As much as I long for New York bagels and pizza, the same can be said for Portland’s pre-pandemic restaurant scene. Sure we were once considered the restaurant city of the year (2018) when Bon Appetite’s bestowal proclaimed us as the best small town/city for dining in the nation. Yet post pandemic it’s a mixed bag of regrettable losses (Drifter’s Wife, Piccolo, et al) tempered by merely a few denizens of the exotic lacquered worlds of food and dining. Some of the new ones are not up to snuff and others go relatively unnoticed for a variety of reasons (Knotted Apron and Broken Arrow are examples). My advice: If you’re planning on opening a restaurant check all the boxes before asking diners to spend $100 for a mediocre meal. Of course we want to support the local economy, and perhaps no other industry has had a tougher time than restaurants. But, hey, if you’re offering more than diner food (which I love), it behooves chefs to do it extremely well. That goes for the dining space environment, too. The space has to be Covid preventive (spacing and masks and proof of vaccination ) and beyond all comfortable and pleasing to the eye.
Basically, Portland dining is not what is was when it offered so much variety and quality to choose from. When I go out to eat it’s to the same old places because few others beckon as though the proverbial come-hither finger is limp. All understandable from closures, limited indoor seating and hard to get reservations. If it weren’t for outdoor dining options, I’d be sitting at home tinkering with the next chicken thigh recipe. And while take-out is the live-saver for restaurants, tepid take-home food is never as good when it lands on your kitchen counter.
Perhaps it’s my limited time dining out these days: My discretionary income isn’t what it once, and I limit myself to dining establishments in which I feel comfortable. That’s defined by good spacing between tables or good opportunities for outdoor dining and good air filtration systems inside, that sort of thing. The places that I miss the most regardless of pandemic losses, are Five Fifty-Five in its heyday or Caiola’s for its irreverence and delicious food. That and the ability to sit at the bar for dinner –at many places–was always a treat and a preference. With Chaval the replacement mainstay in the West End and a treat to go to, its indoor dining options are still limited with mostly the patio (the prettiest in town) and sidewalk dining on the ticket. Their bar was the best one in town besides Fore Street.
As for post Pandemic dining, are we really “post?” See this remembrance.
The bar flanked by dining room
