Woodsman Tavern: Restaurant Guide 2014

SCRAPPLE SPREAD: Brunch at the Woodsman Tavern.

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4537 SE Division St., (971) 373-8264, woodsmantavern.com

[NICE FOLKS] Sitting down at the Woodsman is as close as most of us will ever come to staging our own Kinfolk supper. "Ah, yes," you think. "This is my spacious dining room with dark wood floors, a high white ceiling and spare and elegant oil paintings on the walls. These stylish, charming waiters and bartenders are my friends, and this is a menu that I created—simple, but well executed." The menu's simplicity may cause some to balk at the prices—$26 for chicken and corn. But that's before you bite through the crisp, sweet crust on that wildly flavorful, moist roast chicken leg, or sample the accompanying corn, with its rotating array of accompaniments. The salads, made with seasonal produce such as grilled peaches and broccolini, deserve a review all their own but the real stars here aren't found on land. Start with oysters from the Woodsman's painstakingly sourced raw bar, or try the grilled trout, a freshwater fish that nevertheless tastes sublimely at home in "crazy water" that is based on seawater and redolent of tomatoes and tarragon. ADRIENNE SO.

Pro tip:

If dinner ends before 8 pm, skip the dessert menu and walk to the Woodsman's sister bakery, Roman Candle, for some of the best pie in town.

5-10 pm daily, 10 am-2 pm brunch Saturday-Sunday. $$-$$$$.

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