Laurelhurst Market: Restaurant Guide 2010

Butcher shop 10 am-7 pm daily; restaurant 5-10 pm Monday-Saturday, 5-9 pm Sunday. $$-$$$ Moderate-expensive.
[ENLIGHTENED STEAKHOUSE] Let's just get this out of the way now—Laurelhurst Market is indeed a butcher shop, but it's not that kind of butcher shop…you won't find beef sticks, picnic roasts or meatloaf mix. (Although, to be fair, if you're in the market for these items, you're probably not going to be looking for them in Laurelhurst.) There are cured things, and stuffed things, and things that have been chopped up, wrapped in bacon and pressed into a terrine. This is the Rolls Royce of butcher shops—in line with Chop at Northwest's City Market, where Laurelhurst's owners got their start—and the quality of the meat on offer is commensurate: Cattail Creek lamb, Thundering Hooves pasture-finished beef, Tails & Trotters pork. The bustling attached restaurant (runner-up for WW's 2009 Restaurant of the Year) serves this meat à la carte in expertly simple preparations, with a variety of sides from $4 to $7. "Cuts available tonight" are displayed above the open kitchen on a chalkboard diagram, though I suspect its function is more art than utility. As for recommendations, it's impossible to go wrong with anything steak or pork, especially when paired with the signature Smoke Signal cocktail ($10), a solid glacier of smoked ice in a lowball glass, melting into a pool of sherry and Jack Daniel's. KAT MERCK.
Ideal meal: Smoked Tails & Trotters double-cut pork chop with hazelnut butter.
Best deal: Did I mention this is the Rolls Royce of butcher shops?

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