of the side. My eggs, I informed the waitress, should be poached if they could do them soft. I've been burdened several times lately with hard boiled poached eggs, a concept utterly alien to me.
The food was actually pretty good. The pancakes met with full approval, though the staff neglected to offer syrup, which seemed a bit odd. On request they did come up with a bottle of something labeled Cameo Cafe Maple Syrup. Marianne reported it did taste genuine.
The coffee, which we had to ask for specifically, was awful. There is no reason for this in Portland, today. The city has become a coffee mecca. Bad coffee, particularly in "groovy town,” near northwest, is simply inexcusable, as is offering only non-dairy creamer. Any decent restaurant ought of offer half and half and provide non-dairy for the lactose intolerant or for the idiots who can't appreciate the real thing. It was also necessary to ask for catsup and tabasco--I was having corned beef and eggs, after all, the possibility of at least one of those condiments being wanted wouldn't require a great deal of awareness.
The service was slack, the prices high (about $12 for a breakfast entree), the coffee was terrible and the food was just OK. This would merit a "C" were the prices reasonable. Given the heady prices, I'd have to give therm a “C-/D+. They're back off the approved attendance list.
BESAWS
NW 23rd at Savier
Besaws is the penultimate NW Portland (Groovy Town) weekend breakfast place. It's where you drive past on a Sunday morning marveling at the crowds waiting outside, trying to decide whether you stop or not. If you don't, it's off to Poppa Hayden's or maybe Sammy's or Southeast Portland. So, what does one say about the winner. You say this..success is beginning to spoil Besaws. I'll give you that breakfast is a tough meal. I mean, with dinner, you've literally thousands of options. With breakfast you’veits got...eggs this way, eggs that way, flour this way (pancakes, waffles), flour that way, the odd potato. With dinner you've got the central cuisine of the world. So, its tough. What do you offer the breakfast fan, eggs with meat, omelets, frittatas, eggs benedict (a category by itself). Besaws has done all these things well. I used to argue that Willamette Week's restaurant reviewers gave high marks to the Stepping Stone (more about that later) in order to free up table space for themselves at Besaws. Recently, though, things seem to have slipped. Remember this is one of the premier breakfast spots in Portland, in one of he hippest areas. So, whien I say their version of "whole wheat toast" ( they didn't ask what sort of toast I wanted, by the way, which is pretty extraordinary) was the local equivalent of Wonder Bread, one has to wonder. At some level, the food, too, has slipped a bit, overall. This criticism is done lovingly in hopes that Besaws will pull itself up to its former high standards. As it is , we will drive by and look, but the urge to stop is no longer as strong.
Besaws continues to slide, and its decline seems widely noticed
HANNA BEA'S HOME COOKIN
3969 NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd.
Hanna Bea’s is now out of business. Not a surprise
Service was slow as there was only one person working the dining room. I ordered the "famous country breakfast", two eggs up, beef patty, hash browns and a biscuit (which apparently came with gravy). Marianne had the salmon croquets. The food arrived 40 minutes after we got seated. The eggs were fine, but the potatoes were essentially burned on one side and nearly uncooked on the other. The beef patty seemed more like a kind of rubbery meatloaf withserviceable clumps of grease in it. There was no gravy for the biscuit, nor was there any butter. We asked for butter and got a plastic cup of congealed melted butter. The croquet was serviceable, but didn't include eggs. Marianne had hoped for eggs. Her potatoes were similarly cooked. The nearby TV set silently showing Sat a.m. cartoons was jarring. The coffee was, actually, Ok. We won't be back
THE STEPPING STONE CAFE
NW 24th and Pettygrove
The Stepping Stone is a place we've gone for breakfast. Our first encounter was from a recommendation of a staffer at Besaws. Besaws was hopelessly full, and she suggested we try the Stepping Stone. This is a perfectly normal American cafe with a counter and stools, and booth seating. It's a small restaurant, and one the folks tend to like. Willamette Week, for example, consistently lists it as desirable. My theory is that WW is trying to free up table space for WW staffers at Besaws. I've nothing in particular against the Stepping Stone, but I also have to point out that it is utterly ordinary. The menu is pedestrian, the food, while good, isn't impressive. Can you get a decent breakfast here? Indeed you can. Is this a destination that should head the list of your weekend breakfast safari? No. This is where you go if, as in our case, all the convenient and interesting places are full.
BISCUITS CAFE
Corner or SW Jenkins and SW Baseline
Hillsboro Or.
This Biscuits is new restaurant, in a new strip mall, in a brand new neighborhood, but actually this is one outlet of a small Oregon chain. It seems to serve breakfast (all day) and lunch. The menu didn't mention dinner. It's rather larger on the inside than it appears to be from the outside. Decor is not memorable--it's kind of a big eating barn of a place, and it was very busy on the Saturday morning when we arrived. After about a 10 minute wait, we were seated and scanned the menu. The mandatory coffee was ordered and delivered. It was weak and not particularly flavorful. It wasn't, on the other hand, repulsive. Marianne ordered the blueberry pancakes and eggs with a sausage side; I had the corned beef hash, hashbrowns, eggs and toast. I chose sourdough. Very predictable.
Biscuits has an entirely visible kitchen which operates behind a stainless steel barrier. Service was "frazzled". Our waiter was new, first day on the job, and when he arrived with our dishes, the pancakes he delivered didn't look like blueberry. "Where are the blueberries?" Marianne asked, "They're inside" he responded, quickly departing. Marianne probed the mustard colored pancakes with her fork, and found no sign of berries. Just then, the waiter returned sheepishly holding the plate of blueberry pancakes (complete with a garnish of blueberries on top). The pancakes were, Marianne reports, good. Not great, but good. They lacked that certain texture that truly great pancakes have.
For my part, the corned beef hash was wonderful. It was obviously "home made" and had lots of corned beef--I do mean lots--and big pieces of potato. The eggs were fine--a wee bit "snotty" which does happen when you order eggs "up" in a busy place. The hash browns were the kind that come in rectangular patties, and they looked wonderfully crisp and brown--until you turned them over. On the bottom side, they simply weren't cooked. This is sort of the culinary equivalent of sweeping dirt under the rug.
The sourdough toast never arrived. It fell from the waiter's mind as he raced from table to table. We got, in exchange, our coffee free--which is approximately it's worth.
We'll be back to Biscuit's Cafe. With all the frazzled service, disappointing coffee and deceptive hash browns, it's a keeper. The service was non-typical and the corned beef hash alone makes it worth coming back to. Marianne is very interested in trying the pancakes she was given first. They had an intriguing scent--perhaps sweet potato--and looked delicious.
MOTHER'S BISTRO AND BAR
SW 2nd and Stark, Portland Or,
Mother's is good. It gets fabulous reviews. It was chosen "Restaurant of the Year" by Portland's Willamette Week, "Best Comfort Food," "Best Brunch," and "Best Lunch Spot" by Citysearch, and one of "America's Top Restaurant Bargains" by Food and Wine Magazine. I mean, what can you say.
Well, you can say the place is mobbed for weekend breakfast--look at the picture. You should have seen it inside. And, on the inside, the staff is amazing. We sat at the bar--it was available, a table was 20 to 30 minutes, and this was at 9:18am when the place had opened at 9. If you want a table, you probably have to get in line outside (look at the picture) at about 8 am. Good luck. The food is good. Actually, top notch, though the menu at the Cricket (review soon) is more interesting, and from our small sample, probably better. Still, Mother's is a hit.
It took a while for the food to arrive, so we had a chance to watch the staff at the bar and near the espresso machine. The pace was professional and frenetic. I commented to Marianne that they must go through an immense amount of coke in this place. It was hard, otherwise, to explain the pace, focus and energy of these folks. Being at the bar, I decided that I shall, sometime, come back and have a Bloody Mary on some Sunday morning when I'm willing to trash the whole day. The drink looked like a meal.
I had the Spanish Frittata, which had chorizo, cheese, veggies and a sauce covering with sour cream, plus the oven roasted potatoes and some flour tortillas--all along with their excellent coffee. Marianne had the Ratatouille Omlette which was a vegetarian delight complete with eggplant--and also the oven roasted potatoes. Both were excellent.
Mother's offers a complete set of condiments on the table, tabasco, Cholula Sauce, catsup in a descreet covered jar like the ones they serve jam in, along with real half and half and all the sweetening options.
So, the verdict is, food--great, service--spectacular, atmosphere--busy, wait times--long, overall--a terrific place, we’ll be back. Keep any eye on the Cricket, however.
THE CRICKET CAFE
3154 SE Belmont, Portland Or.
We’ve been back a couple of times more. It’s my top breakfast choice.
We've been to the Cricket Cafe twice now. It's reasonably popular and busy. The first time we got there either before the rush, or during a temporary lull. The second time, as you can see in the picture, the place was hopping. Actually, it's a bit bigger than it seems. There is "fine weather" seating outside and an entire back room that is not apparent from the front. The Cricket doesn't have a decor. At least not one I could put a name to. There is a bunch of of art--paintings--done by as yet unknown artists with no indication that any of the works are for sale. A line of mirrors, about 2 feet high, surrounds the walls at about eye level when you're sitting down so that the person facing a wall gets a full view of the goings on around them. It also makes the place seem bigger.
The Cricket has the most inventive breakfast menu I've seen in a while. Breakfast, as I've said elsewhere, is a difficult meal. There are very limited ingredients and options: eggs, meat, potatoes--fried, hash brown, and the flour products, pancakes, crepes, waffles and so on. The Cricket is stuck with these, too, but there is a bit of whimsey. The first time in, I had the Saint's Hash with home made pork sausage. This time, I had the Bagel Breakfast Club--tomatoe, shambled eggs, bacon and hollandaise sauce along with home fried potatoes. Great stuff. Marianne had the Breakfast Burrito. All were excellent. The menu offers the customer quite a few opportunities to choose the makeup of the breakfast dish.
The charm of The Cricket is their ability to present choices one doesn't normally have at other breakfast venues, and , most importantly, to pull it off. The Bagel Breakfast Club I had looked interesting even though I totally missed that it was garnished with hollandaise sauce. Indeed, it would have been intersting even without the sauce, but it was so much more pleasing with it. The menu choices and the quality of the food make The Cricket Cafe a real contender for Best Breakfast Place in Portland.
The Paradox Cafe
SE Belmont St, Portland, Or.
We've taken to heading out on Sunday morning and driving a prescribed loop with the goal of finding a new breakfast spot. Today, we stopped at The Paradox Cafe. It's on Belmont St., part of the emerging "hip" neighborhoods where the endlessly shifting, bohemian poor now live since nearby, trendy Hawthorne Blvd. has become to expensive. The Paradox Cafe, like the nearby and wonderful Cricket Cafe and the fabulous (and even closer) Utopia Cafe (review soon) is tucked into a storefront presenting an unremarkable facade--hence, no photo. It is small, with a lunch counter, perhaps five booths and and equal number of small tables. The decor is post modernist, neo-hippie. Read, nonexistent. As we took our place at the booth--which was simultaneously being bussed by our waitress--we were pleased to note the full beer pitcher of water placed on the table top. It had been a long Saturday night, and we were both seriously dehydrated. The plain paper menus arrived, folded book like and done with an inkjet printer in black and white. It became immediately clear that the Paradox is a vegan cafe. Both our reactions were the same; leave now. Still, at the same time, it seemed churlish not to give the place a chance. We decided to be sporting, and stayed on.
The coffee was quite good. We chose the cream rather than the offered soy milk. Studying the menu, it became clear that, for me, there was only one choice: breakfast number 5, two eggs or tofu, garden or chicken sausage, fried potatoes and a wheat bun with almond gravy. I ordered the eggs "up". Marianne chose the French Toast. Because it was vegan French toast, no egg batter was used. Instead, the bread was soaked in what sounded like a mixture of carrot juice and other strange things. We settled in to wait. And wait. And wait. I offered the suggestion that what was taking all this time was the revolt in the kitchen over who had to cook the chicken sausage. One could just picture the cooks' faces screwed up in horror and rage. They probably had a separate set of pans for cooking the meat and eggs. Indeed, and hopefully, they even contracted these dishes out to the Utopia just down the street. Having to cart the meal back to the Paradox might account for the time. I imagined a waiter delivering the offending dish to my table dressed in a hazmat suit, and sneering “here's your FLESH, as the other diners gasped in outrage and disgust. Eventually, twitching in a caffeine induced fit, we told the waitress that if the food didn't arrive immediately, we'd simply pay for the coffee and go. Upon checking, she announced that our food would be up next, in "two minutes". Five minutes later, the dishes arrived.
The French Toast was perfect--for having been cooked without egg batter. What bothered Marianne, however, was the margarine. She hates margarine, and, being vegan, that's what she was given. Odd, isn't it, that in this vegan restaurant, I was served eggs and meat sausage, but they couldn't bring themselves to offer to use eggs to make French toast or provide butter to those who might prefer it. The French toast went uneaten. My breakfast was somewhat better. The eggs were sunny side up, as asked, but were "snotty". I'm convinced the sausage was put on the menu in hopes of effecting conversions to veganism. I mean, a few non vegans, like us, stumble in from time to time, and those that opt for breakfast number 5 with chicken sausage are given a product which, the restaurant hopes, will make them see the error of their ways. I could, perhaps should, have had the garden sausage. We tasted some at a Costco booth a few months ago and it was delicious. We went to pick up a box, but then read the ingredients. I'd just been reading an article that advocated eating real food. The message was, if you can't pronounce the ingredients, or they're not something your grandmother would recognize immediately as food, don't eat it. The ingredient list on the Morningstar Farms garden sausage read like a chemistry treatis. We left the garden sausage in the freezer case, and I passed it up at the Paradox. The final treat was the wheat bun with almond gravy. First, I don't like biscuits and gravey--and this looked like the zombie version of that dish. Second, vegans should just leave the concept of gravy alone. Gravy is thickened and seasoned meat drippings--not a vegetarian delight. It looked like a large dog with a slight case of diarrhea had crapped on my plate. Unbelievably, I tasted it. It wasn't good.
We learned a lot from the Paradox Cafe. I learned the nature of the Paradox: the restaurant's continued existence. Most importantly, we learned that it's a bad idea to mix religion and breakfast--and vegans are nothing if not religious. When the waitress came and asked us how things were, Marianne said “Look, this is a vegan restaurant, and we're not vegans. It's like when I went to a gay bar with a friend. I just felt I didn't belong there--and we don't belong here”. Unless you're a vegan, you won't either.
The Utopia Cafe
Also on SE Belmont--within a block of the Cricket and the Paradox
The Utopia Cafe is good. It's also a bitch to get into. This is partly because this storefront SE Portland restaurant is small, and partly becaused it's damned popular, and also because the staff is deceptively inefficient. There are four people working a room which would be pressed to seat more than 30 customers. All the waiters are frantically busy, but they're just weirdly inefficient. They don't allocate tasks. You'd think they'd assign one person to do the bussing when that needs doing, but no, they all bus tables. So you can have a situation where there are four open tables with staff furiously rushing around bussing them, while 20 customers are waiting for a seat. Eventually, though, it all works. We've been to the Utopia a number of times. I particularly like the corned beef hash--even though it, rather surprisingly, comes with only one egg. The Baja scramble is good, too, with chorizo, avocado, tomato sour cream and salsa. Marianne tends to favor things like the pancakes which come in a rotating set of interesting flavors.
It's a little frustrating to have so little to say about this wonderful restaurant. The coffee is excellent, the food is very good, the service is pleasant. You'll like the Utopia Cafe. Highly recommended
Chef Tucker's Pastisserie
3257 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Portland, Or.
Chef Tucker's Pastisserie is another of our "drive the loop" discoveries. The "loop" is east on SE Hawthorne to, oh, 50th or so, then north to SE Belmont and then west to Grand Ave. There's something a little disconcerting about the juxtaposition of Tucker and Pastisserie. I think of pastisserie as French, and Tucker as maybe German or perhaps English. As it turns out, Tucker is the first name, Mortensen is the, again not helpful, last name. Tucker Mortensen (the Swedish Chef, perhaps) is French trained. The restaurant is housed in an elegant old SE Portland home which has been wonderfully redecorated in a manner respecting it's heritage. We were seated immediately at a small table near the front windows.
The service was great. Our server was a young chap who was just starting with the restaurant. He apologized for not being familiar with the menu, and was quite interested in Marianne's anti-war work which was made apparent to him when he asked about her Code Pink T-shirt. The coffee was fabulous. It was so good I didn't expect the refills. Certainly this must be bought by the cup, I thought. Not so.
I had the Eggs Benedict. It was prepared on a croissant--one made there at the restaurant. I'd not had eggs benedict this way before. It was wonderful. The hollandaise sauce was perfect--the real thing, not the goo they mix up out of a powder at places like the Reedville Cafe (more later). The potatoes were delicious as was the small cup of fruit accompanying the dish. Portions were small, but adequate--a bit of a refreshing change in this age of heaped plates. Marianne had, I seem to recall, crepes. They were, she report, wonderful.
This is a real find. A beautiful house, good service and fabulous coffee and food. What more can one ask?
The Reedsville Cafe
7575 S.E. T.V. Highway
Hillsboro, Or
We’ve finally stopped going to The Reedsville Cafe. It was, finally, the tan hollandaise sauce that did us in. The “sauce” clearly started out as a powder--just add water (see review above). They also seemed incapable of properly poaching an egg, though this is an increasingly common failing. Otherwise, the food is ok. Nothing special. We only went there because there have, historically, been few good restaurants out here on the far west side. The menu is pretty boring consisting of the standard offerings. There are no imaginative treats like they have at the Cricket. Prices are standard, too. Breakfast for two in Portland costs about $22 all in. The Reedsville Cafe fits that pattern.
One thing, however is unique, the Reedsville is run by children. All of the servers look to be in their late teens, as do the kitchen staff whenever I get a glimpse of them. This is a bit disconcerting. It looks as though there is no one old enough to be responsibly in charge. You get the feeling that horrible things might be done to your coffee and food just for laughs Cooks spitting in your scramble, for example. Who’d be there to stop them?
In the end, the Reedsville Cafe isn’t worth the trouble. If you’re on the far west side, go to Biscuits instead. They’re just better.