Portland Pop-up: Mae

What: Mae
When: Monday and Wednesday Nights
Where: Old Salt Marketplace

If there's one "foodie" thing I just don't really get, it's fried chicken. I feel terrible about it, but it's true. Poor Doug. He never got to go to Son of a Biscuit, I had trouble properly sympathizing when Muscadine was out of fried chicken during our one and only visit, and, even though you know I love me some Dougie PDX, his fried chicken at Imperial was not my favorite dish on the table.

But, I think I might be starting to see the appeal, and that's all thanks to Mae.

Mae is a southern Appalachian-focused pop-up run by Maya Lovelace, an alumna of Beast and Husk. Maya's cooking is inspired by her grandmother Mae, for whom the pop-up is named.

Mae's family-style feasts are served out of the back room of Old Salt Marketplace and you have two options for dinners (so far): Monday Meat & Three ($35 per person) or a 10-course Southern Bacchanalia on Wednesdays ($65 per person).

Kelly, Adam, Doug, and I opted for the Monday Meat & Three option, mostly because it was more cost efficient and we still got to try Mae's fried chicken.

Monday Meat & Threes are BYOB so before Doug and I headed to Old Salt, we grabbed some German-style beers since Doug read that they go well with fried food (who knew?).

We were the first to arrive, and after a friendly greeting, Maya directed us to our assigned seats at Mae's communal tables.

Before each course, Maya stopped by each table and explained the dishes as well as her emotional connection to them. Elements like that are something I just love about pop-ups. The meal already feels special but it's made that much more so by the personal interactions you get to have with the chef.

Our meal started with Sassafras Sweet Tea and Cornbread with sorghum butter and pimento cheese with ham.

Up next was Buttermilk Salad with iceberg lettuce, buttermilk dressing, and bacon. Adam LOVED this, and for good reason. It was very simple, but very good. Too bad our tablemates got a little greedy and didn't leave enough for our half of the table to have seconds too...

And then it was time for the big show: Mae's Fried Chicken, which is brined in buttermilk and fried in lard, bacon fat, AND chicken fat. The chicken was juicy with a perfectly crispy crust and not greasy at all. Plus, Maya doesn't skimp- our table's large patter included two pieces for each of us plus Maya offered a second round, which we were quick to take her up on.

Along with the fried chicken came Collard Greens (tasty) and Pimento Mac & Cheese topped with potato chips (OMG so good).

For dessert, Maya served a cheery Lemon Pound Cake with whipped cream. Since we were fairly stuffed at that point, its lightness was the ideal end to our meal.

Before we left, Kel and I stopped by the prep station to thank Maya and to ask her if she had any recommendations for our upcoming trip to Nashville. She gamely wrote down more than a few options for us- so sweet!

So, how do you partake in one of Mae's feasts? Join Mae's mailing list here. You'll get email updates about upcoming dinners including information about how to register. Cheers!

Buzzed with the Happy Hour Honeys: Episode 2

In our second episode of Buzzed with the Happy Hour Honeys, we discuss our slightly controversial brunch yays and nays, food halls, Jose Chesa (so hot right now), and bachelorette party tips, all while consuming a $55 bottle of TeSoAria wine (yeah, we got classy).

A Visual Guide to Episode 2:

Doug vs. Doug:

Doug Adams 

• Executive Chef at Imperial
• Top Chef Season 12 Finalist
• also known as Dougie PDX (because that's what his instagram handle used to be)

Doug (Not Adams)

• Katie's Husband
• Top Chef Viewer
• also known as that guy who writes our beer fest posts

Sweedeedee

See the twee?

A Sweedeedee Sandwich

Broder

Aebleskivers with Lemon Curd 

Baby Spanska

180

Churros/Xurros

Chesa

Paella

Bachelorette Party Tip #1: Create a Tradition

The veil's debut appearance (2009)

Leslie's Bachelorette in Vegas (2011)

Kel's (Real) Bachelorette in New York (2012)

Katie's Bachelorette in Austin (2014)

Bachelorette Party Tip #2: Take a Dirty Class

Stripper 101 Class in Vegas

Bachelorette Party Tip #3: Find a Home Base

Do-Si-Do-ing with Jeremy at Jeremy Bar

Portland Happy Hour (Kinda): Tuesday & Wednesday Nights at TeSoAria

What: TeSoAria
Where: 4003 N Williams Ave
When: Tuesday & Wednesday Nights, 6pm -9pm
Honeys Heart: So much wine!

Guys, I am slightly worried about Tesoaria (sorry, not using their ridic caps outside of the title). They are giving away so much free food and free wine and I'm not sure how long they can keep it going. So basically, you need to get over there ASAP.

Here's the sitch: Every Tuesday night, Chef Max makes pizza. Whatever kind he feels like, he just makes. Lots and lots of it. And it's free as long as you buy a glass or bottle of wine. But don't worry, before you settle on a glass or a bottle, you get to sample ALL the wine. Really, all of it. And the wine is good! Like, award-winning good*.

Pizza Tuesdays have been going on for a while now, and as if that weren't enough, Tesoaria is now doing Hangry Hump Day Wednesdays. That's when Chef Max makes whatever dinner he wants (two weeks ago it was fried chicken sandwiches with potato salad and carrot cake) and you get to eat it, for free, as long as you buy a glass or a bottle.

So to reiterate, if you go to Tesoaria on a Tuesday or Wednesday night, here's how your visit will go:

Step 1: Sample as much wine as you want

Step 2: Eat free food

Step 3: Pay for a glass or bottle of wine which you will be more than happy to do because the wine is good and the food is good and the service is really good and omg, should you join their wine club? You should probably join their wine club.  

Step 4: You join their wine club.

... And I think I just figured out why Tesoaria is willing to give out so much free stuff. Smart people

Really, you should check it out for yourself. Like this week.

Also, normally I would tell you what wines we liked best, but I think I won't because you don't need me to tell you what to order. Sample them all and find out for yourself! Cheers!

*I tried to see if Katherine the Wine Lady had ever written about Tesoaria and could vouch for their greatness... but she hasn't. We're on our own here, folks!

New York Christmas Trip 2015: Please Don't Tell

I've already shared with you our favorite East Village spots from my Christmas trip to NYC, but there's (somewhat ironically) a bit more to tell when it comes to the place I was most excited to visit: Please Don't Tell.

I've been obsessed with Please Don't Tell ever since I first heard about it years ago. I mean, it's supposed to be one of New York's best cocktail bars and, on top of that, its entrance is hidden behind a panel in a phone booth in a divey hot dog joint. What's not to love?

I'd been to New York a few times since my obsession started, but had never been able to make a visit to PDT work since getting in is a significant time commitment (more on that shortly). My work-around was to hire a bartender who worked with PDT for our wedding, but I knew this trip was finally the time to make my PDT dreams come true. 

On our first full night in NYC, Doug and I made our way to Crif Dogs, said divey hot dog joint. I managed to play it pretty cool when using the phone booth ("Doug, it's ringing!! Take a picture, take a picture!!") and got our name on the waitlist. This was beyond exciting to me even though it was already 10pm and the wait time was quoted at 2.5-3 hours. I prematurely posted this on Instagram:

Bad move, self. When we still hadn't received a call three hours later ("Doug, do you think I gave her the wrong number??"), we headed back to the phone booth to see what was up. We were informed that the bartender wasn't seating anyone else that night, but the hostess did give us specific instructions about how to make a reservation so we wouldn't have to sweat it out again with the rest of the waitlist plebeians. The Crif Dogs hot dog and tator tots we ordered helped numb my disappointment slightly, but did nothing to satiate my growing thirst for a PDT cocktail.

The next day, right at 3pm, Doug and I each began calling PDT non-stop, as instructed. Actually, the hostess recommended that we gather a large group of friends to help us call, but that seemed excessive. We called a combined 75 times before finally we got through and made our reservations. We were in!

That night, at 11pm on the dot, we were led through the secret panel of the phone booth and into PDT.

It was magical. We were seated at the end of the bar which was perfect as it would give us direct access to the bartender.

We started things off with two drinks from the menu. Doug had the Bacon-Infused Old Fashioned with bacon-infused bourbon, maple syrup, Angostura bitters, and an orange twist and I got the Cranberry Cobbler with gin, sherry, cranberry simple syrup, lemon, and macerated cranberries. Doug's was pretty amazing but I felt a little meh about mine. This was my own fault though because cobblers are 90% crushed ice and they always make me feel meh.

For my second drink, I decided it was time to break out the big guns... aka, let the bartender do his thing and create something on the fly. It was my favorite thing to do at Drink when I lived in Boston, and it doesn't usually let me down at Portland craft cocktail spots either.

"I like drinks with gin that are floral and citrus-y," I said. This was going to be so much better than my cobbler, I just knew it. It was, in fact, probably going to be one of the best cocktails I had ever had.

So imagine my horror as I watched the bartender pour gin, St. Germain, and lemon juice into a shaker, give it a whirl, and place it in front of me.

Gin. St. Germain. Lemon Juice. That's it.

It took a moment to set in. I had waited years to get the most literal, basic interpretation of my request at one of the best cocktail bars in the country? Something that anyone could make themselves and frankly was a little heavy-handed on the St. Germain? Nope, nope.

That's when I started to tear up a little and Doug gave me this look like "are you really having a breakdown because you don't like your cocktail?", which was fair enough.

I eventually ended up asking the bartender to make me something a little more complex because I just couldn't let that be the last drink I had at PDT. He did make me something better... but the experience was already sullied.

A month after the incident, I'm slowly coming to terms with it. Maybe I shouldn't have had such crazy high expectations. Maybe I shouldn't have tried to go off-menu. Maybe the bartender was just trying to give me exactly what I was asking for (but um, an Aviation also fits that description and is way more interesting...).

In the end, here's my advice: save yourself some heartbreak and a million phone calls and just go to Booker & Dax, Death and Co., or any other great cocktail bar in New York. And maybe at least visit PDT to use the phone and watch the hostess swing open the secret panel. Cuz it is pretty cool.