The crepe looked like an envelope pie and was stuffed with a savory mixture of cheese, portobello mushroom, and spinach. I was told (by the mouth chewing on it) that it was pretty good and, indeed, there was something seductive about the thin-skinned square pie with squelchy Tuscan fillings.

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Savoy Tavern & Bistro

• Savoy Website (Citysearch)
  
• Location: SE Clinton area
• Cost to fill up two people: About $40

Bunch of us were down in the SE Clinton district on Saturday night, looking for a quiet place to talk and eat. Somehow we wound up in Wisconsin (or at least the northwestern version of Wisconsin) at the Savoy Tavern & Bistro.

Outwardly, the Savoy looks like any other semifunky tiny Northwestern cafe. There were a couple of wrought iron tables outside (with the requisite cute baby and dog), about six small tables inside, and a small, select menu of sandwiches, savories, and entrees that included deep-fried cheese curds.

Cheese curds are salty, milky, tofu-like nuggets, an interim step between milk and cheese, and they squeak against your teeth. They’re pretty common in the Great Lakes states of Minnesota and Wisconsin, and hard to find if there’s not a cheese factory nearby. The waitress explained that the restaurant owner’s from Wisconsin.

In any case, we opted for the olive salad as an appetizer (it was good), and burgers with Wisconsin cheese. The service was lovely, the waitress extremely patient with the vagaries of a bunch of art types. Interestingly, the wines were mostly French, definitely NOT from the Great Lakes.

Tip: If the waitress sets a small bowl of creamy goop next to your salad, do NOT assume it’s the salad dressing. Taste before applying to your greens, because it may in fact be your tablemate’s very spicy honey mustard, capable of setting your nose on fire. (ask me how I know this)

 

Skyline Drive-in

• Skyline Drive-in website (CitySearch)
• Location: NW Portland (Cornell & Skyline)
• Cost to fill up two people: About $18

If you’re looking for the old-fashioned carhop skating to your rolled-down window, this ain’t it, although there’s a mural of same painted in the stalls where that used to happen.

But in every other respect, Skyline Drive-in is a 50s throwback, vinyl booths, kitsch and all. Probably the coolest part is that this isn’t a “theme” restaurant, where decorators carefully calibrated the poodle skirt reproductions. Skyline just grew that way. [Read more]

Paley’s Place

• Paley’s Place website

• Location: NW 23rd Avenue (restaurant row)

• Price to fill up two people: $50-$75

OK, I’d like these guys just for their website–it’s one of the nicest small business sites I’ve seen in awhile, and they’re also on the glass in Portland list. I probably should call it “northwestern” cuisine–they do.

It’s northwestern, though, because they opt for organic, locally grown and sustainable raw ingredients, and when they get through with it you understand why. In most restaurants, the vegetables are pretty much platefillers. Here, you come in looking for greens. I particularly like what they do with poultry–it’s juicy and flavorful. And, oddly, a colleague ordered a liver dish on the menu that day, and we all loved it.

Again in the not-cheap category–if you are conservative, a salad, entree, veggie and beverage (plus tip) is going to run about $50 each.

Wildwood

• Wildwood website
• Location: NW 21st (Restaurant Row)
• Cost to fill up two people: $60 dinner, about $35 lunch

One of the nice things about living in glassland is that, unlike Seattle or San Francisco, Portland area restaurants can get away with earth consciousness and local ingredients and all that Alice Waters-style stuff without sounding pretentious.

Wildwood manages to be quintessential Portland, including a great nod to the arts (there’s a glass wall by Liz Mapelli at the reception desk), and really horrible parking. It’s also pricey–lunch is just as good, not as crowded and noisy (usually) and cheaper.

When Wildwood is on, the food’s very good. It’s not always on, unfortunately–I’ve learned to stay away from anything that looks like a heavy or carb-rich sauce there, and concentrate on whatever’s on the menu that’s as close to its natural state as possible. Grilled meat or fish, cheeses, fresh vegetables, that’s the ticket at Wildwood.

I’m also a creme brulee nut, as I’ve said, and the ones at Wildwood are uniformly excellent (ESPECIALLY if they contain raspberries). But by far the best dish I’ve had there was the simplest, and not on the menu: A co-worker and I didn’t feel like bread–long story–and asked if we could have some carrot sticks or celery or something instead.

The lunch chef put on his thinking toque, lightly steamed some fresh veggies and sent them out with a lemony vinaigrette. It was, simply, the best vegetable dish I’ve had in the last ten years. We nearly licked the plate clean. I ask for that dish every time I go back, and nobody has any idea what I’m talking about.

All in all, it’s a nice place for lunch. And maybe if everyone asks, they’ll put those veggies on the menu.

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