Block's

POPPED TOP: The Rainbow poached egg stack.
By Matthew Korfhage

You’d never expect it from the outside of this Southeast Clinton Street storefront, but Block’s is devoted mostly to grandma-era New York Jewish lunch and brunch fare. It’s the stuff of lazy sidewalk Sundays in Brooklyn: eggs and lox, latkes and gravlax, bagels and gravlax, a huge open-faced gravlax sandwich on housemade bread—everything gravlax! And why not? They cure the stuff themselves.

Elsewhere in Portland—at Kenny & Zuke's or Kornblatt's, say—a New York-style menu is loudly announced in the décor, the pastrami front and center in a deli case, the pickles on the tables, etc. Block's is oddly demure. There is a pastrami hash, but the walls are covered in cheerily domestic family photos, the walls are bright, and the kitchen minimal and visible from nearly every seat.

The plates can be dainty: The Pequod poached egg stack ($12) is served on a pair of gravlax-studded latkes so light they almost seem baked rather than fried, sitting prettily next to each other with a startling amount of room left on the plate. It left me with a residual ache in my belly and the need for an early lunch. Instead, get the heartier Rainbow ($9), two poached eggs with ready-to-pop yolks, perched atop two slices of rich polenta and stewy sauteed greens.

Breakfast specials named for a pair of Old Book friends—Sofia and Solomon—involve yogurt and granola. Solomon's ($7) comes in a Mason jar, a wisely assembled soup of thin, tart yogurt and crunchy toasted walnuts, sweetened by honey and sliced banana.

Homesick East Coasters, take note: You can get matzo ball soup at lunchtime for a mere $7. And even if your mom's from Georgia and doesn't know a kugel from a rugelach (the latter is $1.25 at the counter), it'll make you feel like your grandmother loves you.

  1. Order this: Rainbow egg stack ($9), matzo ball soup ($7).

EAT: Block's, 2032 SE Clinton St., 234-5689, blockspdx.com. 8 am-6 pm Monday-Friday, 8 am-3 pm Saturday-Sunday.

WWeek 2015

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. Support WW's journalism today.