Kachka

Kachka, our 2014 Restaurant of the Year, is filled to the brim with colorful Soviet propaganda posters and a sense of nostalgia for a time that might not have ever existed but seems wonderful, boisterous and free.

Take, for example, the unappealing sounding Herring "Under a Fur Coat" ($8). This dish could be the only thing on the menu at Kachka and it would be totally OK. It's as if some wizard took all the cold salads at a potluck picnic and whipped them together and did a spell over them.

Photo: Nashco Photo: Nashco

The potatoes and the beets and the herring and everything else come together in a magically refreshing and satisfying way no mother in the history of the world could re-create. Another dish not to miss is the Siberian pelmeni ($13), buttery meat dumplings that are definition of comfort food. And definitely order the super-rich crispy beef tongue ($11), perfectly offset by sweet currants and a horseradish vodka ($4 for 30 grams).

Photo: Nashco Photo: Nashco

Pro tip: The cocktails are well-balanced and sweet but not too sweet. Before you start shooting infused vodkas, try Red Clouds ($10) or Imz-U

GO: 720 SE Grand Ave., 235-0059, kachkapdx.com. 4 pm-midnight nightly. $$.

Willamette Week

Lizzy Acker

Lizzy Acker is Willamette Week's former web editor. Her first book, Monster Party, came out in 2010. She was born in Oregon, lived in San Francisco for almost eight years and then moved back to Oregon, just like everyone always knew she would.

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

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