Brunch at Pine Street Market

Have you been to Pine Street Market yet? If you haven’t been to this food hall that opened earlier this year in downtown Portland, the market is now open more hours for your visit. They now offer brunch at Pine Street Market from 9 – 11 AM everyday. Now you can visit and get a progressive breakfast or brunch on! You can choose from eight of the nine open vendors to try multiple types of food each visit, or maybe on one visit! This is perfect for a group with multiple tastes so everyone can get something to their tastes, or willing to pool everything together for a huge potluck. Here’s a look at what sample brunch here might include.

Essentially, you can think of Pine Street Market sort of like a food court. Each of the vendors has a small area with their own menu in this indoor venue. A few of them have some bar seats right near where they cook,  but generally you order at one of the vendors stands, then they give you a placard sign so they can find you to deliver your food if it isn’t ready to take right away. Go ahead and gather a few of those placard signs from multiple places!

Next, find seats in the central common dining area – mostly communal benches and tables though there are a few small tables.  You bus your own table by grabbing water, silverware, napkins, and to-go containers from central carts. The back area has buckets for you to leave your dishware and throw out trash. It can get a little hectic during the main lunch and dinner hours – my tip has always been to come on the edge hours – right before or after the rush. But now you have a new option, coming in the morning before they start serving their lunch, when it’s much more relaxing.

At Pine Street Market, this is not going to be your typical Hot Dog on a Stick or Sbarro. Instead, the tenants consist of several legendary names in the local Portland food scene, but on a smaller fast casual scale and without the sometimes hour or so wait to get into their restaurant. Here’s a look at who’s offering what for brunch.

1. Brass Bar Barista is the first to open in the morning (8 AM) but closes by dinner time (6 PM) offering coffees and teas
   
2. Kure Juice Bar offers a healthy choice via organic juices, smoothies, tonic shots, hot beverages, oatmeal, and açai bowls during the day (9 AM – 3 PM). Below, besides the rainbow of smoothies you can see the Bowl of the Gods Acai Bowl. This is an acai bowl with a base (like a super thick smoothie you eat with a spoon) of acai berries, banana, strawberries, vanilla protein, peanut butter, almond milk, and ice then topped with banana, strawberries, sliced almonds, goji berries, hemp seed granola, shredded coconut, cinnamon, and agave. They offer substitutions of gluten free granola if you’d like.
   
3. Marukin Ramen offers authentic Japanese ramen – they have multiple locations in Japan and imported Japanese chefs to train this stateside location. Unlike in Japan, you can easily identify vegetarian and vegan ramen here. For brunch Marukin Ramen offers an unusual option: Ochazuke. Ochazuke is a traditional Japanese porridge like dish made by pouring green tea and bonito dashi over cooked rice, with savory toppings including salmon, sesame and mitsuba. This is another healthy option that is very filling but has light subtle flavors and you can enjoy warm unlike the acai bowls.
   
4. Trifecta Annex offers breads and pizzas from James Beard Award winning author and baker Ken Forkish of the legendary Ken’s Artisan Pizza and Ken’s Artisan Bakery and Trifecta. You can go simple with their Signature Toast – look at that incredible Rustic Bread with Trifecta Butter and honey drizzle. If I worked around here I’d probably grab a coffee or smoothie and that toast every day. Or, fancy it up with one of their Artisan Croissants.. They offer Maple Sugar, Raspberry, Double Chocolate, Honey-Rye-Ham, and Spelt croissants. Or go all out with a substantial Breakfast Pizza topped with potato, pancetta, fontina, eggs, pepper and sausage.
   
5. OP Wurst offers creative gourmet hot dogs from the same people who created Olympia Provisions, Portland’s famous charcuterie creater and I think the best salumi in PDX. Their location is in the center of the dining area, unlike the others who are all along the outside and around the seating area – so head right to the middle to find them. They do have some of the Olympia Provisions salumi available here so you could even get those and with some Trifecta bread have a great picnic here or to go! From 9-11 AM they offer sides of scrambled or fried eggs as well as fries, breakfast sausage, pancakes, and bottled bloody marys and mimosas. Additionally they offer four different special breakfast hot dogs:
   
   • Breakfast Dog: Bacon-wrapped frankfurter, seasonal scramble (here grilled peppers and mushrooms), cheddar cheese
     
   • Monte Cristo On A Stick: Maple syrup, raspberry jam
     
   • French Toast Dog: Two breakfast sausages, French toast bun, apple butter
     
   • Pigs In A Blanket: Two breakfast sausages, pancake blanket, maple syrup
     
6. From the impressive John Gorham empire are two outposts representing two exciting restaurants. Pollo Bravo offers a few favorites from Toro Bravo but also adds something new: Spanish-style rotisserie chicken. Here, for brunch they don’t have the chicken ready yet but you have choices of Catalan Sausage Bocadillo with catalan sausage, bacon, mahon, and piquillo peppers; Potatoes Bravas with Sunny Side Egg; Sopa de Ajo (Garlic Soup) with Poached Egg; wash everything  down with a La Tomatina Bloody Mary with Sobieski vodka, Pollo Bravo Mary mix (or make it a Maria with Altos Blanco tequila)
   
   Meanwhile, Shalom Y’all provides some casual spins on the offerings at Mediterranean Exploration Company. Here you can order Shakshuka with tomatoes, peppers, baked eggs or a Jerusalem Bagel Sandwich with house-smoked mackerel, pickles, za’atar and yogurt and wash it down with a Shalom Mary with vodka, tomatillo, cucumber, celery, s’hug, and za’atar salt.
   
7. Kim Jong Smokehouse is the newest tenant here, bringing together the award winning Korean flavors from Han Ly Hwang of Kim Jong Grillin with Southern-style BBQ smoking techniques by BJ Smith of Smokehouse 21 and the strong and meticulous mind of Earl Nissom of LaagBaan. In the morning til 11 AM offers Korean Pork and Daikon Soup with Rice and Ban-chan of kimchee, sesame sprouts, and spicy shredded daikon and a fried egg
   
8. You normally can get scoops at Salt and Straw, but only at this outpost of Wiz Bang Bar can you get their unique soft serve. Unfortunately, they are the only ones not open for breakfast – I guess I can see that there might not be a huge demand for breakfast ice cream…

Since I’m worried about your fruit and vegetable consumption, I made sure to carefully research the Bloody Mary options available during brunch at Pine Street Market. You have 3 options- Pollo Bravo a La Tomatina Mary with Svedka vodka and Pollo Bravo bloody mary mix; Shalom Y’all offers a Shalom Mary with vodka, tomatillo, cucumber, celery, s’hug, and za’atar salt; or a bottled Bloody Mary from OP Wurst (they also offer mimosas).

The Shalom Mary with its green color and cucumber and celery looks healthy, but the most flavor came from the bit spicier La Tomtina Mary, which is the first one I would order again of the three. Additionally you have the option to transform your La Tomatina Mary to a Bloody Maria instead by using Cimarron Blanco Tequila if you’d like. In terms of amount of bloody mary value though, OP Wurst is the most generous with twice as much of bloody mary – and you can simultaneously order a mimosa  where you can choose your own amount of Prosecco.

Which would you choose for your brunch?

Disclosure: I attended a complimentary media preview where I was able to sample with others and try most of the dishes, 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.