Acadia Bloggers Dinner

Disclosure: This meal was complimentary, but I will always provide my honest opinion and assessment of all products and experiences I may be given. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own.

Acadia, a New Orleans Bistro, at NE Fremont and 13th in the Sabin neighborhood of Portland serves modern American cuisine with local ingredients rooted in Louisiana Cajun/Creole traditions. Every day, Acadia serves up Louisiana classic southern food, including shipping the real deal ingredients that can’t be sourced locally here right from the South like Gulf shrimp, blue crab, and Louisiana crawfish to compliment the locally sourced fresh Northwest ingredients.

The food is high quality and service very smooth and caring like your charming neighborhood favorite restaurant (I saw staff welcome back and chat with several regulars during our meal).

Chef/Owner Adam Higgs is representing New Orleans here- I think the restaurant’s New Orleans artwork and Creole/Cajun artifacts are from his personal collection. Similar to how Andy Ricker researches every year in Thailand for Pok Pok, Chef Adam also travels to New Orleans at least once a year for research as well.

Inside, the restaurant is bold with color instead of the usual bare bones natural wood/stone/concrete you so often see, with yellow, cobalt blue, bright reds to rejuvenate you from what may be a rainy Portland grey day into more festive spirits.

I was recently fortunate enough to get to family style share and try some of the current seasonal dishes and some of the popular mainstays from the regular menu with a few other Portland bloggers. These included

• Cornmeal-Fried Louisiana Soft Shell Blue Crab with jalapeño tartar, English Pea & mint salad, and fresh lemon, a springtime adaptation of a very popular dish.
• Louisiana Barbeque Shrimp with lemon, black pepper, white wine and butter. I went back to the bowl and spooned the sauce right onto my bread.
  
• Chicken-Fried Chicken Skins with cayenne-cane syrup mustard. Let’s face it, this is the best part of the chicken, without all that pesky chicken. You know when I come back I’m going to order this dish again. And this time I won’t have to share, muahaha.
  
• Radicchio Treviso & Rhubarb Salad with Portland Creamery Chévre, spicy candied pecans, honey-cured kumquats and poppy seed dressing. I loved the little honey cured kumquats here
• Crawfish Boil & Collard Greens Salad with crawfish tails, red remoulade dressing, boiled fingerlings, corn, andouille, shaved Parmesan and a crispy poached egg. I don’t know how they did that crispy poached egg, but there was a little mini sigh/gasp on my side of the ten-top as Rebekah cut into the egg and the golden yolk oozed out.
  
• One of the 3 mains we tried was special sexy sexy bang bang (ok, I dubbed it that) pork dish off menu- Acadia changes the menu often, though they will probably have some version of their thick Grilled Carlton Farms Pork Chop on the menu. We were all having silent moments as we enjoyed our share of this pork.
   
• Bronzed, Wild-Caught Louisiana Sheepshead with Spinach Madeline pie and blue crab meuniére. Sheepshead is a brackish water fish (sometimes called convict fish because of its broad black & white stripes) that’s fished from rocky waters. It has a texture that is almost creamy but not fatty, and some describe it as “crab-like” which is interesting because the fish’s diet is comprised heavily of shellfish and bivalves.
  
• Portland Creamery Goat Cheese Gnocchi with foraged stinging nettle purée, early morels, asparagus, spinach, sliced toasted almonds and shaved Grana Padano Parmesan. The vegetarian entree, though the gnocchi is updated with what is fresh and seasonal of course. There are also several items that are or can be made gluten-free.
  

We also shared (thus all the straws you may see in a drink sometimes) FIVE fabulous cocktails, all of them real beauties, courtesy of Bar Director Beau Burtnick. These included

• Big Easy section: Julep with bourbon, mint, sugar and some special secret ingredient…
• Light and Breezy section: Young Sarandon with Union gin, fresh rhubarb, suze, house-made rhubarb sorbet.
  
• Light and Breezy section: Study Retreat with cucumber vodka, blood orange, byrrh, peychaud’s bitters, port, salt.
• Big, Rich and Boozy section: Commander La Croix with tequila, lemon, apple cider vinegar, ginger beer, cayenne-sugar rim.
  
• Big, Rich and Boozy section: Portland Caprese with white rum, clarified tomato, fresh basil, cane vinegar, honey, lemon, salt and pepper. My favorite of the evening! I really like savory drinks though, and I appreciated the balance with acidity from the tomato and cane vinegar but it was not sour. Also, cheese helps everything.
  

Finally, desert. I was in love with all of them, but vowed to return for that bread pudding alone. But, I also want the Pecan Pie with praline-bacon ice cream, which we did not try…

• Vanilla Bean Bread Pudding with white-chocolate brandy ganache, thickened sweet cream poured dramatically tableside (as captured by fellow blogger Jenni Bost, blogger/writer/designer/stylist of blog A Well Crafted Party here) and toasted pecans
  
• Tropic Thunder dessert of Banana cake with maraschino drizzle, coconut frosting, passion fruit cheesecake, and Golden Graham macadamia crust
  
• Chocolate Espresso Layer cake with burnt marshmallow, fudge icing, and white chocolate crumb. We were all so excited to dig into this cake that I missed getting a photo, so I’m referring to this lovely collage of all 3 by lilslimlady who writes the blog Salt. Water. Coffee.
  

Acadia is located at 1303 NE Fremont St., Portland. They are open for Dinner Monday through Saturday 5:00 pm – 10:00 pm, for Lunch only on Wedsnedays 11:30 am – 2:30 pm.

On Mondays is their special Cheap Eats nights with half a dozen entree options for $10 or less. Their menus change seasonally, and they offer several gluten-free options- you can check out some sample menus here.

Disclosure: This meal was complimentary, but I will always provide my honest opinion and assessment of all products and experiences I may be given. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own.

Recaps from other bloggers for more pictures and perspectives:

• Urban Bliss Life