Creative Mexican by Clandestino PDX

March 27, 2023 by Leave a Comment

On Monday – Wednesday you can find creative Mexican plates and glasses of intriguing wines from Clandestino PDX, a pop-up now in residence at Lil Dame by Dame Collective (in the old Beast/Ripe Cooperative space). If you haven’t had an opportunity to visit, make a date for these weekdays to treat yourself to a cozy dinner and a food and wine mini adventure.
Clandestino PDX - Left Ceviche of yellowfin tuna, guava, avocado, lime on tostadita, Right Carne tartara - beef, yuzu kosho, serrano on tostadita Clandestino PDX - Quesadillas - carnitas, quesillo, guacachile

Clandestino joined the collective to start serving up Mexican inspired dishes in December to rave review by tastemaker and written word wrangler Karen Brooks of Portland Monthly who called Clandestino Portland’s Best New Mexican Restaurant. Try to make reservations as the space in inclement weather is very cozy and with recent media coverage may even be full for the night, even on a Monday. You can see how small the open kitchen is, so they also can only realistically do only so many covers per evening. As spring and summer weather open up the outdoor seating and they dial in their menu they’ll have more capacity.

Be sure to try several half glass pours during your visit! You can trust and after selecting your dishes let the staff pour their recommended pairings – you can even ask for a different pairing per person like we did for each dish. Not only are the selections carefully curated to be all winners with the food and diverse in provenance and flavor profile, but that helps support both sides of the collective.
Clandestino PDX - part of the Dame Collective

The way it works is the food sales are kept by the chef, Dame keeps the beverage, and overhead and staff costs are split by both resident chef and Dame. So patronize both with your check! I’ve always been a fan of the pop-up model (I even used to cover pop-ups for Eater PDX) – restaurant industry life is hard in terms of long hours and margins in balancing inventory with limited shelf life. Pop-ups allow for some reasonable work time boundaries with more control of when open for business and taking breaks, and an ability to get some work life balance. It’s great business sense for the brick and mortar owners and visiting chefs and part of PDX’s supportive hospitality community.

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Zero Proof Cocktails at Suckerpunch

March 21, 2022 by Leave a Comment

Have you visited Portland’s first zero proof (no alcohol) cocktail bar Suckerpunch? Whether you are recovering, have those you care about who are, are mocktail curious, or choose for whatever reason to abstain from alcohol, this pop-up space offers the chic vibes of cocktail culture and care and craft of mixology and innovative drinks without the effects of booze.
Zero proof cocktails at Suckerpunch, a speakeasy with nonalcoholic beverages. Image courtesy of Frances Dyer Public Relations, photo by Carly Diaz
Image above courtesy of Frances Dyer Public Relations, photo by Carly Diaz

A visit to Suckerpunch requires a prepaid reservation and nets you a flight of three complex creative content cocktails that will change based on seasonal inspiration, and bar snacks. This visit is from their first month open in February, but a patio is in the works for outdoor space in the spring.

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Portland Pop-up: Serenade Spaghetti Western with Piccone’s Corner

January 24, 2020 by Leave a Comment

The last Portland pop-up I attended happened to be a possible preview of the changes coming up to Revelry and additions of Cambodian food to the PDX food scene. Recently, I attended another pop-up from a dining experience producer called Serenade working together with Chef Nic Marazit who is working on opening Piccone’s Corner. So this is a bit of a preview too perhaps of what might be on the Menu at the soon to be open bar and butcher spot in February.
Portland Pop-up: Serenade with Spaghetti Western. A spread of bites from Piccone's Corner alongside music from three time Grand National Fiddle champion Luke Price and Jonathan Trawick is a 3rd generation guitar picking Ozark musician. Portland Pop-up: Serenade with Spaghetti Western. A spread of bites from Piccone's Corner alongside music from three time Grand National Fiddle champion Luke Price and Jonathan Trawick is a 3rd generation guitar picking Ozark musician. Portland Pop-up: Serenade with Spaghetti Western. A spread of bites from Piccone's Corner alongside music from three time Grand National Fiddle champion Luke Price and Jonathan Trawick is a 3rd generation guitar picking Ozark musician.

A reservation and pre-payment of $89 bought you a ticket to the Tournant space. The Serenade concept for their pop ups are that each event brings together good food along with good music, with different chefs and musicians curated by the people behind Serenade. Here’s my perspective from this Spaghetti Western dinner theme, where the idea was old school Italian food and old school American folk music. Dinner included a welcome cocktail with appetizers, four courses, and a live musical performance.

Upon arrival for the first 45 minute reception time, guests first spotted the chefs still flame grilling the main course (at that point it had been almost 3 1/2 hours on the fire), a Wallow and Root Porchetta.
Portland Pop-up: Serenade with Spaghetti Western, a Wallow and Root Porchetta being prepared by Piccone's Corner Portland Pop-up: Serenade with Spaghetti Western, a Wallow and Root Porchetta being prepared by Piccone's Corner

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Gado Gado Pop up presents food of Bali

August 8, 2018 by Leave a Comment

One of my favorite things about food is how when you want to travel and have a new experience but don’t have the time or funds to get on a plane or train or other kind of transportation to go afar, you can still travel with the cuisine. Gado gado is a popular street food Indonesian salad, and also the name of an Indonesian food inspired pop up here in Portland by Thomas and Mariah Pisha-Duffly. Today, I am sharing a recent meal I went to where Gado Gado pop up presented the food of Bali. They collaborated with Shipwreck at this particular dinner to also provide some cocktails, but I am currently on a schedule where I have to take evening work calls, so I had to hold back (in fact I took the early seating specifically to make my work call!). Unlike other times it was also a cash bar that pretty much was also a hard cut off for me.
Gado Gado pop up presents food from Bali: Split pea tempeh with sweet soy and corn Gado Gado pop up presents food from Bali: halibut cheek bumbu Bali with padrons and herbs

In this case, they went full traditional for the dishes, and even though it’s still on my bucket list to one day get to beautiful Bali, for now I also hope you might consider donating to help since the devastating earthquakes in Indonesia, of which the aftershocks were also felt in Bali, a few days ago. As for Gado Gado, they have another upcoming pop up event already on the calendar: a brunch pop up at Guilder Coffee (2393 NE Fremont) on Tuesday, August 14th from 9am-2pm that will pair coffee from Sumatra, Indonesia with food that Gado Gado has described as including “shaved ice drinks, kaya toast, congee, rujak, Chinese sausage and more!! We are very pleased that this menu will have plenty of options for folks who are gluten free and vegetarian.” No tickets are needed for this event, just walk in.

Gado Gado pop up presents food from Bali

My dinner celebrating Bali did have a shaved ice dessert – lets’ take a look at my meal, which was all served family style with dishes arriving as they were ready, just like food often comes in Southeast Asia. Most of the people in Bali are Hindu, so you won’t see beef – and you will probably notice some Indian influences in some of the dishes. Also, like foods of Southeast Asia in general, you will find flavors that are spicy, a depth of umami with use of fish sauce, and seasonings that take advantage of chilis, spices, leaves, and coconut milk.
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Ox Box, a summer pop up

July 30, 2018 by 6 Comments

Last summer and this summer, from the chefs behind Ox Restaurant, is a special pop up called Ox Box. Ox Box is only open during lunch, 11 AM – 2 PM daily seven days a week, just in the summer until Labor Day. You can relax in the outdoor seating in the Ox Restaurant parking lot (covered with umbrellas), or inside Whey (where you can also order drinks including cocktails and beer or glasses of cava or rosé if you’re not on the work clock) while a grill man fires up choripan sandwiches over a wood fire. If you think it’s hot now, you gotta feel for this guy behind the grill – come show him some love and treat yourself to some Argentinean lunch! And, they are perfectly happy to wrap all your stuff to go so you can take it home or to the river to eat – just bring lots of napkins. Here’s a look at the Ox Box pop up from my visit.
Ox Box, a summer pop up from Ox Restaurant only during the summer for lunch offering choripan sandwiches, a popular sandwich with lots of chimichurri from Argentina) Ox Box, a summer pop up from Ox Restaurant only during the summer for lunch offering choripan sandwiches, a popular sandwich with lots of chimichurri from Argentina)

Choripan sandwiches are chimichurri drenched grilled sandwiches which are very popular in Argentina as street food. Here at Ox Box, you can choose from a menu that includes their housemade chorizo sausage, house morcilla blood sausage with hot peppers and onions, chorizo-spiced Pacific Northwest albacore, or provolone and chorizo spiced eggplant if you are vegetarian – or do a combo like I did (I got both eggplant and chorizo).
Ox Box, a summer pop up from Ox Restaurant only during the summer for lunch offering choripan sandwiches, a popular sandwich with lots of chimichurri from Argentina. Choose from a menu that includes their housemade chorizo sausage, house morcilla blood sausage with hot peppers and onions, chorizo-spiced Pacific Northwest albacore, or provolone and chorizo spiced eggplant if you are vegetarian - or do a combo like I did (I got both eggplant and chorizo)

All sandwiches come with a Grandma Agnes Dill Pickle Spear, and Ensalada Rusa (a potato salad), but I also highly recommend trying out their empanadas. There are two available – one stuffed with beef, olive and raisin, and the other with grilled poblano, sweet potato, gruyere and fontina (the latter shown below).
Ox Box, a summer pop up from Ox Restaurant only during the summer for lunch offering choripan sandwiches. All sandwiches come with a pickle spear and potato salad, but I also highly recommend trying out their empanadas. There are two available - one stuffed with beef, olive and raisin, and the other with grilled poblano, sweet potato, gruyere and fontina (the latter shown here) Ox Box, a summer pop up from Ox Restaurant only during the summer for lunch offering choripan sandwiches. All sandwiches come with a pickle spear and potato salad, but I also highly recommend trying out their empanadas. There are two available - one stuffed with beef, olive and raisin, and the other with grilled poblano, sweet potato, gruyere and fontina (the latter shown here)

New to this year’s edition of the Ox Box pop up is a Halibut Chowder with Jalapeño, Green Onion, and Smoked Marrow Croutons – a riff on the famous Ox clam chowder for dinner only. There is also an Oregon Bay shrimp Ceviche with Citrus, Chiles, Cucumber, Cilantro, and Popcorn if you want something cold and it’s still a day of a heat wave week like today. But, when we get back to those cooler summer days below 90, you do NOT want to miss out on this amazing rich chowder.
Ox Box, a summer pop up from Ox Restaurant only during the summer for lunch offering choripan sandwiches. New to this year's edition of the Ox Box pop up is a Halibut Chowder with Jalapeño, Green Onion, and Smoked Marrow Croutons - a riff on the famous Ox clam chowder for dinner only Ox Box, a summer pop up from Ox Restaurant only during the summer for lunch offering choripan sandwiches. New to this year's edition of the Ox Box pop up is a Halibut Chowder with Jalapeño, Green Onion, and Smoked Marrow Croutons - a riff on the famous Ox clam chowder for dinner only

This is the Argentinean equivalent to an American hot dog, and with its limited time offering until Labor Day, you should make sure you put a day on your calendar to grab some to try before its gone! They are really generous with the chimichurri sauce – I did not need it for the empanada at all, but was happy to have the container to take home to punch up some grilled meat at home too!

Are you a fan of chimichurri sauce? What kind of choripan sandwich would you try?

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