Portland Restaurant: St. Jack - New location!

What: St. Jack
Where: NW 23rd and Raleigh
When: Opens at 5pm 7-days per week, Patisserie to open soon!
Honeys Heart: The new digs

Katie and I first experienced St. Jack at their old SE Clinton location where we were introduced to Kyle's (now owner of Expatriate on N. Killingworth) excellent concoctions.

It's where we photographed this quote, which describes us well:

It's where I returned with my family to enjoy a fantastic, and expectedly pricey, French dinner:

Steak Tartare ($11) hand cut steak, cornichon, capers, red onion, quail egg yolk, & toasted baguette 

Butternut Squash Soup En Croute ($11) 

Roasted Beet Salad ($10) chèvre, arugula, toasted walnuts & red wine-dijon vinaigrette

Onglet Steak Frites ($24) with shallot, red wine demi-glace & pommes frites with bearnaise

Lamb Navarin ($28) braised lamb shoulder, cream, sherry, potatoes

It's where Adam had his "favorite cocktail ever"...it involved plum whiskey, but it's been a while so I can't name the drink.

So when we heard St. Jack was relocating to our hood, we were on board! It absolutely brings some cool points to NW, which seems to be making a bit of a "trendy comeback" with the recent additions of Barista, Little Big Burger, Pacific Pie Co., Bamboo Sushi, and Salt & Straw.

Adam and I met third-cousin Chase and his fiance to check out the new digs and try a cocktail. The space is much larger with a more open bar to one side of the restaurant and the restaurant to the other. On a Sunday night it was busy but we didn't have a wait, which was excellent.

I opted for White Lady ($11) with gin, lemon juice, and something else... it was very good. In hindsight it was a cocktail that I could have made at home so on my next visit I will branch out.

KB (Chase's fiance is also a Katie so to avoid confusion she'll be KB on the blog) ordered the L'Americain ($11) with campari, lillet rose, combier pamplemousse rose and chilled seltzer.

The important thing to note here is this drink is available by the carafe for $32. Yes please on a warm sunny day!

Adam and Chase went for the St. Jack Manhattan, but it's made with rye so though my inexperienced whiskey palate kind of liked it, it wasn't Adam's favorite.

We didn't order any food during our visit but the guys next to us had each ordered the cheeseburger ($9) and were sharing the fries ($5) off the bar menu and it smelled so good.

It's not in the budget to become a regular here, but it's definitely a worth while stop on NW 23rd and I'm sure we'll be back!