The Bent Brick

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.

stranger things have happened

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.

green beans

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.

various pork parts :0

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

Curds and Sauce

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.

Pickle Plate
Pickle Plate

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.

SAME PICKLE PLATE
Cheerios

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!

Whatever You Ain’t Never Had

We tried to go to a new vegan restaurant in town but I had a really bad phone experience when I called said restaurant. (WHY let someone answer the phone who has…no idea how to conduct a phone call? Let the phone ring until the hostess gets back from the bathroom or something?) So instead we went to the opposite end of the dinning spectrum and decided on little bird because, well, why not? The owner, Gabe Rucker, just won some award or something.

BREAD ALTER

Remember my super classy friend? Thanks to her we were granted a seat upstairs at dinner time on a Saturday without a reservation. The upstairs has this total apothecary vino vibe with a few slabs of fresh bread beneath some sort of horned skull. Horns, antlers, you can’t throw a micro-brew in Portland without hitting a pair. TRUTH.

My Precious

The skull and pinned butterflies must be doing their thing on the bread alter because this butter vessel really got to me, and I don’t usually get worked up about bread unless I’m hanging at An Xuyen on a Saturday morning, as I am wont to do.

Anjou Rosé, Domaine La Grange Tiphaine, '09 Loire

I know next to nothing of wine but I can fake smell and slurp and throw my nose in the air with the best of ’em and this was tasty. Bright, semi-floral, weak finish, like early March in a Rhododendron graden. Mostly I wanted you to see that they throw brown paper over their tables.

PNW 'sters

I have not been looking forward to this part: I didn’t notate the type of oysters I enjoyed. I even have an app on my phone just for this purpose :(. I loved both, well shucked and super fresh.

The Man Likes Lamb

This was grilled lamb belly, peas, mint, whipped crème fraîche. Aaron is wild about lamb, if he is not on a vegan week or month it’s his go to for fancy food.The peas were gorgeous, clearly fresh from the market that morning. And this is a very large appetizer portion – and a deal at $11.00.

Fennel Au Gratin

Well this dish RULED. Like mac and cheese but with fennel. This was one of the show stoppers of the night, in all of it’s unassuming glory. The type of dish that makes you want to run home and figure it out.

I’m leaving out some pictures. I’m saving a few for an upcoming post detailing my recent DUCK research. I did order and enjoy the bone marrow with orange marmalade. I’d never had bone marrow before and now I have. I am fortified by bone marrow.

Hazelnut-Milk Chocolate Financier - brandied cherries, praline ice cream
Lavender Crème Brûlée, riesling strawberries

I’m going to take it easy on these desserts because they turned the downtown fountains on today which means it’s Spring, the sun is shining, and I’m in a Good Mood.

Can you imagine the life of a pastry chef? Toiling in dark kitchens before the lunch crew is even out of bed. Crafting beautiful components and just hoping they make it on to the plate in the order and form you intended because you will not be there to plate, you will be sleeping, waiting for your alarm to go off at 4 am. You’d have to give up a ton of control to be a pastry chef, at least that is my understanding. The financier was chewy and…oddly textured. The brandied cherries were GOOD. I have no idea what happened with the Brûlée but it tasted of astringent lavender, as if you steeped your lavender eye pillow in your evening vodka. Yeah, it was really weird, but well intended I’m sure!

Regardless, loved this meal. Tried new food, chatted with old friends. little bird absolutely delivers that special feeling of young nest newness, the kind that leaves you giddy for Spring.