Portland Restaurant: Cheese & Crack Snack Shop

What: Cheese & Crack Snack Shop

Where: 22 SE 28th Ave

When: 10 AM - 10 PM Everyday

Honeys Heart: Cheese (duh)

It's no secret that Katie and I love cheese, so even though we sometimes make attempts to be healthy or cook to save money, we're not about to give up our girls nights completely- especially when there's cheese to be had. Cheese & Crack was at the top of our list once we decided to treat ourselves and believe me, it didn't take long. 

The small, simple snack shop is just down the street from Paadee, one of my other SE 28th favorites, and seats about 20. You order at the counter and after a glance at the menu, we realized it would be best to get some thoughts from the experts.

Per our server's recommendation, we went for the kitchen favorite of La Maripos "Chubut" & Cana De Oveja ($10) with honey glazed peaches and two glasses of the House Rose ($6).

The plate/tray was perfectly laid out with generous portions of the two cheeses, shortbread style cookies, herb salted crackers, bread, honey, salted chocolate ganache, cornichons, olives, honey glazed peaches, and mustard. We added Molinari Salami ($2) to our super adorable arrangement and proceeded to create delicious bites with multiple combinations of the plate's offerings. 

So cute and the best part, so affordable- which means we can return (often)!

After finishing off our cheese plate, we weren't still starving, but we weren't ready to call it a night either. Since we were already there and we love ourselves some mac, we also ordered the Macaroni & Mornay ($8) made of trofie pasta with a side green salad. We're always planning a "Best Mac in Portland" post (wait for it), so this seemed like a necessary choice.

The pasta was really unique with a texture more like spatzle or dumplings versus a traditional noodle, and though initially the portion seemed small, it was rich and garlicky and probably just the right amount.

The house white was the recommended pair to this pasta, but we mostly drink red and so we went for the House Red ($5) instead. 

It's awesome to have a place to get snack-style food for a reasonable price. And bonus: they have a happy hour from 4-6pm and the last hour before closing! With the purchase of a beverage, you can get any of these delicious snacks for between $3 and $5: Mini Snack Cheese Plate, Nachos, Mornay Fondue, Macaroni & Mornay, Sandwich. Yeah, we're definitely going to have to hit that up.

Portland Happy Hour: Noble Rot

What: Noble Rot 
Where: 1111 East Burnside St.
When: 5-6pm Monday-Friday
Honeys Heart: The view and the cocktails


I had big plans last Friday night. The schedule was: water my plants, do laundry, clean my house, make mac'n'cheese for dinner (we're talking out of a box), and enjoy said mac'n'cheese while catching up on the most recent episode of The Bachelorette. So when my friend Rachel asked if I wanted to grab happy hour with her and a friend I did the appropriate amount of "oh I shouldn't, I have stuff to do..." so not to feel guilty for my lack of productivity (on the cleaning part, not the TV watching part) and then jumped on the opportunity for a delicious happy hour at Noble Rot.

In addition to great happy hour drink prices and a nice ambiance, Noble Rot has a cool rooftop garden where they grow some of their ingredients and the building is LEED certified. Not to mention a fantastic patio space with a beautiful view looking at downtown Portland. We didn't get there until happy hour was nearly over, but it would be worth arriving early to snag one of those outdoor spots.

I started with the Limoncello Sparkle ($5.50) with sparkling wine, limoncello and orange liqueur while Rachel opted for the well priced House Shiraz for just $3.50. The happy hour wine and cocktail prices are pretty great. Plus the other happy hour cocktails which were a Pomegranate Lemon Drop (vodka, lemon, pomegranate syrup) and Spiced Heaven (bourbon, ginger puree, ginger juice) cover a couple different spirits and sound super tasty.

Since we only had a few minutes we skimmed the menu and quickly ordered four items. The Butternut Squash, Carmalized Onions, & Goat Cheese Panino with a small salad ($6.75) which was really good. No complaints here.

Then we really branched out with the Macaroni & Cheese ($8). The corkscrew pasta, Tillamook cheese sauce and bread crumbs combo was simple, but tasty and definitely beat the boxed stuff I had planned to make at home. 

Our Onion Rings ($3) were so good. I mean it's hard to really, really ruin onion rings, but these were the right thickness, crispy and easy to bite through so you don't end up with that irritating problem where the onion slides out... that is an issue that not just I experience, right?

Finally, we went for a Hamburger ($8.75) which we added cheese to ($1) that came with fries. The pricing on this was definitely not exceptional since you can get a burger for $9.75 lots of places, but the meat was really good and it was perfectly prepared so I didn't mind much.

The happy hour menu also features a salad, cheese plate, and another panino among other small items, plus I'm pretty sure I mentioned the view... I'll be back.