I always think (fondly) of Portland as a place where it's always cold and rainy, so I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Portland in June is absolutely gorgeous... so much so that I ended up getting a sunburn while sitting in the back yard reading my book...
Because we had only one overlapping day between my arrival and her departure, J came to brunch with Alicia and I at a place in NE called Screen Door. The specialize in Southern food, and I realized something after this, my fifth or sixth experience of going to a Southern restaurant that everyone raves about: I don't particularly care for Southern food. I'm cool with BBQ, but all of these biscuits, grits, fried stuff, and gravy I find myself generally underwhelmed by... J ordered the Fried Chicken Biscuit "Sandwich," which looked pretty crazy (especially with the giant knife sticking out of the chicken), and by all accounts was delicious (if you like Southern food):
Alicia ordered up biscuits with sausage gravy, which were also well-received:
I went with the Fried Oyster Eggs Benedict, as I am a huge fan of both oysters and Eggs Benedict, and it was... meh. The oysters weren't as good as most that I've had, and the hollandaise was not particularly flavorful. I am seldom disappointed by eggs benedict, but this one was sort of lame. (Shown on 2 plates because they were having an "egg disaster" in the kitchen and had to bring out the second egg separately...)
The company was fantastic, so I'm glad to have gone, but I think I'm officially giving up on trying to like Southern food... After picking up Alicia's friend at the airport, we all sat out in the gorgeous Portland sunshine to enjoy nice fat rib-eye steaks with grilled sweet corn and grilled asparagus for dinner, all of which helped to make my mediocre brunch just a small glitch in an otherwise lovely day. Off to take care of some seeing-the-extended-family business today, then looking forward to a week of seeing friends and checking out my old haunts...
Because we had only one overlapping day between my arrival and her departure, J came to brunch with Alicia and I at a place in NE called Screen Door. The specialize in Southern food, and I realized something after this, my fifth or sixth experience of going to a Southern restaurant that everyone raves about: I don't particularly care for Southern food. I'm cool with BBQ, but all of these biscuits, grits, fried stuff, and gravy I find myself generally underwhelmed by... J ordered the Fried Chicken Biscuit "Sandwich," which looked pretty crazy (especially with the giant knife sticking out of the chicken), and by all accounts was delicious (if you like Southern food):
Alicia ordered up biscuits with sausage gravy, which were also well-received:
I went with the Fried Oyster Eggs Benedict, as I am a huge fan of both oysters and Eggs Benedict, and it was... meh. The oysters weren't as good as most that I've had, and the hollandaise was not particularly flavorful. I am seldom disappointed by eggs benedict, but this one was sort of lame. (Shown on 2 plates because they were having an "egg disaster" in the kitchen and had to bring out the second egg separately...)
The company was fantastic, so I'm glad to have gone, but I think I'm officially giving up on trying to like Southern food... After picking up Alicia's friend at the airport, we all sat out in the gorgeous Portland sunshine to enjoy nice fat rib-eye steaks with grilled sweet corn and grilled asparagus for dinner, all of which helped to make my mediocre brunch just a small glitch in an otherwise lovely day. Off to take care of some seeing-the-extended-family business today, then looking forward to a week of seeing friends and checking out my old haunts...
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