In Portland, Oregon, a New Generation of Chefs and Producers Are Serving
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In Portland, Oregon, a new generation of chefs and producers are serving up local food that combines creative flair COUNTER with a sense of community Words Claire Nelson Photography Dave Lauridsen CULTURE 84 jamiemagazine.com jamiemagazine.com 85 Left: The sprawling Forest with one of his rooftop Park. Opposite, clockwise hives; grilled octopus at from top left: Tyler Malek Tasty n Alder. Previous serves up ice creams at spread: Ryan and Jace in Salt & Straw; watermelon their food truck, Fried Egg salad, with Jacobsen sea I’m in Love; a dad takes a salt, at Imperial; Bee coffee break at Cup & Bar. Local’s Damian Magista the hipsters, the hikers, the artists and – perhaps gathering most momentum – the foodies. This leafy metropolis has become THE place to eat – a culinary hotspot, thanks largely to its location in bountiful northern Oregon. The state’s wet winters and balmy summers nurture a boggling variety of produce, including meat and crops from the rugged plains out east, and ample seafood from the Pacific to the west. What doesn’t grow here, friendly neighbour California generously supplies. It’s no surprise that chefs and producers are heading to Portland to make their mark. It’s like a throwback to the pioneering spirit of the Oregon Trail era, when Americans packed their covered wagons and rolled on out here in search of greener pastures. These days, the wagons have given way to food trucks, now numbering more than 600, and the burgeoning street-food scene is now embraced as part of the city’s culture. You could eat at a different Portland food truck almost every night for two straight years before you had to revisit one. The original encampments of vendors are downtown – tucked among the towering office blocks and quirky independent shops, and serving up veggie burgers and bibimbap morning to night – but the revolution is growing across the Willamette River on Portland’s east side, too. Four years ago, buddies and bandmates Jace ortland is pretty weird. At least, that’s what Krause and Ryan Lynch left the rat race to make Portlanders tell me. And the more I delve into breakfast sandwiches here in their pun-tastic the heart and soul of Oregon’s largest city, the yellow food truck, Fried Egg I’m In Love. “It’s less more I discover it’s a difficult claim to contest. expensive to start a food cart than a restaurant,” Within Portland’s leafy limits you’ll find a explains Jace, expertly cracking a yolk onto a 2,000-hectare urban forest, a doughnut shop sizzling hot plate with one hand while wielding that’s licensed to conduct weddings, solar- a spatula in the other. “Plus, you don’t have to be powered parking metres, what might be the constantly moving. Some cities won’t let you stay most authentically zen Japanese garden outside in a stationary spot, like we are here.” I bite into of Asia and the world’s largest independent used my egg sandwich (the ‘Free-Range Against The bookstore. Portland’s very name was decided Machine’) – light, slightly crispy egg, pimped up by the perfunctory toss of a coin, although with havarti cheese and a wedge of perfectly ripe you can take your pick from an assortment of avocado. Ryan gives me a cheeky smile as Jace alternatives: Bridgetown; Stumptown; Rose remarks, “You know, you’d think we’d have City; Puddletown; PDX… It seems that this reached peak food cart at some point… but it city’s knack for variety is its greatest quirk. really doesn’t seem like it.” The locals, who live by the slogan ‘Keep Portlanders are the first to poke fun at Portland weird’, are a conglomerate of tribes: themselves, well aware of the city’s reputation 86 P jamiemagazine.com Above: Portland’s as the original incubator of bearded baristas Since Bee Local honey isn’t blended, mixed or famous White Stag sign and eco-warrior chefs with an obsession for cooked, you can taste the terroir of each hive greets traffic heading provenance. But those who know Portland encampment: think rich, resinous amber downtown. First installed understand that these stereotypes stem from from the Oregon high desert, sweet, fruity in 1940, the sign is now an authentic intentions: people here want to create honey with notes of blueberry from Portland official historic landmark. something in harmony with their community. farmland, or floral and early-season, pollinated Opposite: Christian The best place to see this ethos in action is in the Willamette Valley. It’s little surprise Ettinger, founder and the leafy south-eastern corner of town where, Damian is the go-to honey guy with chefs and brewmaster of Hopworks tucked among bright, cheerily painted houses, restaurateurs. Even his little winged workers “There are so many Urban Brewery, taking well-tended gardens and ramshackle bicycle are in demand, their services regularly called time out with an ice-cold repair shops, you’ll find small producers upon to pollinate organic farms. “Not only do breweries opening now pint of one of their creating artisanal products, from cheese and we get to produce incredible honey, but affect organic craft ales. salt to beer and coffee. Here there are breweries, our food-supply chain directly and be involved that I can’t even keep distilleries and even one or two urban wineries. with these incredible farmers,” he says, ruffling track of ’em – but we Locals refer to it as ‘Portland’s larder’. his dark hair in wonderment. “I don’t know how It’s here that Damian Magista runs Bee Local, to explain it, but it creates this cycle – these love to support the an expanding honey empire that he started in amazing critters tie everything together.” 2009 with a few humble hives in his backyard. A few blocks away, in the sun-dappled western young guys and the Those now number more than 120 and rising, corner of Hawthorne, one of Bee Local’s early bigger breweries are dotted around the city. Damian speaks gently adopters is serving up something a little yet passionately about his dedication to natural, different. Five years ago, Salt & Straw was Tyler supportive of us, too” organic honey making, and how he hopes to Malek and his cousin selling ice cream from a teach these skills to a new generation of push cart; now they have three Portland stores beekeepers. Listening to him makes you never and have recently launched in LA. Famous for want to look at commercially produced honey their unusual flavours – such as olive oil and again – but the proof is really in the product. blood orange, or strawberry honey balsamic 88 jamiemagazine.com jamiemagazine.com 89 You could eat at a different Portland food cart almost every night of the week for two straight years before you had to revisit one make a range of world-class lagers and ales, using organic and sustainable ingredients wherever possible, powering their operation with renewable energy. As we sit at HUB’s lively brewery bar, checked-shirted regulars munch on chunky house-made pretzels with lager mustard and have a chinwag with their neighbours. Above us, brightly coloured bicycle frames hang from the ceiling while the craft beers du jour are handwritten on the wall opposite. We crack open a couple of single-hop pale ales as Christian explains that the beer community is one that pulls together, despite so many different brews jostling for space on Oregon’s fit-to-bursting shelves. “There are so many breweries opening now that I can’t even keep track of ’em,” he admits. “But we love to support the young guys, and the bigger breweries are really friendly and supportive of us. We’re not Above: Perusing the with black pepper – their ‘farm-to-cone’ concept afraid of competition – we like to drop by any menu at the Fried Egg has them working with some of the region’s brewery and have a great pint.” I’m in Love food truck. best producers. It makes for seriously wicked The next morning, I’m waiting for the Opposite, clockwise from ice cream. On the pavement outside, customers eco-tram that runs from the north-west’s top left: Stumptown serve jostle for shade, dogs on leashes tied around fashionable Nob Hill through to the south end creamy, cold-brew coffee wrists, as they lick their pastel-coloured scoops. of the city. It’s not long before I find myself in on nitro; Powell’s famous After sampling the seasonal menu, I plump conversation with a friendly retiree, who tells City of Books occupies a for a pear and blue cheese ice cream: velvety, me that while craft beer is a big deal here, coffee whole city block; Ranger creamy, with a subtle, lingering tang. Tyler might just be bigger. Or, as she amusingly puts chocolate; starting the tells me the cheese hails from a dairy down it, “Portlanders take their uppers as seriously as day with coffee and a in southern Oregon and that the fruit is also their downers”. This is, after all, the home of fried egg sarnie; Imperial’s locally grown. “This state is one of the world’s third-wave artisan roasters. The city boasts golden fried chicken with leading exporters of pears,” he says, smiling more than 40 of them, not to mention plenty honey; hand-printing proudly. “So we’ve gotta represent, you know?” more out-of-towners peddling their beans. labels at Trailhead coffee; Everyone wants to make the best of Oregon’s Perhaps one of the best-known vanguards of double-scoop delight at offerings.