Beast: A Review

For Christmas this year, my friend Alex gave everyone dinner out at various fancy restaurants. Mine was Beast, and we tried it out last night. Dining at Beast is sort of like going to a dinner party where you don't know anyone except the person you came with. And I mean that in a good way. Everyone eats the same thing at the same time, either 6 p.m. or 8:45 p.m. It's a lot of fun, the food was, with one exception, excellent, and overall, I totally recommend it. We went for the wine pairing with each course, which I strongly suggest. Six courses sound overwhelming, but the portions, for the most part are small, and therefore doable. Without further ado, here is course-by-course commentary:
1. Both the soup and nettle pastry were delicate and delicious; the soup had strong but not overwhelming flavors of mushrooms and truffles. The sparkling wine was wonderful.
2. Charcuterie Plate. A big plate with little bites of delight. Naomi Pomeroy suggested ending with the Foie Gras Bon-Bon. She was right. Everything on the plate was wonderful, I especially liked the paté and the chicken liver mousse with maple bacon, but the Bon-Bon was amazing. A delicate, buttery cookie was topped with a dome of buttery foie gras, garnished with two little dabs of sauternes jelly. It was dessert, really, but made of meat. Wow.
3. The lamb was, unfortunately, the low point. The artichokes fried in duck fat that accompanied it were wonderful, the mint-hazelnut salsa verde that topped it was fresh and crunchy, but the lamb...was too salty. It wasn't just my piece, Alex's was too. Which was really too bad, because everything else was so great.
Intermission: elderflower sorbet palate-cleanser. It wasn't listed on the menu, but ended up being one of my favorite thing that I ate that night. It was sweet, refreshing, and tasted, as I described it (and which made Alex laugh), as a Swedish snowball.
4. The roasted beet salad was good, but not anything particularly remarkable.
5. The cheese plate was a nice assortment of local and international slivers and dabs of cheese, accompanied by delicate anise shortbread. Very nice.
6. Dessert: the lemon tartlet was a nice, sweet, and light end to an overall very enjoyable meal.

Here's the menu for this week as posted on Beast's website:

week of march 11th

MENU FOR THE WEEK BELOW (suggested wine pairing in italics)

RICOTTA & NETTLE PASTRY
CREAM OF HEDGEHOG MUSHROOM SOUP
SHAVED OREGON BLACK TRUFFLE
DOMAINE LABBE BRUT DU SAVOIE-NV

CHARCUTERIE PLATE:
FOIE-GRAS BON-BON, SAUTERNES GELEÉ
STEAK TARTARE & QUAIL EGG TOAST
PORK, PORK LIVER, SOUR CHERRY & PISTACHIO PATE
CHICKEN LIVER MOUSSE, MAPLE CANDIED BACON
RIJCKAERT COTES DU JURA ‘EN PARADIS’-2006

CATTAIL CREEK LAMB LOIN CHOP
CRISPY BABY ARTICHOKES
DEMI-GLACE & MINT-HAZELNUT SALSA VERDE
ORATOIRE ST. MARTIN CAIRANNE ROUGE
RESERVE DES SEIGNEURS-2007

ROASTED RED & GOLD BEETS
FENNEL, WALNUT VINAIGRETTE
SHAVED SHEEPS MILK CHEESE
ORATOIRE ST.. MARTIN CAIRANNE BLANC HAUT COUSTIAS-2007

~SELECTION OF STEVE’S CHEESE~
ANISE & FLEUR DE SEL SHORTBREAD
POACHED WINTER FRUIT, MARCONA ALMONDS
CHATEAU BELLIVIERE BLANC VV ESPARSES-2005

LEMON-THYME TARTLETTE
VANILLA BEAN ICE CREAM
CASSIS COULIS
STEINMETZ RIESLING AUSLESE BRAUNEBERGER JUFFER-1992

503.841.6968 · 5425 NE 30th Ave · Portland OR 97211
Dinner 5:30-9:30PM Wednesday - Saturday, Sunday brunch 11-2
www.beastpdx.com

A Few Brief Updates

I haven't updated this in a while, I just don't have much time to go out, or cook, for that matter. But here are a few items of note:

• Jace Gace has closed. The hipster waffle house on Belmont is gone, and in its place is a generic-looking "deli" with a ubiquitous Pepsi-sponsored sign. Honestly, Jace Gace wasn't that great, I make better waffles at home, but it was a cool space, and I hope that something more interesting than a so-called "deli" eventually makes its home there.
• I visited Sel Gris for a second time over the weekend. This time, we had Lobster Gnocchi as an appetizer, and roast saddle of rabbit as an entree, which was stuffed with sweetbreads and wrapped in bacon. The Lobster Gnocchi was excellent, but I enjoyed the duck I had the first time I went there more than the rabbit; the duck was much lighter than the rabbit. It might have just been that duck suited my mood better. The staff there continues to be incredibly helpful and friendly.
• Alu is for sale. Supposedly the owner of the Germanic wine bar wants to move to Spain, and that nothing was wrong with business. Hmmm. I loved that place, and I hope whoever buys it maintains the same atmosphere and quality level.
• Sip and Kranz was sold. The Nordic "Child-Friendly" coffee shop had been closed for a while due to flooding from faulty plumbing. Then word came that it had been sold. Supposedly, the new owners are taking out the children's room (Hooray! No more screaming babies!) and are replacing it with computer stations. S & P's proximity to Jamison Square, combined with its kid-friendliness, led it to be often used as a rest area rather than a coffee shop, with inconsiderate parents coming in to get napkins, use the restroom, and take refuge from the sun/rain/etc. for hours by filling up all the seats without buying anything, all the while their kids ran around screaming, knocking things over, and disrupting the few paying customers who were actually there. Not the best way for a coffee shop to make money. I really liked everything about Sip and Kranz except the annoying children and parents. They had good coffee, good drinks, and nice furnishings. Best case, all this will be retained, and improved upon with the lack of children.
  
• Rumor has it that Gourmet Magazine may eventually only be online. Yes, that's right, the original upscale cooking magazine may no longer have a print version. The publisher apparently has too many titles in this genre and feels the need to weed things out. Why they chose Gourmet over other titles, I really don't know. Gourmet had a nice mix of articles on travel, food, and food politics. It was specifically the food politics that I enjoyed; most other culinary magazines ignore that side of things. Maybe circulation was down. That's too bad. Maybe CondeNast will reconsider.
  

That's all for now. I should be trying Beast soon, and a review will definitely follow.