Ten01

Ten01 is a very “it” spot in the Pearl, with good reason – the food and cocktails are amazing.

They’ve got one of my favorite downtown 4-6 happy hours, and you can even get happy hour on Saturday. I’ve never had bad food or a bad cocktail there. The cheese plate’s always good, they do pâté really well, their beef carapaccio is amazing, the grass-fed burger is great if you’re looking for something more filling, and the fries with truffle aioli are heavenly. As usual, I can’t remember the names of the cocktails I’ve tried for the life of me, but they were always flavorful and interesting. And I hear the wine list is good too, although I usually stick to liquor here.

Spint’s Alehouse

Time for bar/restaurant review catch-up time too! Starting with Spint’s Alehouse, a hip new spot on NE 28th & Flanders. And by hip I mean it just opened last November and everybody’s raving about it – the atmosphere is actually very mellow Portland.

I went for happy hour and had a great cocktail… Sadly, I can’t remember the name of it and nothing on their online cocktail list looks familiar. Suffice it to say, their mixology is clever and leans more toward the complex than the foofy/sweet. The happy hour red wine was good too, and their wine list wasn’t huge but was still fairly impressive.

The happy hour menu was delicious. They lean toward hearty peasant fare – we had a cheese plate, a charcuterie plate, and an incredible lamb-stuffed pastry, the name of which also escapes me and I can’t find on their online menu. (I really, really need to do these updates sooner.)

Their main menu is definitely in the $$$ range, but from what I tried at happy hour, it’s worth it. I’m especially looking forward to summer when they can put tables outside.

Gold Dust Meridian

One of my favorite Hawthorne area bars is Gold Dust Meridian. I brought a visiting friend there last night to enjoy the relatively late happy hour (until 8pm, mostly food oriented) and fancy cocktails.

They feature a variety of champagne concoctions that range from foofy (fresh strawberry) to bitter and complex. Their “mixology” – aka deliciously bougie – cocktails are also pretty impressive. I enjoyed a berry bourbon hot toddy last night that was quite subtle, and I’ve had a killer fancy mojito there in the past. Of course they also have their fair share of totally made-up and intriguing creations.

The happy hour food menu is also pretty decent, although the full price one isn’t much bang for your buck. Favorites include the bar olives (that come with fruits and nuts), artisan cheese plate, “trio” (sandwich/soup/salad), garlic artichoke dip… Standard northwest barestaurant fare.

McMenamin’s Edgefield

I spent last night at the Edgefield, a McMenamin’s complex in Troutdale, Oregon.

And by complex I mean an estate covered with pub/restaurants and teeny hidden bars and a “spa” heated mineral pool, with a huge lodge style hotel in the center. It’s often described as an adult theme park because their liquor license covers the whole property, so you can wander from bar to bar (to poolroom to soaking pool) with drink in hand, gorging yourself on local beers, semi-local food, and occasionally creative cocktails.

I had a delectable artisanal cheese platter during happy hour at the Black Rabbit bar in the lodge, and that was the only interesting eating experience. (The mesquite salmon Caesar at the Power Station pub was inoffensively blah.) That’s ok, we were there to get drunk, and we did – slowly. They mix their drinks extra-weak, which by my 8th or 9th seemed like a pretty smart idea.

The beer is McMenamin’s, which translates to decent but nothing standout in the modern world of microbrews and exotic beers. Some of the liquor was from the McMenamin’s distiller, and insofar as I could taste the liquor itself, it also seemed… fine.

I had two standout cocktails: The Bourbon Furnace, made up of bourbon, hot apple cider, honey, and a cinnamon stick. They managed to make this barely sweet and very bourbon-licious, in spite of not being terribly strong. The other was the Screwhound, a mix of a Greyhound (grapefruit + vodka) and Screwdriver (orange + vodka). What made this amazing? All the juice was fresh-squeezed in front of me right into the mixer.

My conclusion? Like most McMenamin’s, go for the company, and consume the food and drink while you’re there. It’s nothing to write home about.