If you live in Portland, I’m sure you have heard of McMenamins before- their gathering spots here in Portland vary from your neighborhood pub to hotels, music and movie venues, breweries, wineries, distilleries and even a coffee roaster. Founded by the two brothers Mike and Brian McMenamin, all their locations still reflect their love for artwork, family friendly, and historic buildings. It’s hard to imagine a Portland experience without visiting at least one McMenamins – be it for a huge value of a happy hour with their irresistible cajun tots or to admire how they transformed a poor farm (Edgefield) or school (Kennedy School) into a property for retreating that is full of local whimsical art, choice of restaurants, spas and movies. Their hotel locations are fun to visit even if you aren’t staying there.

McMenamins just seems like such a Portland institution that you would mention in the same breath as talking about Powell’s Book Store, the Portland White Stag sign, the easy access to the Columbia Gorge and Coast – it’s just a Portland thing. I love taking visitors from out of town to wander the hallways of photos and art particularly at Edgefield (generally as part of my Columbia Gorge waterfall tour) and Kennedy School. There are times people at my work treat the Ceder Hills location as an after work meeting room, and I fight the urge as I smell the burger and fries every time I walk past my neighborhood location of a McMenamins pub, Market Street Pub.

Even though it is a chain, each location has its own individual personality. Recently, I discovered a location McMenamins has downtown as part of the Crystal Hotel, the Zeus Cafe.

Inside Zeus Cafe: The atmosphere at Zeus Café – an open kitchen and full bar at the center of the room surrounded by the twinkling of vintage chandeliers and local art – is comfortable and inviting, Photo credit: McMenamins/Kathleen Nyberg

Their focus is elevated food while still keeping it celebrating the very local bounty of the Northwest. For instance, they still offer a pretty good burger (though less burger selection- no Communication Breakdown burger or Caption Neon burger here – but they offer upgraded versions of a burger, such as a Grass Fed Beef Burger or a Housemade Falafel Burger instead). Instead of cajun tots you can get truffle fries or as you see here, chickpea fries with harissa aioli.

And instead of breadsticks or spinach and artichoke dip or hummus like the typical pub, now you can feast on

• a Charcuterie Board, here with housemade rabbit rillette, coppa di testa head cheese, Asiago Fresca, Ancient Heritage Willow, Pickled Cauliflower & cranberries, Mandarin compote and McMenamins Terminator mustard
  
• or Seared Sea Scallops with arugula, currants, and chorizo vinaigrette
  
• or Smoked Brisket Stuffed Piquillo Peppers with cauliflower purée, fried almonds, and chimmichurri.
  

Wow right? They have a menu that changes often based on what is best from various local farms and purveyers (such as Flying Fish for their seafood, Painted Hill or NW Grass Fed Farms Washington or Pat and Tam’s Farm for meat, etc. A special starter on my visit night included Speck wrapped Rabbit Loin on a Lard Sable cracker (this was a bit hard to eat because it was soft and crumbly and super buttery, but oh so delicious) with Huckleberry Jam and Chervil.

Wait til you see my dinner entree, and desserts.

Executive chef, Jordan Taylor, and Pastry chef, Warren Pinkston Kaam, in Zeus Café’s open kitchen, Photo credit: McMenamins/Kathleen Nyberg

Head Chef Jordan Taylor loves the freedom he  has at Zeus to explore various flavor profiles using Northwest ingredients then tinged with influences from the Mediterranean and in this one dish, Asia: super tender Bulgogi Braised Short Ribs served with a slightly crispy but also soft fresh grilled rice cake, spicy broccoli, and sunny side egg.

Pastry Chef Warren Pinkston Kaam is a hidden gem of a dessert genius here in Portland with impressive dessert options here that I sampled including

• my favorite a Toffee Budino with honeyed crème fraîche, toffee sauce, hazelnut pralines, chocolate sea salt. I’m still thinking about how dreamy this tasted, I think ate half of it on behalf of my part of the table
• Malted Milk Chocolate Tart with espresso pastry cream, mascarpone crema, and micro shiso
• Molasses Custard with sugared pecans, bourbon cream, shortbread crumble, vanilla ice cream
• a special that evening of a deconstructed dessert of Yuzu Curd with elderflower jelly, hazelnut nougatine, hazelnut dacquoise, toasted meringue.

In terms of beverages, my world was rocked by the Zeus Cafe cocktail called the The Café Smash that in winter, is composed of muddled Blackberry, Aged Balsamic Vinegar, Fresh Squeezed Lemon, Black Pepper Syrup and Crater Lake Vodka. In the summer it may go back to strawberries instead of blackberries, which was the original inspiration for Adam Kurth: Zeus Café Bar Manager, when he was trying to create a cocktail to pair with a salad. I loved the sweet but sour and savory flavors all in one cocktail.

Another impressive cocktail is the Fuentes with el jimador blanco tequila, del maguey la vida mezcal, aperol, fresh squeezed grapefruit (MeMenamins always uses fresh juices for their cocktails), smoked ice cube, and smoked glassware.

I was also blown away with the sippers of a cocktail called Burnt Bulleit with bulleit rye whiskey, burnt sugar syrup, lemon zest and a hefty shake of angostura bitters. The discovery of a burnt sugar syrup was a total accident, and as other locations were bring instructed how to make this cocktail they were understandably nervous that a step included recreating that mistake m!

Another tasty libation was a cocktail called the Riptide with maui dark hawaiian rum, espresso vanilla bean syrup, fernet branca, aztec chocolate bitters and orange zest. And I was fortunate to get a strong smooth sip of the Devil’s Bit Whiskey

Besides of course dinner and happy hour, Zeus also offers brunch, with options like Spanish Eggs or Greek Eggs if you want to do an egg face-off, or Chilaquiles if you want to take your egg options around the world. Their version of eggs benedict comes with Hills Farm ham, chipotle hollandaise and your choice of home fries or creamy polenta. And, Zeus’ brunch seems to be  a hidden secret so far, so currently there is no brunch line.

I know that for some of you Portland residents, when you think of McMenamins, you think of your casual beer place with the interesting building and servers so laid back that you know not to go there if you’re in a rush. At the same time though, if you want to squat a table chatting or on your laptop working at the pub for 2 hours, or sit outside at a table while your dogs and kids play on a lawn of one of their hotel, there is also no one giving you trouble. Children are always welcome (obviously accompanied by adults) at I think almost all McMenamins locations. Think of their unhurried relaxed character as both a positive and a negative, depending on what you are looking for in an experience.

The vibe at Zeus is still relaxed, but the mellowness has been replaced by more attentiveness than you will find at their casual pubs. As I was unwrapping my napkin, I accidentally dropped my knife on the carpet. No big deal- we were just at appetizers. But in only a few minutes, a server brought me a new knife without me saying a thing. The water glasses were always full, empty cocktail glasses were checked to make sure I didn’t want the last bit melted with ice before being removed from the table not long after I finished them. They swapped out our silverware between dinner and desserts, a friend with some food restrictions was happily accommodated where they checked in with her for each course that everything in the dish would be ok.

I definitely plan to come back to Zeus to try more of the great experimental drinks that this McMenamins location is doing and think you might want to give it a try too.

Did you know there’s a rewards program to entice you to check out each McMenamin’s location? This was one of the most exciting things I learned during my evening at Zeus. It’s called McMenamins Passport. It is a cool quest you can do in which you collect stamps in a passport book to win prizes and just have extra experiences whenever you visit any McMenamins location- and of course, encourage you to visit McMenamins locations and to check out specials they have.

There is an initial cost for the passport – $25 (up from $20 of last year), and you must be 21 years old at a minimum. Once you have the passport however, there is no more additional cost in most cases – for instance you can visit a location and get a stamp without eating or staying there at all. The few exceptions for instance might be for instance if a stamp is for seeing a movie, you will have to buy a ticket to a movie at that location (or attend a free movie show- but either way you have to see a movie somehow!).

Each page in the passport is for either a location or for a theme (for instance, there is one for Edgefield that consists of multiple stamps, but there is also a whole page that is for all of the Seattle locations all in one page). And each stamp is different!

Some stamps are more than just visiting the location – besides an experience (such as seeing a movie), there may be tasks you need to do like a photo hunt for a certain artwork in the location based on a clue that you are given. There are also special stamps that are available for events or even for a seasonal beer or because you experienced something (such as taking a tour of a property, stopping at a location on your birthday, or having a pint with a pup!)

Once you collect all the stamps on one page, you get a prize. Prizes for filling out each page vary from food like free tots (which you can collect right then and there, or come back to a location on that page to get later) to t-shirts, gift cards, even stays at various McMenamins hotel locations.

The Grand Prize, if you collect all the stamps in a book for visiting all the locations, is pretty impressive. Keep in mind some pages are just to collect the special stamps – like the various seasonal beer stamps don’t count towards filling out the book- you don’t have to drink them all. Still, considering that there are 57 locations in Oregon and Washington, this is literally a quest to travel to collect stamps / an excuse or New Year’s resolution to help you explore various small towns that are served by their unique, neighborhood McMenamins pub.

The Grand Prize includes 3 overnight stays at a McMenamins hotel of your choice, pair of event tickets, showing the Grand Prize Booklet to get drinks at happy hour prices Sunday-Thursday for the first year after you’ve completed your passport, and invitations and discounts to special exclusive events that are open only to those who have completed a passport, a special group of successful McMenamins questers called Cosmic Tripsters. Did you know there is a whole special group of Cosmic Tripsters, sort of like a secret society, that meets and communicates with each other?

For a feel of the fun, check out this video, and get more details at their website at their McMenamins Passport page.

I was so excited when I heard about the Passport that I even sitting with a group of other food lovers, that’s what we just kept chatting about. This year, I hope to fill out a lot of my Passport – I’ll keep you appraised with posts as I go!

Have you ever been to Zeus Cafe, or heard of the McMenamins Passport program?

Disclosure: This meal was complimentary, and I was given a McMenamins Passport to fill out. 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.