Portland Restaurant: Hamlet

9.12.15 Update: 
Co-owner Ryan Magarian invited us back to Hamlet for another try after reading our initial review. We sampled the Melon vs. Meat and Endless Midnight cocktails for a second time and were happy to find that when made with a more experienced hand, the flavors, though still nuanced, were much more enjoyable.

Ryan also let us play a round of his bartender's choice game. He asks your favorite drink plus a random, spur-of-the-moment question (Katie's was "Who's your favorite male actor?"). Her answers: a southside and Chris Pine. Ryan delivered The Monarch which is basically all our favorite cocktail ingredients combined: gin, St. Germain, mint, and lemon. Well, done Ryan! Thanks for inviting us back- we're glad we gave Hamlet another shot!

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What: Hamlet
Where: 232 NW 12th Ave
Honey's Heart: Giving second chances  

Katie and I try our best to keep up with the Portland food scene and often know of places and have them on our list for a few weeks before we're actually able to coordinate our schedules and get there. That was the case with Hamlet, the new project for Cathy Whims, Ryan Magarian, and Kurt Huffman.

After a Children's Cancer Association event, we stopped by Hamlet for a drink and snack to share. Hamlet has a great location in the Pearl next to an old favorite from our college days, Vault. Tuesday after Memorial Day weekend (whoa this post is old), the restaurant was fairly quiet and we took a seat at the bar.

We started with two cocktails- Melon vs. Meat made with gin, lemon juice, honeydew juice, orange bitters, and prosciutto, and Endless Midnight made with pisco, green chartreuse, blackberries, lime juice, simple syrup, and an egg white.

It seemed interesting at first that the exact cocktail recipes were printed on the menu (we could steal these and make them at home!), but after being generally underwhelmed by our drinks, we decided maybe it wasn't such a risky move. The Melon vs. Meat was reminiscent of diluted honeydew water while the other shockingly had very little flavor at all despite its bevy of ingredients.

For food, we turned to the selection of pig. I love some ham, prosciutto, speck, I'm all for it, but after our spendy weekend in Vancouver, BC, we weren't looking to spend $16+ on some ham to share, so we went for the $8 ham and salted butter sandwich.

Not that it wasn't good, and sometimes the most basic combo is also the most satisfying, but we felt like we could have made this and picnicked in the park with some rosé for a fraction of the cost.

The warm (hot) olives ($5) were good, but not special enough to compensate for our otherwise disappointing stop by Hamlet. Sorry Cathy, we won't be back.

Portland Happy Hour: Oven & Shaker

What: Oven & Shaker
Where: 1134 NW Everett St
When: 2:30-4pm and 10pm-midnight daily
Honeys Heart: Corleone Original

Katie, Jenna, Dana, Gina and I have been trying to make weekly, or at least every other week, happy hours together a habit. Most recently, we met at Oven & Shaker for their late happy hour at 10pm.

This restaurant, which opened in November of 2011,  is the baby of three popular Portland peeps: Cathy Whims of Nostrana (which we went to and still nee to blog about!), Ryan Magarian co-founder of Portland's Aviation Gin and ChefStable's founder Kurt Huffman.

It's no surprise that this trio has created a successful restaurant and a delicious happy hour featuring salads and pizzas. Unfortunately the cocktails aren't discounted, but we ordered them anyway!

I went for the Corleone Original.

Made with seedless green grapes, Aviation New Western Dry Gin, Clear Creek Grappa di Sangiovese, freshly pressed lemon juice, simple syrup and a dash of Regan's No. 6 Orange Bitters, it was so tasty. We only had one cocktail each but I definitely would order this again!

Katie chose the Adagio Original made with vodka, Zirbenz Stone Pine Liqueur, Dolin Dry Vermouth, clover honey syrup, and Peychaud Bitters.

Katie enjoyed her drink, but it wasn't a hit with the rest of us. I think we all preferred the fruitiness of the Corleone.

With 5 awesome pizzas to pick from, we ordered the Margherita ($7) with tomato, mozzarella and basil and the Roasted Squash ($10) with escarole, spiced walnuts, mozzarella, and montasio, an Italian cheese made from cow's milk.

If you're looking for something simple and satisfying you can't go wrong with a classic margherita pizza, but the roasted squash offered a more unique combination of flavors. We definitely want to return to try the cauliflower pizza and reviews suggested that the Nostrana ($6) salad of radicchio, parmigiano, rosemary-sage croutons, and caesar style dressing is pretty great.