Grand Amari has just opened at the Hotel Grand Stark at inner SE Portland, offering a new premiere food and drink destination featuring old school traditional Italian flavors, from great ingredients that are highlighted simply by their pantry of almost a dozen incredible olive oils and paired with wines and stories of small producers so far out they may not even speak Italian, or ask for a suggested pairing from over 60 amari. The list is written to include stars to denote the amount of bitterness, and helpful flavor descriptions such as “cola, sasparilla, gentian” for Amaro Dente Di Leon, “sandalwood, cannibis, ginger” for Geijer Amaro, or “dark chocolate, espresso, allspice” for Meletti Fernet. Grand Amari is brought to you by the passionate nerds and visionaries of Olympia Provisions and Bar Casa Vale.
Grand Amari also has a sister bar at Little Bitter Bar which I will definitely be back for in July as they finish up their outdoor patio. I can’t wait to enjoy their spritz offerings in the sunshine. They offer three options of spritzes, with the lighter freshing Italicus, the more garden herb Carpano Botanic Bitter, or the stronger almost savory option of Zucca Amaro, with your spritz combination with prosecco and sparkling water. There are even more delightful sounding cocktails at the bar, which I will need to return to try, along with the pizza. For now, here’s a look at some of the dishes I tried from the menu at Grand Amari for dinner. Some of the dishes you will see mentioned here such as the aracini, fritto misto, carciofo arrosto, scallop crudo, tuna belly, and spaghettini pomodoro are also available as bar plates there.
Starting snacks, or Spuntini, and Antipasti for your consideration include a house baked focaccia, cool off from summer heat with farm to table fresh vegetables with bagna cauda anchovy dip, a perfectly crisp outside gooey inside aracini with asiago and provolone piccante, carciofi arrosto of whole roasted artichoke with garlic, lemon, butter, and parmigiana, and tuna belly poached in citrus and olive oil with white beans and pickled onion. Really everything and anything with their olive oils wins. You will want the focaccia to wipe up every drop on the plates.
A fritto misto whose ingredients rotate seasonally and served with garlic aioli this visit included head on shrimp and smelt along with whitefish and lemon. The stunner of these sections for me was the Crudo di Capesante, a scallop crudo with lemon, chives, flake salt.
Pastas were all lovely, with half a dozen to choose from, varying from a Casarecce with peas ham and cream; Tortelli with ricotta, sage, and delitia; Spaghetini Pomodoro with san marzano tomatoes, grana padano, and basil; an unusual take of Cacio e Pepe with Candele pasta in extra long for chewy texture, and the table favorite of Squid Ink Bucatini with whole bay shrimp, squid, tomato, and whipped ricotta.
The Grilled Branzino, a whole bone in fish with fennel and olive garnishes, found a perfect balance of buttery fish flavor with a little smoke. A Porcini Crusted Ribeye with 14 oz grass fed beef with cipollini and fresh horseradish, and the Poussan Alla Diavola of roasted chicken with lemon, pepper, and bitters greens, offer the beef and chicken entree options. The most unique dish though was the Pork Milanese, because it stars pasture raised pork, a project Olympia Provisions Elias Cairo explained has been a decade long vision and project, to find a way to source and support sustainable pork. You can find the pork at a small scale at the various OP Provisions locations and sometimes Whole Foods, but stay tuned soon for even wider and more prominent availability.
Then… dessert, all nice and small so you can order many! I love that. Everyone should have amari and dessert. They will bring the amari service via a cart, so consider it part of your adult continuing education credits in life.
- Tiramisu
- Diplomatico – puff pastry, pistachio sponge cake, vanilla diplomat cream, raspberry compote
- Zuccotto Chocolate
- Panna Cotta with pistachio and rhubarb consomme
- Aperol Bombe – prosecco-aperol jelly, orange and rosemary semi-freddo, Italian meringue, cognac flambe
Hot Tip- when you make your reservation, if you want to be extra cozy with your dinner party of 2-4 people, ask for the middle booth. Co-owner/partner Nate Tilden conceptualized how to turn this opportunity to a feature with this table right in the middle of the restaurant between wine shelves and a central wine station to include its own door and enclosed from the other tables. Reservations are definitely recommended as this is a small space – though there are plans to also allow the food and drink to be enjoyed at various tables in the lobby.
Grand Amari is open for dinner 5-10 pm from Wednesday through Sunday evenings. Congratulations to Nate, Elias, Michelle who made sure these two men didn’t go too wild as they hand-built some portions of the restaurant and makes sure this venture will be profitable, and Chef Katie Roe and team for envisioning and executing some really unique dishes and pairings for Portland. There is nothing like this in PDX, thank you for bringing it to us! Every project is a labor of love, thoughtful consideration for many details, and you can really tell as a guest enjoying the experience.
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