I’ve been sick for two days but this afternoon I got out of bed, washed the orange juice from the bottom of approximately 40 glasses and remembered that before all of this ickyness I was sitting in a sun-lit room in the NW corner of Portland having a lovely evening, an evening that morphed into a really awesome night. The Bent Brick is totally worthy of your business, I did the leg work for you. I recommend that you go before I next see you because I’m pretty sure I’m contagious.

Yup, that’s the name of the drink. Bourbon, coriander, verjus, spiced currant, egg white. I’m not a big fan of bitters and it’s used in so many craft cocktails, so verjus and I get along really well.

Char grilled green beans, bean leaf pesto. LEMON. These were nice and lemony, or maybe bean leafs are lemony. Matters not to me, I’ll eat greens beans any which way.

Actually, ‘crispy pork snacks, buffalo style’. I didn’t order these but I totally ate some.

Okay, ‘fried cheese curds, fried apple sauce’. Although she refuses to admit it, my dining companion is well-regarded as the local expert on fried cheese curds. These can be found on a handful of menus and because they are so filling she usually takes the leftovers home in her purse.

BUT, these are not just any fried cheese curds, only SOME of these are fried cheese curds, the rest are fried applesauce and THEN they dust the whole plate with what looks like the contents of dehydrated cheese packets that are inside Mac and Cheese boxes but it really did not taste like that, it was much better and not salty at all, very subtle.

Don’t test me with a pickle plate, I am unafraid. I will go back to The Bent Brick and order the pickle plate again and again. I’d also like to thank The Bent Brick for not overly sweetening these pickled beets. You Yankees, I’ll tell you what, you like some sweet pickled beets. I don’t know where you get that from!  These were so refreshing. I also really enjoyed the pickled kobocha squash.

Cheerio pudding, yeasted caramel, apples. With the presence of Cheerios in this dessert you’d think it would have the effect on the diner of “look at me! just a big old kid eating Cheerios for dessert!” However, I found this dish more compelling than that. First of all, that’s good old nutritional yeast flecked over the caramel up there. I have never seen that done on a plate before and it WORKED. The apples placed around the dish had the texture of potatoes and I don’t know what you’d have to do to turn an apple into a potato but keep on with it because this dessert was most excellent.

I had so much fun sitting at the bar for Happy Hour that it actually occurred to me just to ask someone to seat me in the dining room, make a whole night of it. But instead, I will go back very soon. You can order the whole menu for $48.oo and the bartender told me about a shrimp dish that contains popcorn. Go to The Bent Brick!