Delores is a new concept from BJ Smith, who transformed the formerly Smokehouse Tavern barbecue concept to highlight his Polish heritage and renamed it Delores in honor of his late mother. Here’s my thoughts and recommendations on dining for dinner at Delores PDX since I’ve had most of the menu over a couple visits.
The art you’ll find along the walls is from his personal collection, and also reflects his mother’s love of flamingos. It’s a pretty eclectic feel – pretty representative of the menu here too.
From the dinner starters, I was completely surprised at how tasty the Butter Lettuce, shaved radish, pistachio, fines verbs vinaigrette was. I would order this again over the crispy potato pancakes, sour cream, apple butter that I initially thought I would prefer – but the butter lettuce really is that well balanced. And I also prefer the butter lettuce salad to the other vegetable dish of roasted carrots, toasted pumpkin seeds, pumpkin puree, carrot top salsa verde. They have since rotated other vegetable dishes in… I’m still going to say butter lettuce is the most winning here.
For a decadant bread service, order the Everything spiced Parker House rolls, served up with herbed cream cheese and smoked trout roe
Next is the most important pierogi face off, with the options of
- Potato cheese pierogis, caramelized onion, bacon, sour cream
- Duck confit pierogis, duck ham, foie gras
- Potato truffle pierogis, braised leeks, caviar beurre blanc
Ok, the truth is I loved ALL of the pierogis. They all had a touch of luxury that I had not had with pierogis before, and it elevated them from just another dumpling with touches like that caramelized onion with bacon, saltiness of the duck with the creaminess of foie, or richness of caviar beurre blanc. You can’t go wrong with any of these. If you visit Delores, it should be mainly for these dishes. But be aware – you only get 4 dumplings per dish, so you may not need to choose between them and instead want to order a face-off yourself.
The potato pierogi with bacon and sour cream are the most traditional balancing the hint of porky salt with the cool creaminess. The Duck confit pierogies were the most intense on flavor – just don’t miss out on the foie mousse in the middle and distribute it with a smear with your dumpling. The most rich is the pierogi with the caviar beurre blanc, which has the fun pops of the caviar egg now and then.
It was on the menu on one visit but not on another visit – so look to see if you happen to see the Cabbage rolls with pork and beef, fennel, tomato sauce, sour because these were a nice filling dish that balanced the meatyness with the sauce, and a good counterpoint to the pierogies you should be having.
You’ll have your choice of main dishes that offer a fish, beef or pork, chicken, or sausage protein. I was surprised how much I liked the very simple Smoked Kielbasa, brussel sprout kraut, bacon, caraway mustard – the smoky flavors are a nod back to the Smokehouse Tavern days. To balance how meaty this is, you could pair this with some of the Spatzle side with gruyere cream, soft herbs, pickled mustard seeds or whatever melt in your mouth pasta might be offered (I think recently spaetzle was replaced by gnocchi).
The other options I would rank IMHO are ok, but a little pricey in terms of cost, and better if you are sharing with a table of 4or more. I would rank in this order: the lightly cured and seared steelhead, yellowfoot chanterelles, crispy sunchokes, barley, mushroom broth over the Roasted half chicken – bigos, a hunters stew of kielbasa, bacon, fingerling, sauerkraut, and cabbage, crispy chicken skin jus as I was hoping for a lot more crispy chicken skin. The other entree I had, a Kotlety Schabowy, breaded pork cutlet, was more impressive in terms of size of the cutlet but like the chicken I wasn’t that interested in a second bite.
For dessert, there’s Paczki if you like berry filled donuts
Overall the menu is a little mixed to me, but I would come again for the pierogies first, and throw in the butter lettuce and kielbasa to round out a meal here. Add a cocktail and you’ll be set. The cocktail menu is creative and classic – I loved the refreshing balance of the Good Omens Coming from the East concocted with Plantation 5 rum, miso, honey butter, ginger beer, sesame cracker – taking nibbles of that garnish was a great addition.
The cocktails go a little extra with their garnishes- you’ll find also their classic Valentina with icy cold Reyka Vodka martini comes with foie gras stuffed olive, Fontina cube, and seasonal pickle. Meanwhile the cocktail called Hotel Cortez with Buffalo Trace Bourbon, Amaro Meletti, Port is garnished with house smoked cherries.
Have you been to Delores? If you were to open a restaurant that is an ode to your mom, what kind of dishes would be featured?
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