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.

Bay Area Weekend Highlights: Cream, The Trappist, Bi-Rite Creamery, Mikkeller Bar, and Mission Chinese Food

Two weekends ago, Doug and I flew to the Bay Area for the San Francisco Rock n Roll Half Marathon. It was our third half marathon but definitely more challenging than the Portland or Seattle halfs we had run previously thanks to all those SF hills. Of course, we rewarded ourselves for our efforts with lots and lots of good food and drinks. Here are some of our favorite stops from our trip: 

What: Cream
Where: 440 University Ave, Palo Alto, CA
Honeys Heart: Ice cream sandwiches

Lauren and Kyle graciously played host to us for the weekend. After a tasty dinner at Tacolicious in Palo Alto on Friday night, Lauren suggested we get some dessert at Cream, a custom ice cream sandwich shop.

Cream offers a menu of 20 ice cream flavors and 10 cookie options. You can pick two different cookie flavors for your ice cream sandwich, or you can diverge from the ice cream sandwich thing and get a milkshake, malt, float, or just plain ice cream or a cookie.

We all agreed that these messy, melty sugar bombs were quite delicious but very filling.

What: The Trappist
Where: 460 8th St, Oakland, CA
Honeys Heart: Mikkeller's Spontaneous Series on tap 

Lauren, Sarah, Doug, and I headed to Oakland to watch the Mariner's beat the A's (yeah, that win was unexpected) on Saturday afternoon before moving on to The Trappist, a Belgian beer bar in the Old Oakland neighborhood. 

The Trappist has over 20 beers on tap as well as several bottles and some food offerings. Lauren and I both sampled some beers from Mikkeller's Spontaneous Series. The series features oak-aged lambic beers with various fruit additions. Lauren opted for the Mikkeller Spontanpeach while I chose the Mikkeller Spontancassis. Both were very good and, as we would find out the next day, a very good deal considering the price of Mikkeller bottles.We also liked the nice little patio out back.

What: Bi-Rite Creamery
Where: 3692 18th St, San Francisco, CA
Honeys Heart: Ricanelas ice cream (cinnamon with snickerdoodles)

After a two-hour drive back over the Bay Bridge (yep, you read that right... so much traffic), we were more than ready for dinner. We did some carbo-loading at Zero Zero before making a quick stop for dessert at Bi-Rite before heading back to Palo Alto.

Bi-Rite makes all their ice cream, soft serve, and baked goods by hand in small batches using local, organic ingredients.

I opted for their take on salted caramel (it had a much darker caramel flavor than any salted caramel ice cream I've had before) and ricanelas (cinnamon with snickerdoodles). The ricanelas was so, so good as was Doug's pick of malted vanilla with peanut brittle and milk chocolate pieces. Plus, while I'll give it to Salt & Straw that their line does move relatively fast, Bi-Rite really has their ish together. We breezed though their block-long line in under 10 minutes.

What: Mikkeller Bar
Where: 34 Mason St, San Francisco, CA
Honeys Heart: Um, everything

Doug did quite a bit of research before our trip and was adamant that we stop by Mikkeller Bar after the half despite the less than ideal parking situation. Maybe we were all still feeling the affects of those running endorphins, but seriously, all the beers that we tried here were excellent. Every single one.

Mikkeller obviously puts a lot of care into the selection of their beers and the way they serve them too. The menu is divided by what temperature the beer is served at: 40^o, 45^o or 55^o.

Some group favorites included Siren/Mikkeller/Hill Farmstead Limoncello (tart Imperial IPA), Mikkeller/Prairie American Style (American IPA w/ Brett), AleSmith Speedway Stout, and Tahoe Mountain Double Burgundy (farmhouse with black currents).

One caveat: we found out the hard way that the Mikkeller Spontaneous Series bottles on the menu are only 11oz (maybe the menu mentioned that, but we didn't notice)- so yes, that $25 price tag is a bit exorbitant, though Lauren's Mikkeller Spontanmandarin was really good. 

(Also, you should definitely read this NYT Magazine piece about the founder of Mikkeller and his twin brother who owns another of our favorite breweries, Evil Twin Brewing. Interesting stuff!) 

What: Mission Chinese Food
Where: 2234 Mission St, San Francisco, CA
Honeys Heart: Pork Jowl and Dumplings

After finishing our beers at Mikkeller, Sarah, Doug, Lauren, Kyle, and I all wanted to grab dinner in the city before Doug and I had to catch our flight back to Portland. After much deliberation, we reluctantly decided to head to the Mission for burritos (Lauren was hoping to take us somewhere with a little more hip factor). But, as luck would have it, we happened to pass by Mission Chinese Food on our way to burritos and saw that there was no line and no one on the waitlist. Whaaaat??? Usually Mission Chinese has a 1-2 hour wait so this was a big deal. Obviously burritos were no longer happening.

Some quick online research gave us an idea of what to order. Here are our favorite dishes from most-loved to liked-a-lot.

Stir-fired Pork Jowl with crunchy radish, radish greens, chicharrones, and shiso.The radish greens were my favorite part of this dish as they soaked up all the delicious sauce and were super tangy and flavorful.

Grandma's Pork Dumplings with pea tendrils, garlic chives and ham broth. A very simple dish executed to perfection.

Squid Ink Noodles with something or other (sorry, the online menu doesn't have a description of these).

Tea-Smoked Eel with fresh rice noodles, chinese celery, salted plum hoisin, braised pork, and cognac soy.

Ma Po Tofu with braised shiitakes, aged chili paste, sichuan peppers, and scallions. This was incredibly spicy. Perfect for Lauren, but the rest of us stayed away.


Thanks Lauren, Kyle, and Sarah for a great weekend! We'll be back soon!

Portland Ice Cream Parlor: Fifty Licks

What: Fifty Licks
Where: 2021 SE Clinton St
When: Sun-Thurs 3-10pm, Fri-Sat noon-11pm
Honey's Heart: Sorbet Cocktails (and Chad)

Katie and I are always flattered when someone wants us to come try their restaurant, bar, or in this case, versatile cocktail-serving ice cream parlor, so when we were invited to come sample Fifty Licks' dessert cocktails (available for $2 off during happy hour- 4-6pm) we jumped at the chance.

Fifty Licks opened its brick and mortar just a couple months ago and so far we are digging what we see. Offering innovative ice creams and sorbets, unique toppings, and our favorite, cocktails, Fifty Licks is essentially an ice cream parlor designed for grown ups. Love it!

We sat down with Chad, the creator, owner, and flavor developer, to try Fifty Licks' four sorbet cocktails while learning more about his vision.

Chad divulged that he has two main goals in mind when creating a new ice cream: The first is, if it's a classic, it must be the very best version of that classic. That's why you won't find a chocolate ice cream on his menu (at least not yet, anyway). As he explained, all the fat in ice cream dulls down the rich flavor of chocolate. So, instead of ice cream, Chad makes a chocolate sorbet as there's no cream to dumb down the flavor. Other classic flavor options include Stumptown Coffee, Tahitian Vanilla, and Blood Orange Creamsicle.

Chad's second goal is that if he's creating a new flavor, it must be utterly delicious in every way, so no novelty flavors for him (looking at you Salt & Straw turkey ice cream). Some of Chad's unique but very tasty creations include Jasmine Tea with Apricot, Toasted Milk, and Passionfruit with Schuan Peppercorns.

Fifty Licks' cocktails came about from Chad's desire to provide a place for people to go after dinner if they just don't feel like going to a bar. Fifty Licks is a great alternative if you want dessert, a drink, or both.

I have to admit, Katie and I were anticipating overly-sweet cocktails, which we are not a fan of. Instead, we tasted four perfectly balanced craft cocktails that would be delicious even without their complementary sorbets- though the combination of cocktail and sorbet was so out-of-this-world that I don't know why you would ever want to separate them.

Here's what we tried: 

Furacao- Passionfruit with Sichuan Pepper sorbet, Madeira, Brryh, bitters

Velvet Shiso- Coconut Lemon Saffron sorbet, plum wine, bubbly, fresh shiso

Nordic Palmer- Frozen Lemonade, iced tea sparkling mead, lemon peal 

Bitter Rose- Grapefruit Rosewater sorbet, Cocchi American Rosa, orange bitters

It's hard to choose a favorite because they were all so good, but we both loved how refreshing the Nordic Palmer was and Furacao really did have a great balance of sweet and bitter.

During our sampling, we also had the opportunity to try a bunch of ice creams and sorbets on their own. One stand-out was Cherry Bourbon (sorry kids, this one is only for adults...) which Katie immediately called it out as Adam's potential favorite. Adam does have a sweet tooth (and a bourbon tooth too) and upon visiting later that week and getting this in the waffle cone, Adam felt confident in stating that it was likely the best waffle cone and ice cream experience he's ever had. I can attest to this as he stated it no less than 6 times while we were there.

We also got to try Chad's Cuban Coffee. It was so good that we both drank two cups... and were up late into the night thanks to our mid-evening caffeine boost. It was worth it though!

The flavors at Fifty Licks are constantly changing and sometimes a flavor doesn't make it up to the board, so don't be shy to ask if your favorite isn't listed.

Plus, Chad just released three amazing-sounding fall flavors: Sweet Potato Toasted Marshmallow, Autumn Harvest (roasted butternut squash with a baked savory-spiced apple ribbon), and Cranberry Cherry Sorbet. Be sure to like Fifty Licks on Facebook so you can stay updated about all the new flavors.

P.S. A huge thanks to Chad for sharing his story and his creations with us. We had so much fun chatting with you!