Portland Restaurant: Milk Glass Mrkt

What: Milk Glass Mrkt
Where: 2150 N. Killingsworth Street
When: Tuesday-Sunday 9am-7pm
Honeys Heart: The cuteness

Before I started my new job, Katie and I decided we needed to take advantage of the last few days of my flexible schedule with a lunch date at Milk Glass Mrkt.

Milk Glass Mrkt is half market, half cafe. The menu features breakfast, brunch, small plates, beer, wine and "cocktails".

Everything was so cute. Now I know how to use our empty Bulleit bottles.

It was the last day of work before our holiday breaks so a "cocktail lunch" was in order. We opted for the Cava Special Cocktail ($7) with cava and a touch of quince syrup.

The lunch menu isn't very extensive but even so, we were having a hard time deciding what to order so we agreed to split a sandwich and a salad.
 

Here's the Moroccan Salad ($8) with kale, carrots, and chickpeas in harissa vinaigrette. The flavors here were good, but those pieces of raw kale were really big and kind of difficult to cut/chew. We don't love salad enough to feel good about putting that much effort into eating it, so this dish left us feeling a bit meh.

We also ordered The Swell sandwich ($9) with a fried egg, proscuitto, roasted red peppers, provolone and fresh basil on ciabatta. This had a lot going on, both flavor-wise and mess-wise, but we both liked it better than the salad.

Our total bill came to $15.50 each, definitely a pricier lunch date for us (don't tell Adam and Doug!), especially when we weren't particularly overwhelmed by the food. However, the place is seriously so cute and those cava cocktails had produced a nice little midday buzz, so I don't think either of us really cared.

Portland Brunch: Sweedeedee

What: Sweedeedee
Where: 5202 N. Albina
When: Mon - Sat 8 - 4pm, Sun 8 - 2pm
Honeys Heart: All of it

Katie has been working on the Portland content for Urban Daddy's The Next Move, a national restaurant/bar recommendation app that has since launched. Woot, Katie! Also, download it here.

Here's how it works: select a day, time, part of town, type of food or ambiance, and who you're with and it suggests a list of restaurants that fit your criteria. We decided to test it for a Saturday brunch date and that is sort of how we ended up at Sweedeedee...

Well, first we looked at the list and selected Meztica, but it turned out they only serve brunch on Sunday. Since we were in North Portland we almost redirected to an old favorite, John Street Cafe, then thought maybe Podnah's, and as we drove in circles and continued to explore the knowledge of the app, we finally picked Sweedeedee.

It is so quaint and adorable. The pictures don't do the space justice, but the white interior with shabby chic accents, shelves of pickling jars, classroom style roll down paper with a handwritten menu, and unique mix-match of furniture make the space homey and inviting.

Since it had taken some time to arrive at a destination, Katie got the Whiskey Cake from the pastry counter for us to share while we waited to be seated. (Pro tip: order at the counter. It can be a little confusing the first time you come in.) The cake, accompanied by mimosas, was a great start.

(Update!: Sweedeedee was just listed as one of the 25 Best New Restaurants in the U.S. by GQ... so expect even longer lines than usual. We showed up around 9am on a Saturday after the article ran and narrowly beat the crowd.) 

The egg sandwich ($8.50), Katie's pick, was made with egg, bacon, and shredded lettuce. The cornmeal molasses bread was thick and tasty on its own and definitely the star of this sandwich.

I am a sucker for a breakfast burrito ($9, with bacon) and this could have easily been shared. Filled with egg, potatoes, bacon, lettuce, guacamole and more, it was definitely satisfying.

An out-of-character selection for Adam was the potato plate ($11), but it is quite possibly what I would order if we returned. The potatoes were topped with an over-easy egg, smoked trout and greens. 

From the looks of the menu posted on their website, there may be slight adjustments, which all sound worth trying. Definitely a place we would return to...actually I think Katie already has!