Chef Shaw's New Digs and A Basque Eatery to Call Our Own...

As scooped earlier today by the Dude of Food at Portland Food and Drink, Marco Shaw of Fife fame is about to debut a new take-away restaurant in the Beaumont neighborhood on 42nd and Fremont. According to Shaw, Full Plate will serve “straight-up comfort food,” which will include the likes of his excellent pork chops, slow-roasted chicken and house-made lasagna. Shaw has obtained a retail liquor license to sell wine, and dinner for two with a nice bottle of red shouldn't top $45. It's slated to open Oct. 5, a Wednesday.

Of course, this isn't his only project. Shaw's long-anticipated Hardshell, a seafood restaurant, is still under construction as part of the Vanport Square redevelopment located at NE Martin Luther King Blvd. and Alberta Street. Seismic upgrades have delayed Hardshell's debut, but it should be up and running this winter.

Simpatica's Diaspora of crafty cooks has made in indelible mark on Portland appetites in 2006. First Gabe Rosen opened the noodle nook Biwa in March, followed by Jason Barwikowski's appointment as ace chef at Clyde Common and John Gorham's Toro Bravo. Now, another Simpatica chef, ex-Roux shogun Scott Ketterman, is scouting locations for a Basque-themed restaurant in North Portland. His Basque dinners at Simpatica have been met with much praise, and this type of restaurant in Portland would be a perfect fit. Oregon's weather and agriculture are nearly indiscernible from that of soggy Basque Country, and Portland and Bilbao have nearly identical streetcars systems. Now all we need is a Guggenheim and some of these.