Creative Mexican by Clandestino PDX

On Monday – Wednesday you can find creative Mexican plates and glasses of intriguing wines from Clandestino PDX, a pop-up now in residence at Lil Dame by Dame Collective (in the old Beast/Ripe Cooperative space). If you haven’t had an opportunity to visit, make a date for these weekdays to treat yourself to a cozy dinner and a food and wine mini adventure.
Clandestino PDX - Left Ceviche of yellowfin tuna, guava, avocado, lime on tostadita, Right Carne tartara - beef, yuzu kosho, serrano on tostadita Clandestino PDX - Quesadillas - carnitas, quesillo, guacachile

Clandestino joined the collective to start serving up Mexican inspired dishes in December to rave review by tastemaker and written word wrangler Karen Brooks of Portland Monthly who called Clandestino Portland’s Best New Mexican Restaurant. Try to make reservations as the space in inclement weather is very cozy and with recent media coverage may even be full for the night, even on a Monday. You can see how small the open kitchen is, so they also can only realistically do only so many covers per evening. As spring and summer weather open up the outdoor seating and they dial in their menu they’ll have more capacity.

Be sure to try several half glass pours during your visit! You can trust and after selecting your dishes let the staff pour their recommended pairings – you can even ask for a different pairing per person like we did for each dish. Not only are the selections carefully curated to be all winners with the food and diverse in provenance and flavor profile, but that helps support both sides of the collective.
Clandestino PDX - part of the Dame Collective

The way it works is the food sales are kept by the chef, Dame keeps the beverage, and overhead and staff costs are split by both resident chef and Dame. So patronize both with your check! I’ve always been a fan of the pop-up model (I even used to cover pop-ups for Eater PDX) – restaurant industry life is hard in terms of long hours and margins in balancing inventory with limited shelf life. Pop-ups allow for some reasonable work time boundaries with more control of when open for business and taking breaks, and an ability to get some work life balance. It’s great business sense for the brick and mortar owners and visiting chefs and part of PDX’s supportive hospitality community.

[Read more…]
Signature

Portland Pop-up: Serenade Spaghetti Western with Piccone’s Corner

The last Portland pop-up I attended happened to be a possible preview of the changes coming up to Revelry and additions of Cambodian food to the PDX food scene. Recently, I attended another pop-up from a dining experience producer called Serenade working together with Chef Nic Marazit who is working on opening Piccone’s Corner. So this is a bit of a preview too perhaps of what might be on the Menu at the soon to be open bar and butcher spot in February.
Portland Pop-up: Serenade with Spaghetti Western. A spread of bites from Piccone's Corner alongside music from three time Grand National Fiddle champion Luke Price and Jonathan Trawick is a 3rd generation guitar picking Ozark musician. Portland Pop-up: Serenade with Spaghetti Western. A spread of bites from Piccone's Corner alongside music from three time Grand National Fiddle champion Luke Price and Jonathan Trawick is a 3rd generation guitar picking Ozark musician. Portland Pop-up: Serenade with Spaghetti Western. A spread of bites from Piccone's Corner alongside music from three time Grand National Fiddle champion Luke Price and Jonathan Trawick is a 3rd generation guitar picking Ozark musician.

A reservation and pre-payment of $89 bought you a ticket to the Tournant space. The Serenade concept for their pop ups are that each event brings together good food along with good music, with different chefs and musicians curated by the people behind Serenade. Here’s my perspective from this Spaghetti Western dinner theme, where the idea was old school Italian food and old school American folk music. Dinner included a welcome cocktail with appetizers, four courses, and a live musical performance.

Upon arrival for the first 45 minute reception time, guests first spotted the chefs still flame grilling the main course (at that point it had been almost 3 1/2 hours on the fire), a Wallow and Root Porchetta.
Portland Pop-up: Serenade with Spaghetti Western, a Wallow and Root Porchetta being prepared by Piccone's Corner Portland Pop-up: Serenade with Spaghetti Western, a Wallow and Root Porchetta being prepared by Piccone's Corner

[Read more…]
Signature

Bagel Farm in Portland

There’s a new bagel option in Portland – at least sometimes. It’s a Bagel Brunch pop-up by Sean Coyne called Bagel Farm that offers bagels to dine in at a pop up locations on Saturdays (Elder Hall) or Sundays (right now Renata). The bagels are organic, use Pacific Northwest flour, and have a great crispness to the outside but doughy inside that is a perfect combo.
Bagel Farm pop up in Portland menu when popping up at Renata Bagel Farm pop up in Portland menu when popping up at Renata Salmon Deluxe bagel composed bagel sandwich from Bagel Farm pop up in Portland that comes with choice of bagel, salmon, horseradish cream cheese, salted cucumbers, capers, onions. Vegan Lox bagel composed bagel sandwich from Bagel Farm pop up in Portland that comes with choice of bagel, walnut spread, carrot lox, capers, red onions, salted cucumbers. This was my favorite especially on the sesame bagel

I happened to stop by the Renata pop-up at the beginning of the month when they first appeared at the wonderful space that is Renata. The next pop up is this weekend and next weekend, August 20, 21, 27, and 28.

The bagel choices include

  • Plain
  • Poppy
  • Sesame (this is my personal favorite)
  • Salt
    Salt Bagel from Bagel Farm pop up in Portland
  • Everything (my #2)
    Everything Bagel from Bagel Farm pop up in Portland

Meanwhile, the schmears are particularly fun, including besides having your bagel plain, or with butter, the spreads of

  • Plain cream cheese
  • Leek, scallion chive cream cheese
  • Horseradish cream cheese
  • Country ham cream cheese (here on an Everything bagel)
    Everything bagel with country ham cream cheese from Bagel Farm, a pop up offering bagel brunch in Portland
  • Hummus (vegan)
  • Walnut spread (vegan)

You can also additionally add cucumbers, capers, onions, or a tomato to enhance your sandwich. Or, they also offer open faced bagel sandwiches, which they called “Bagels Composed”, that include

  • Salmon Deluxe: choice of bagel, horseradish cream cheese, salted cucumbers, capers, onions. I was a big fan of the horseradish cream cheese.
    Salmon Deluxe bagel composed bagel sandwich from Bagel Farm pop up in Portland that comes with choice of bagel, salmon, horseradish cream cheese, salted cucumbers, capers, onions. Salmon Deluxe bagel composed bagel sandwich from Bagel Farm pop up in Portland that comes with choice of bagel, salmon, horseradish cream cheese, salted cucumbers, capers, onions.
  • Hammy Time: choice of bagel, country ham cream cheese, fennel slaw, radish
  • Hummus Among Us: choice of bagel, hummus, salted cucumber, radish, paprika, olive oil, lemon
  • Vegan “Lox”: choice of bagel, walnut spread, carrot “lox”, capers, red onions, salted cucumbers. This was my favorite especially on the sesame bagel.
    Vegan Lox bagel composed bagel sandwich from Bagel Farm pop up in Portland that comes with choice of bagel, walnut spread, carrot lox, capers, red onions, salted cucumbers. This was my favorite especially on the sesame bagel Vegan Lox bagel composed bagel sandwich from Bagel Farm pop up in Portland that comes with choice of bagel, walnut spread, carrot lox, capers, red onions, salted cucumbers. This was my favorite especially on the sesame bagel
  • Israeli Salad: choice of bagel topped with Israeli salad of tomatoes and cucumbers

Because I was at Renata, I was happy to treat myself to a well earned after the gym cocktail – and I wanted to make sure I got my fruit into my brunch too. This cocktail is called the Buon Giorno Princepessa with white peach – blueberry mint sorbetto and prosecco. It takes a little care and love to create, but it’s worth the wait – I could have drank these all morning.
 

What’s your favorite type of bagel, and what do you top with your bagel in terms of schmear?

Vegan Lox bagel composed bagel sandwich from Bagel Farm pop up in Portland that comes with choice of bagel, walnut spread, carrot lox, capers, red onions, salted cucumbers. This was my favorite especially on the sesame bagel

Signature