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Ira's
on 21st
500
NW 21st Ave.,
478-0889
Open
5:30-10 pm Tuesdays-Thursdays,
5:30 am-11 pm Fridays-Saturdays.
Kids
rare. Prices moderate to expensive.
Nice
touch: They've left the swank interior of Zefiro untouched.
Poblano
pepper cheese cake, sautéed oysters, Cornish game
hen.
Bruce
Carey's new project, Bluehour, opens Friday,
Sept. 8, at 250 NW 13th Ave.
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The only detectable change in decor that Ira's on 21st has
made from the old Zefiro is a coat of blue paint on the outside
of the restaurant. I hesitate to assume it's a subtle allusion
to the upcoming reincarnation of Zefiro in the Wieden &
Kennedy building as "Bluehour," but the external make-over
seems to announce that things will be different on the inside.
In fact, the interior is virtually identical to the old place,
from the furniture to the fixtures to the photographs in the
restrooms. Though the crowds seem sparser, if you peered through
the large windows you'd think everything were exactly the
same.
But it just ain't so. Not that Ira's has any obligation
to be Zefiro, of course, though I suspect we carry an unconscious
expectation that anyone taking over the vaunted room, where
Portland's restaurant scene came of age in the early '90s,
is obliged to carry the torch and keep the flame alive.
So many fine restaurants have appeared in Portland since
then that one hopes every new opening will bring yet more
marvelous things. In effect, the bar has been raised, so
that what might have been a wonder 10 years ago now seems
a bit ho-hum. I'm afraid that is the case with Ira's. There
is nothing dramatically wrong here but nothing really to
excite one, either. There is little that you can't find
done as well if not considerably better elsewhere, nothing
that makes this a particularly distinctive place to dine.
And yet, a few dishes are clearly attempts to be imaginative
and interesting, and you can't say that Ira's isn't trying.
The menu, alert to seasonal offerings, is clearly manageable,
with just five appetizers, a couple of salads, and seven
or eight entrees. The cuisine is basic American, with some
Asian and Southwest inflections in the spicings. There's
even an Ashkenazi Jewish influence: The menu leads off with
borscht and strudel (though I doubt if many housewives in
Budapest used truffle oil in theirs, as Ira's does).
The borscht is an interesting and welcome idea, given the
glorious beets in the market and how seldom, outside delis,
you will find this classic Russian soup. However, for my
taste it is simply too intensely "beety," almost luridly
blood-red. A paler shade of pink would have been more welcome
and subtler; moreover, the chilled soup lacked delicate
seasoning or even the addition of lemon to give it some
buoyancy. The "Northwest strudel" is unlike any you've ever
had. Strudel typically is a fruit-filled dessert made from
filo pastry; Ira's savory version is filled with wild mushrooms--a
nice idea--but curiously these "strudels" are shaped like
egg rolls, are far too salty and feel a bit heavy for warm
summer nights. Another somewhat heavy dish, though better
by far, is the creamy poblano pepper cheese cake, given
a touch of New Mexico with chipotle, poblanos and mango
salsa (indeed, salsas appear throughout the menu). I liked
this starter for its creaminess, vibrant spices and colorful
look, though it too might be left for cooler weather. Probably
the best of the appetizers is a serving of Willapa Bay oysters,
sautéed in white wine and shallots and cupped in
a large leaf of radicchio that looks like a ruby Botticel-lian
shell; the liquor is briny, and the oysters small yet plump
and flavorful. But a salad of smoked salmon and blood oranges
was very disappointing: The greens were wilted and the salmon
devoid of any taste whatsoever, and the grilled tomatoes
lacked bite and tanginess. The ingredients never came together,
and even a dollop of flying-fish roe on top of the salad
could not make this concoction fly.
Another touch of Japan comes with the game hen, for my
money the best of the main courses. Soba noodles, heated
up with chile oil, make a fine accompaniment to the bird,
which is nicely cooked for a crisp skin that holds in the
juices.
But it is hard to make a fuss about just another salmon,
and Ira's treatment, with just a bit of fruity vinaigrette,
provides little you haven't tasted a hundred times. The
addition of braised fennel is welcome, but the accompanying
risotto is dreadful--hard, lumpy and tasteless. I would
have to say that cooked vegetables appear to be Ira's forte:
Green and wax beans accompanying the pork loin were superb,
eclipsing the meat itself, which was serviceable but needed
another helping of salsa to give it elevation. The sugar
snap peas served with a grilled duck breast are almost worth
the price of admission, but while the magret was decent,
I had had a similar dish at Higgins a few nights before
and that version set a gold standard Ira's could not match.
A good note for vegetarians: The grilled-vegetable salad,
consisting of the usual medley of summer veggies--eggplant,
tomatoes, peppers, torpedo onions--is fresh and excellent,
largely because the blue cheese and onion vinaigrette is
first-rate.
The desserts I tried were middling and indifferent. Blueberry
shortcake is much too hard and dry, and a berry cobbler
struck me as quite pedestrian.
I wanted to like Ira's, partly because of all the great
memories I have of this space. It is not fair, to be sure,
to ask any new restaurant that occupies an old favorite
location to be similar to its precursor, or even to be of
equal caliber, any more than one should demand of a second
marriage that it be identical to the first. Nonetheless,
I believe Ira's needs to pay greater attention to details,
for at present there are few moments in the meal that send
you out feeling you've had a wonderful culinary experience.
The ingredients are there, and the restaurant puts forth
some interesting and attractive ideas, but the execution
has a considerable way to go before it generates a deserved
excitement.
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