Portland Southern restaurants: reviewed by a Southerner

By The Beacon | April 8, 2015 4:32pm
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By Rachel Rippetoe

It’s no secret that Portland hosts a wide variety of restaurants spanning across cultures all over the world. However, there is a certain type of food that has grown in popularity and it hits right at home for me: Southern cuisine.

I hail from all the way down south, from Nashville, Tennessee. Although Nashville has grown sizably in population, culture and diversity, we’re no strangers to authentic Southern food. Even hippie liberals love fried okra and green beans.

I’m skeptical of this fascination with southern food on the West Coast. These Northwestern folks want nothing to do with Southern politics, they certainly don’t want our public education, and they claim not to want our obesity. Yet they’re suddenly fawning over fried chicken and waffles, sweet tea and green beans.

I’ve spoken to some of my fellow southern migrants and many of them have told me that Portland “Southern” food doesn’t live up to the hype.

I decided to see for myself. I wanted to know how disconnected these Yankees really were from us salt-and-sugar-loving Southern folks. I ventured to two different “Southern” restaurants in Portland and I put them to the test.

Po’shines Cafe De La Soul

On a sunny Thursday afternoon, I took the bus down to Po’shines Cafe De La Soul. It’s about two miles from campus in the Kenton neighborhood.

The cafe had an understated vibe to it. Judging by the chandeliers, the art on the walls, and the large advertisements for Jambalaya, I could tell they were going for a New Orleans style.

We were told by a lady behind the counter to seat ourselves in true Southern fashion. She later came up to our table dressed in an apron and a white button down and gave us our menus. The service the entire afternoon was friendly and polite.

Finally, we were served the most vital authenticity indicator for a restaurant attempting to be Southern: Sweet tea.

I have zero expectations for sweet tea anywhere in the North. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the sweet tea at Po’shines.

It was served in a cute little mason jar and had the perfect amount of sweetness for a true Southerner - which equates to way too sweet for any normal human being. It tasted like real homemade sweet tea. I was over the moon.

We also got a serving of fried okra. Surprisingly, this was far more disappointing than the tea. While the texture of okra is certainly an acquired taste, it was the seasoning that disappointed. The flavor was bland and it didn’t have nearly enough salt or spices.

I had hopes that our main course would surpass the mediocre fried okra. I ordered chicken and waffles and my friend ordered fried catfish, mac and cheese and hushpuppies.

My waffles were rich, fluffy and delicious. The fried chicken, however, was similar to the okra.

I found it interesting that a restaurant that seemed to be picking up on New Orleans culture would lack so much seasoning. The chicken was incredibly bland at first bite. Yet, I continued to eat it and eventually started to enjoy it. The flavor of the chicken itself was fine, but the lack of seasoning wasn’t very cajun of them.

The catfish and hushpuppies, however, were delightful. The deep-fried catfish was just tender enough on the inside and just crunchy enough on the outside.

The hushpuppies were some of the best I’d ever had. I have no food adjectives to describe them perfectly, just yum.

Somehow all the spices and seasoning that should have gone to my fried food all got dumped into the mac and cheese. It had all the cajun zest I was looking for in my other dishes.

Moral of the story for Po’shines: Definitely try the sweet tea and hushpuppies but maybe steer clear of the fried food, or at least lower your expectations for it.

On the Southern authenticity scale, I’d actually give it an 8 out of 10. The simplicity of the restaurant itself and the menu, the Southern hospitality, and the impressive sweet tea was all I needed to be sold on this little cafe in North Portland. Ya’ll come back now!

The Screen Door

My uncle, another Nashville-Portland migrant, taught me that the best way to judge a Southern restaurant in the Northwest is by their sweet tea and their biscuits.

I kept this in mind as I waited in a line that stretched to the outside patio of The Screen Door on a warm Saturday afternoon.

It took us about an hour to get seated. Once we obtained a coveted spot in the popular restaurant, we were waited on almost instantly.

Once again we ordered sweet tea but this time, we tried the glazed breakfast hush puppies instead of the fried okra.

My first glass of sweet tea was unimpressive. I had to add two packets of sweetener and a packet of sugar to even bring it up to par with Po’shines’ tea. However, my second and third glasses were much sweeter.

The hush puppies were out-of-this-world. Not only were they deep-fried and glazed but they also had a cheese and bacon filling. I had three and wanted to go home and take a nap.

However, for the purpose of this review, I powered through my fullness. I knew I had clearly been out of the South for far too long.

When it came to ordering my main brunch entre, the menu was overwhelming. It had lots of good Southern staples like cheese grits and biscuits and gravy, but the prices were slightly disconcerting.

It was $8.95 for two biscuits and gravy. Back home, I live right across the street from the Loveless Cafe whose biscuits are critically acclaimed as some of the best biscuits in the country. They put a basket of them out on each table for free. No way in hell am I paying $8.95 for two biscuits and gravy.

I ordered a praline bacon waffle and a plain biscuit with jelly.

The waffle was crazy-good. It had bacon cooked inside of it and another sugar coated strip on top along with whipped cream and pecans. I ate a quarter of it and was ready to nap and fast for the rest of the week.

The expensive biscuit on the other hand, was average at best. It was too thick and heavy. Biscuits are supposed to be light and fluffy so you can eat at least five of them with all different kinds of jams before you pass out on the couch.

TSD should take a few pointers from Loveless about taste and price.

Judging The Screen Door simply as a Portland restaurant, the servings were huge and the food was delicious. Also, despite the long wait, once you get in, the service is fairly quick and friendly. I would definitely go again.

However, on the Southern authenticity scale, The Screen Door gets a 5 out of 10. The restaurant lacks the simplicity and ambiance of a southern restaurant, its menu is overwhelming and over priced, and both the sweet tea and the biscuits are sub-par. Rachel Rippetoe is a reporter for The Beacon. She can be reached at rippetoe18@up.edu

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