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Holding the Line
The hottest debate in Portland's food scene is both trivial and dire: What should be done about those lines?
That queue in front of your favorite restaurant is a familiar aspect of the city's aggressively casual food scene. Among our 100 favorite local restaurants, few take reservations and fewer still are empty, meaning you will often wait for a table.
Our advice: Embrace it. Wear comfy sneakers and a fleece. Talk to the strangers clustered near you on the sidewalk. Open a tab. Debate your appetizer order with the table. Eventually, you will be seated. And you will be rewarded.
Portland doesn't do well with fine linen, brigade service or butter-poached Maine lobster—witness the demise of Noisette, Quartet and Genoa—but there's no better place for someone with $30, a little patience and an adventurous spirit. Bone-marrow custard? Wood-fired pizza with a cute cat on your lap? Blood sausage pigs en blanquette? Vodka-fueled romps with beet-cured chinook and jellied beef shank? It's all here.
Even so, not everyone's happy.
Lately, a certain class of foodie has been agitating for reservations at the always-mobbed Argentine steakhouse Ox and the original branch of the Pok Pok chain. Some people complain they're too busy and important to wait an hour for the best pizza on the West Coast. At the same time, you have scenesters prepared to reject the line in favor of clubby pop-up oyster dinners purchased a month in advance and staged in a basement kitchen on a Tuesday night. There are no lines for "UnRestaurants." Rather, there's a calculated air of exclusivity.
But many of us still believe in the promise of Portland as a fundamentally casual, egalitarian, affordable and efficient place—even inside our best restaurants. That two-block line of people waiting for the buttery fried chicken and waffles from the crackerjack kitchen at Screen Door means tables are never idle, which helps keep prices down. And, on the whole, Portland has more time than money. Besides, we sorta like the buzz from a bloody mary on an empty stomach.
We're not often cast as a bastion of traditionalism, but on the line issue, we defend time-honored local custom. We'll see you in line, Portland. —Martin Cizmar
The Directory: Our 100 Favorite Restaurants in Portland
By Neighborhood: Southeast | North/Northeast | Westside | Suburbs
2014 Restaurant of the Year: Kachka
Top Five: Old Salt, Ataula, American Local, Expatriate
Counter Service Spots: Latin | Asian | Italian | Sandwiches | Burgers
Wine Bars | Beer Lists | Veg-Friendly | Gluten-free | Elsewhere in Oregon
WWeek 2015