Willow PDX just opened in March, and I mentioned how I enjoyed my Portland Dining Month meal back then. Since then, they have moved to their regular format dinners that includes 6 courses of Northwest cuisine in an intimate hip apartment like setting. With just 10 seats at the chef’s counter, it doesn’t matter if you come in a group or alone, you can definitely chat among any dinner guest and make new friends.
You make your reservations for one of the dinner seatings they offer online, which already includes gratuity. They are open for service Tuesday – Saturday, with seatings at 5:3-0 or 8:30 PM. For $50, I think getting these 6 prix fixe courses is a huge value! They are very accommodating of dietary restrictions – for instance for this dinner while I had the regular menu, F and other guests enjoyed a vegetarian version.
You can choose to purchase a beverage pairing option at the time of making your reservation booking, or a la carte once you arrive at dinner. I opted for the non alcoholic beverage pairing this time, while F had a cider and a sparkling mead a la carte. For me, those non alcoholic beverages included Sparkling ‘Wine’, Oregon Kiwi and Fennel Agua Fresca, Mushroom Tisane, and Hazelnut Egg Cream.
The menu will change often because of what is seasonal and at its peak, not to mention chefs Jon Pickett and Doug Weiler are full of so many ideas of what they want to try. To give you an idea of what your experience might be like though, and what Willow means by serving “Cascadian cuisine”, here’s a look at my April 30th dinner there. With the chefs plating the dishes right in front of you and servicing you directly, you can ask them all the details questions you want on what it is you are eating. Despite the printed menu before you, you can bet when they describe there might be twice as many words in explaining how they executed it or additional little touches.
Amuse Bouche
Amuse bouche of fritters with a cherry blossom aioli, green garlic and crumbled preserved cherry blossom. It was a tribute to how beautiful Portland has been with all the cherry blossoms in bloom earlier in the month on the trees, and then carpeting the ground for another week with sidewalks and streets of pink petals.
First Course
Herb Gougeres with fava bean, willow creek cheese, honey, and herbs
Second Course
This was one of the two courses of the six where the normal dinner and the vegetarian dinner plate differed. For me, the normal plating was Asparagus Salad with black garlic and labneh, pork and beer butter and rosemary garlic whipped egg yolk
The vegetarian version of the Asparagus Salad offered more parts of the asparagus and was better I think than the normal dish!
Third Course
Short Rib Tartare with house cured mackerel, daikon, ginger, cilantro with onion ash and rice chip
Here’s a better peek of the layers underneath the chip
The vegetarian version of this dish used cauliflower instead of the meat and mackerel for a Cauliflower Tartare with daikon and the onion ash and rice chip.
Fourth Course
Pork Belly with green grits, boiled hazelnuts, roasted shitake mushrooms, and charred onion jus. Look at the generous size of the pork belly on this dish, and I liked the southern touch of the boiled nuts with a Northwest twist by using hazelnuts which added a different type of earthiness with the other two main components of the roasted mushrooms and charred onion jus.
The pairing of this dish with the non alcoholic beverage of the mushroom tisane was perfect in further bringing out the earthniess from the nuts and mushrooms to ground the richness of the pork belly.
Meanwhile, the vegetarian version of the main here was more of a composed Carrot dish with a Oat Cake with Toasted Milk and Hazelnut Puree. This was F’s favorite dish, he really liked that oat cake, and paired with the Stung Workers Standard Sparkling Mead which brought out a bit of the honey in the oat cake, this was a winner.
Fifth Course
Fifth Course starts one of the two dessert plates, this was a unique take using Beeswax Potatoes (swedish peanut potato and purple peruvian potato) roasted on coffee, cream, spruce, powdered sugar and honey.
Sixth Course
And finally, the second dessert plate, Rhubarb with Buckwheat, Milk Jam, Herb Ice, Beet Meringue Cake with Buttercream and Roasted Buckwheat and Cacao Nibs, topped with Basil Mint Granita. I adored this dessert because I loved the interplay of textures and different flavors. I don’t always like dessert because I find it too sweet, but this was perfect!
At the end of dinner, guests are invited to the living room for coffee service. This night, it was Chamomile Apple Caramel as part of the coffee service after dinner. F was even quite clever and added the caramel to his coffee for a little flavoring – though we did realize afterward we should have only added a small amount not the whole caramel, ha ha.
They have special coffee special for them from downstairs neighbor Cellar Door Coffee Roasters. This was a wonderful end to the dinner as as guests we all lingered for a little bit chatting about our thoughts on the dinner and saying our last goodbyes, even exchanging contact information to keep in touch!
Not all the pop up dinners, supper clubs, or prix fixe places offer a vegetarian option, and this is a really affordable (ok, maybe I think it’s a huge steal) multi course dinner for the price. Chef Jon and Chef Doug are definitely putting together dishes that you won’t find anywhere else, mashing up inspirations that are modern but also very approachable. I would highly recommend that you give them a try!
Do any of these dishes intrigue you, which one?
