Skip to main contentLunch 11 am-3 pm, "apertivo" 3-6 pm, dinner 6-10 pm Monday-Saturday. $$ Moderate.
[CURED MEATS] The first restaurant in Oregon where the staff can legally serve its retail batches of cured and dry-aged meat, which opened last December in a cozy, white subway-tiled space that looks like a butcher's counter mated with a wine bar, is no one-trick pony. While Elias Cairo spends his days hand-mixing and -packing sausages for house and wholesale orders, chef Jason Barwikowski incorporates those links into a delicious, eclectic lineup of small plates. The ever-changing charcuterie plate acts as the salumeria's greatest-hits CD: Sometimes you'll find salty, pungent saucisson sec, an Alsatian sausage flecked with garlic and black pepper that tastes like a European vacation. There are tiny gherkins, blobs of mustard, a tender chorizo and a big herby, creamy pork-rillette fat bomb. On another day, it's a hard Spanish salchichon that releases creamy and melty bursts of fat and nutmeg with each bite. At lunch there are hefty sandwiches, like a house sopressata on ciabatta amped up with marinated white anchovies; omelettes; soups; and jewel-bright English peas kissed with mint and ricotta. Dinner has a vibe similar to that of Clyde Common, where Barwikowski and his sous, Paul Oppliger, first tinkered with cooked and cured meats. The servers are laid-back yet knowledgeable, the prices bearable, and the small plates are big enough for three people to have one hefty bite each. You will have a glass of wine or a funky beer. There are sweets, too, like a rhubarb galette with sour-cream ice cream—but, come on, let's have pancetta with fried egg for dessert. KELLY CLARKE.
Ideal meal: Best pork and beans ever. Saucisson sec, pancetta and sauerkraut to go from the packed deli case.
Best deal: My God, the charcuterie plate.
WWeek 2015