Portland Pop-Up: Morgan St Theater

What: Morgan St Theater
When: Monthly
Honeys Heart: Watermelon sorbet, feta, basil oil & cherry tomato confit sundae

If you follow the Portland restaurant scene closely, you know that pop-ups are the next big thing. And if you follow this blog, you probably guessed that I would be all about that ish too (such a restaurant lemming... sorry not sorry).

I've been on Morgan St Theater's mailing list since I read about them in The Oregonian's pop-up roundup last June. Morgan St Theatre is a pop-up dessert club run by Jared Goodman that specializes in combining flights of nontraditional ice cream sundaes with storytelling and live music. Intriguing, right?

Each "performance" has a different theme and our night's was "It's My Party and I'll Make What I Want To"- essentially a compilation of Jared's favorite sundaes that he's made in the year since starting Morgan St Theater.

When we arrived at that night's venue, din din, we were greeted with a communal table set for 20, a live jazz duo, and a half dozen or so other guests who all already seemed to know each other. Let's just say it was not Doug's ideal scenario...

However, we were quickly made to feel more welcome by Jared who came over to introduce himself and explain a bit more about the night's proceedings. We would be served three different courses of ice cream sundaes with optional cocktail pairings. Jared would start each course with a short story that would provide some context for the dessert we would be trying. Mingling was encouraged as was taking the bartender up on his offer for a pre-dinner cocktail.

After choosing our seats and chatting with the other guests, it was finally time to get our ice cream sundae on. First up: Put a Bird on It made with wild huckleberry ice cream, buttermilk raspberry biscuit, lemon honey sauce, and huckleberry shrub. Everything on the plate was delicious but the lemon honey sauce was my favorite element. It was the perfect combination of tangy and sweet and if you force-fed me spoonfuls of it I wouldn't try to stop you.

That was paired with a Tennessee Orchard cocktail made with bourbon, campari, oregon cherry shrub, and soda. Yum.

Next up was Sofia made with watermelon sorbet, feta, basil oil, and cherry tomato confit. Doug and I agreed that this was hands down the most impressive dish of the night. It was very simple and refreshing,  and all the flavors paired perfectly together. Plus the cherry tomato confit was so rich and homey- you could just tell this sundae was made with lots of care and love.

Paired with Sofia was The Yakuza made with gin, garden herbs, ginger beer reduction, lemon, and honey.

Last up was Alma Mater, a peanut butter ice cream pie with chili chocolate brownie crust and cream. This was definitely the most traditional of the dishes we tried, but it still had that unique touch thanks to the chili in the brownie crust. Jared explained that it was inspired by Alma Chocolate's Thai peanut butter cups and I obviously need to try those immediately since Jared's take on them was so good.

That came with the Mucho Gusto made with rum, lemongrass-chili syrup, lime, "Don's mix", and Aztec chocolate bitters. The tiki feel of this cocktail paired well with the heat of the brownie crust.

We ended the night by paying by check and leaving a note in the comment box that was passed around.

Overall, we had an amazing time. The sundaes and cocktails were tasty and unique and the storytelling and live jazz added some extra pizzazz to the evening. And while chatting with strangers has never been Doug's or my strong suit and we definitely kept to ourselves more than some of the other guests, it was fun to be part of a communal experience.

Here's what Morgan St Theater has coming up in the next month:

Sunday, Oct 12- Sukkot: A Jewish Year in Ice Cream Sundaes

Thursday, Oct 23- A Night at the Opera

And if you want to join their mailing list, you can do that here.

Portland Restaurant: Life of Pie

What: Life of Pie
Where: 3632 N. Williams Ave
When: 11am-10pm Sun-Wed, 11am-11pm Thurs-Sat
Honeys Heart: $5 Margherita Pizza on Happy Hour 11am-6pm daily (for now, this won't last forever!)

Katie and I walked into Life of Pie's media preview and were immediately welcomed with a glass of house red wine (only $3 on happy hour!) and a bar full of delicious looking arancini and kale salad. Now that's the way to start a tasting!

After doing the typical blogger tasks of excessive photo taking on cameras and phones then posting to Instagram and Twitter, we took plates of Arancini ($6) and Kale Salad ($7) to a two-person table by a wood pile and tried, what ended up being just the beginning, of a series of delicious plates.

Okay, back up, I'm sure the "table by the wood pile" sounds odd, but it worked and created a warm environment that is definitely family-friendly. Life of Pie owner, Jason, stopped by to introduce himself and said that he imagined the wood-fired pizza joint as a place that is casual enough to come on a whim but also offers great food and service. So far, it looks like he's achieved that vision!

Katie and I both loved the arancini and kale salad. The outside of the arancini was crispy with a soft, warm, and cheesy inside. The simplicity of the kale salad was a great accompaniment. Kale salads can sometimes be overly tart with lots of lemon, but this was really well balanced with honey.

First out of the wood-fired oven right behind the counter was a Margherita pizza, which is only $5 on happy hour. Basically I would recommend you quit reading this and go there now. What a deal! And also it was delicious.

Katie and I quickly realized we did not properly pace ourselves. The Margherita pizza was the first of three more that we were able to sample. Next up was Fennel Sausage and Mama Lil's Peppers ($11) which we both really enjoyed. The peppers are pickled which adds a unique tartness.

Following this was the Seasonal Mushrooms with Shaved Pecorino Roman and Truffle Oil ($12). I enjoyed this, but I'm kind of obsessed with mushrooms these days. This was rich though with the truffle oil and mushroom mix!

Okay, at this point we'd had two glasses of wine, arancini, kale salad, and three types of pizza. It was all great, but we surely couldn't eat more. Then the last pizza was walked over and we changed our minds. The special Bacon, Goat Cheese and Oven Roasted Leeks ($12) was last. We both thought we would love this, but it ended up not being our favorite. It was a little sweet and instead of arranging whole slices of bacon on the pizza I would have cut them up and spread it out more. Oh well, can't win them all!

In addition to the abundance of food, we were also impressed with the attentive service. Life of Pie is a counter-service spot, but the servers were very prompt about removing used plates and filling up glasses of wine, which is always appreciated.

Overall a fun night with great food and a very gracious host. Thank you so much for having us!

P.S. The little block of N. Williams that houses Life of Pie is now jam-packed with tasty destinations- you could make a whole night of it without leaving! We'll lay it out for you:

Date Night on N. Williams: 

Drinks at Tin Bucket
- This beer shop boasts state-of-the-art growler fillers but you can enjoy pints in-house too.
Dinner at Life of Pie
- See above 
Dessert at What's the Scoop
- Super creamy ice-cream frozen with liquid nitrogen. The Bourbon Toffee is crazy good.