Beast – http://beastpdx.com/
Butternut Squash veloute and brown butter crisps with chive oil and maple crème fraiche
Baguette with salted cow’s milk butter
Charcuterie plate – Foie gras bon-bon/Sauternes Gelee, Chicken liver mousse/leaf and lard cracker, Steak tartare/quail egg toast, Hazelnut Boudin Noir, Duck Prosciutto, Lamb Lemon Terrine, Tete de Cochon
Seared Duck Breast with Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Carrot Puree, Cara Cara Orange Beurre Blanc, Fried Shallots, Parsley
Grapefruit Sorbet
Lacinato Kale, Parmesan Frico, Sliced Prosiutto, Black Garlic, Preserved Lemon Vinaigrette
Selection of Cheese from Cheese Bar, Armagnac Poached Prunes, Fried Almonds, Local Honey, Olive Oil, Black Pepper Crackers (UnNamed Triple Cream from Turin Italy, Brebis, Appenzeller Raw Swiss Cow’s Milk)
Theo White Chocolate Mousse, Honey and Thyme Poached Bosc Pears, Salted Pistachio Tuille
Chocolate dipped pig shortbreads
Stumptown French Press
The irony of my meal at Naomi Pomeroy’s “Beast” on Superbowl Sunday came in the form of a quote from my favorite author scrawled across the bathroom wall – Kurt Vonnegut’s “You can’t just eat good food. You’ve got to talk about it too. And you’ve got to talk about it to somebody who understands that kind of food.” It was ironic because as a ‘thank you’ to my host in the city I’d offered to take her along to the small restaurant on NE 30th Avenue and both the food and the restaurant definitely warranted discussion.
Considered by many to be the best restaurant in Rip City, Beast features a nightly six course seasonal menu for $75 – a veritable steal in fine dining – and with a small staff and seating for less than two dozen the feel of the restaurant is indeed quite intimate with the full kitchen on display and seats closely spaced, but not ‘crowded’ by any means. Dark, wood, cement, and steel much like the majority of Portland restaurants the space is excellent and the service leaves little to be desired as it is efficient and attentive without being overbearing.
Focusing on the food and the bulk of our conversation after the meal it should be noted than there was nothing wrong with anything that we tasted during our two hours at Beast and as a matter of fact, most of it was very good – the issue was the cooking, or relative lack thereof as nearly every course was simply assembled on the plate…a case of mise en place gone overboard, verging on assembly line food detrimental to both temperature and texture, and something I’ve never experienced before despite dining in many open kitchens and at a fair number of ‘kitchen tables.’
Served with great pacing and ample descriptions of each course, the salad and sorbet would prove to be fresh and light while cheeses were well culled; all a case of quality sourcing rather than preparation while the signature charcuterie plate was indeed quite nice – the two liver preparations particularly memorable and the boudin noir one of the more funky preparations I’ve had to date. Less successful, the duck course clearly suffered from pre-preparation and arrived less crispy and less warm that desired; a shame as the flavor was good and the pairing of oranges and carrots was actually quite inspired in complimenting the fowl.
Choosing not to imbibe but tasting a bit of what was served to my fellow diner I have to say the wine pairings at Beast were all quite impressive; particularly the light Riesling served with the earthy sweet soup while coffee, a Columbian Single Origin roasted by Stumptown was perfect with dessert, a lightly whipped chocolate cream serving to smooth out the intensely sweet pears – a nice ending to a good meal, but certainly not the best meal in a city with so many fantastic restaurants where you can watch the culinary team hard at work preparing a much larger variety of interesting plates.