Image: Courtesy David Reamer, Courtesy Giraffe, Courtesy Judia Ann Woo, Courtesy Alan Weiner, Courtesy Checkerboard Pizza, Courtesy Higgins, and Kelly Clarke Higgins Barįor a place that’s been around for a quarter-century, Higgins’s wood-gleaming cocoon of a bar, tucked behind the pioneering farm-to-table dining room, can still feel like a secret. Just want a damn sandwich? The Italian hero, typically slapped together with the cheapest factory meat money can buy, is a thing of reverence here: the nation’s best salami cotto, capicola, mortadella, and smoked provolone wrapped, like a fat stack of Benjamins, around vinegar-slicked shredded lettuce.
#LUNCH BOX WAX PORTLAND FULL#
OP’s new DIY, sushi-style menu is a godsend for picky meat-eaters: a full page of salamis, grilled sausages, sliced meats, pâtés, cheeses, and accoutrements to mix and match at will. Leave it to the folks who have dominated the cured meat conversation in this country for a decade to reinvent the charcuterie board. 2145 NW Raleigh St -BT Olympia Provisions NW And with consistently excellent seasonal salads, this is a place all of Slabtown’s diet-observant-Keto, Whole30, or whatever comes next-can get behind. Creamy, parmesan-loaded Ayer’s Creek polenta and vibrant smashed herbed potatoes are a must. Dunk the juicy, smoky bird ($9 for a quarter) in creamy aji verde or vinegary chimichurri for best results. At Northwest’s Mama Bird, poultry is elevated to biblical status, grilled in the center of the room on a giant funeral pyre of Oregon white oak.
Chicken is it-fried, smoked, and roasted on every street corner in the city. Not long ago, Portland was better known as Porktown, USA. Hot tip: northerly downtown workers can find Naoko’s grab-and-go bento boxes inside Japanese retailer Muji, next to Pioneer Place. The centerpiece? Velvety grilled tofu, delicate wild salmon, or absolutely killer pork shu mai dumplings, rich and clad, oddly, in oats. Don’t miss the teishoku lunch trays (Wednesday–Saturday only, $14–28), each perfect meal carefully arranged with miso soup, fresh Japanese pickles, a lovely salad, and toasted sesame-flavored rice. Murray, Courtesy Giraffe, and Courtesy Pollo Bravo Shizuku by Chef NaokoĬhef Naoko, as she’s known to regulars, lets it be known: “I can talk to vegetables.” It shows at her small, “Oregon farm to Japanese table” café. Image: Courtesy Mama Bird, Courtesy Judia Ann Woo, Courtesy Checkerboard Pizza, Courtesy Alan Weiner, Courtesy Kristen D. After comings and goings over nearly four years at this bizarre tourist grub court, three champions stand out: Pollo Bravo, with its juicy chicken al carbon, pitch-perfect romesco sauce, and manchego-dusted, sherry vinegar–revved radicchio salad ($12) Bless Your Heart Burgers’ frizzle-edged griddle burgers, slicked with the works and crispy, Cool Ranch–spiced french fries ($11 for both) and Checkerboard Pizza, a side hustle from master baker Ken Forkish dishing some of the best New York–inspired, crackle-crusted pies in town ($10 for a 12-incher). While the food hall craze seemingly ended before it began, Pine Street Market’s game has never been stronger.
For those who say lunch is a throwaway meal, Maurice is the definitive counterpoint. In a hurry? Grab a slice of the best quiche in town, with a shocking jiggle, or a tightly wound, seasonal anise brioche holding chunks of sweet plum in its center. You can wander in on any given day and pick a plate of plump, briny mussels stuffed with wheat berry, dill, and sultanas while sipping stellar vermouth before moving on to a dessert layered with buckwheat gingerbread cake, parsnip creme, and persimmon. Seven years in, Kristen Murray’s quaint, white-walled escape is without a doubt the most special lunch spot in the city. Who would eat at a pricy French-Scandinavian “pastry luncheonette” that didn’t serve breakfast or dinner? I needn’t have bothered.
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