Fab 40: Portland food
Portland is the kind of town where everybody might not know your name, but they probably know your friend’s. Some of the clichés are true: bicycles and beards are as universal as tattoos and high-waisted shorts. Mostly, though, it’s the ingrained childlike sense of excitement that makes this town the home of America’s best food. Everyone is here to have fun. And some of them do it best.
[B]Beast[/B]
A tiny open-kitchen room that embraces each of the city’s greatest stylistic hits – chalkboard walls, a supperclub feel, communal tables – and renders them flawless. Naomi Pomeroy and her sous chef Mika Paredes work together with a balletic grace that makes what could be a high-pressure six-courser feel like a leisurely dinner at your favorite friends’ home - if your friends served foie gras bonbons and quail egg toasts.
[B]Le Pigeon [/B]
Gabriel Rucker’s open-kitchen spot that brings a new level to the word ‘intimate.’ Fighting the myth that expansion is the only way forward, Rucker just brought general manager Andy Fortgang in as partner, lending more stability and longevity to this tiny home of specials like chopped beef heart in a grilled peach or the Proustian nostalgia-inducing sundae. It’s the game hen, though, that’s the must-have: confited, cooked under a brick, with just a few little claws to remind you it once ran.
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
[B]Bunk Sandwiches[/B]
Named for a Wire character and as popular as that genre-defying HBO series. The sandwiches here are gargantuan, combinations of meats and cheeses and peppers and confits and salt cod and tongue and snails. They are reinventions without novelty, progress without preciousness. They are also, megalomaniacally, unforgettable.
[B]Viridian Farms[/B]
Run by a husband and wife team who really like Basque cooking and head to Spain for ‘research’ every few months, Viridian Farms is the only place to get Pimientos de Padron (everywhere on late-summer menus), Piment d’Espelette, and the alien-looking glacier lettuce. Not to mention the best and biggest blueberries—the secret is a seaweed fertilizer—around.
[B]Beaker & Flask[/B]
A Southeast Portland cocktail lounge and restaurant that opened in the dog days of August. Run by Kevin Ludwig, with the aid of just about every bartender in town, Beaker & Flask is the ultimate collection of Portland superstars, all under one chalkboard-walled roof. The happy hour menu, there to accompany the ambitious cocktails, is sometimes funny—pork rillette tater tots—and sometimes obscene—the mac and cheese doesn’t quite need that square of crumbly blood sausage.
[B]Laurelhurst Market[/B]
The latest venture founded by the Simpatica crew. Essentially a fancy bacon sammy, the pork belly sandwich layers slabs of Laurelhurst Butcher Shop’s pork belly with Pimientos de Padron and housemade aioli. It’s dark, earthy, and feels profoundly dangerous.
Amangiri resort, Utah
Read the article: Amangiri resort%A
Best Made Axes
Read the article: Best Made Axes%A
Commonwealth Utilities S/S 09 collection
Read the article: Commonwealth Utilities
BlackWhite House in Bethesda, Maryland by David Jameson Architects
Read the article: David Jameson Architects
Methow Cabin, by Eggleston Farkas Architects, Seattle
Read the article: Eggleston Farkas Architects
Hotel Erwin, Venice Beach, California
Illustration from the Monkey Bar by Barry Blitt, New York
Read the article: Monkey Bar, NYC
Interior of the Monkey Bar
My Best Fred, NYC
Read the article: My Best Fred
Neal Creek, Hood River by Paul Mckean, Oregon
Read the article: Paul Mckean, Oregon
Beaker & Flask, Portland
Read the article: Portland food
Laurelhurst Market, Portland
Bunks famous sandwiches, Portland
Le Pigeon, Portland
Viridian Farms, Portland
Installation by Johanna Grawunder in Robert at MAD, NYC
Read the article: Robert at MAD, NYC
Speakeasy - Rye NYC
Read the article: Speakeasy Rye, NYC
Speakeasy - Clover Club, NYC
Read the article: Clover Club, NYC
Speakeasy - The Violet Hour, Chicago
Read the article: The Violet Hour, Chicago
Speakeasy - The Varnish, LA
Read the article: The Varnish, LA
Speakeasy - Bourbon & Branch, San Francisco
Read the article: Bourbon & Branch, LA
Diamond House, XTEN Architecture, LA
Read the article: XTEN Architecture
Melina Keays is the entertaining director of Wallpaper*. She has been part of the brand since the magazine’s launch in 1996, and is responsible for entertaining content across the print and digital platforms, and for Wallpaper’s creative agency Bespoke. A native Londoner, Melina takes inspiration from the whole spectrum of art and design – including film, literature, and fashion. Her work for the brand involves curating content, writing, and creative direction – conceiving luxury interior landscapes with a focus on food, drinks, and entertaining in all its forms
-
Watch dance, music and film collide at a unique event at Abbey Road Studios
In this exclusive film, watch Abbey Road’s first Artist in Residence, Jordan Rakei, collaborate with industry-leading creatives to produce a dance performance in the hallowed Studio One
By Anna Solomon
-
Frances Elkins gets her dues at Christie's this June
You can soon take home a piece of the legendary American designer’s legacy…including a $3 million Alberto Giacometti sculpture.
By Anna Fixsen
-
The new Phone 2 Pro from CMF combines generous scale with true affordability
We explore the ins and outs of the CMF Phone 2 Pro, the newest device from the Nothing sub-brand that focuses on bold design and carefully honed value engineering
By Jonathan Bell
-
Ghanaian cuisine has a story to tell at Washington, DC restaurant Elmina
The new restaurant is chef Eric Adjepong’s colourful ode to the recipes he grew up loving
By Sofia de la Cruz
-
Fancy a matcha-beer cocktail? Visit this dashing new LA restaurant
Café 2001 channels the spirit of an American diner with the flow of a European bistro and the artistry of Japanese cuisine
By Carole Dixon
-
Visit this Michelin-star New York restaurant that doubles as an art gallery
Artist Mr.StarCity is exhibiting his emotionally charged yet optimistic ‘Bloomers’ portrait series at Frevo, a Greenwich Village hidden haunt
By Adrian Madlener
-
With glowing honeycomb-shaped booths, this futuristic Japanese restaurant is ramen heaven
After a successful U.S. expansion, Kyuramen touches down in Los Angeles.
By Carole Dixon
-
Tour the best contemporary tea houses around the world
Celebrate the world’s most unique tea houses, from Melbourne to Stockholm, with a new book by Wallpaper’s Léa Teuscher
By Léa Teuscher
-
Seven things not to miss on your sunny escape to Palm Springs
It’s a prime time for Angelenos, and others, to head out to Palm Springs; here’s where to have fun on your getaway
By Carole Dixon
-
At Linden Los Angeles, classic New York comfort food gets its due
The restaurant, inspired by a stretch of boulevard bridging Brooklyn and Queens, honors legacy, community and pleasure
By Carole Dixon
-
This atmospheric New York restaurant was designed to be a ‘beautiful ruin’
At Leon’s, classic Italian fare comes with a North African accent and with a side of family history
By Anna Fixsen