Portland Restaurant: Short Round

What: SHoRT ROUND
Where: 3962 SE Hawthorne Blvd
When: Daily 11am - 12am
Honeys Heart: Grilled Mussels + Wings (for today)

As covered in a previous post, I rarely cook in my transitional housing (new apartment and healthier lifestyle coming soon). Luckily, I have one friend who at least makes me workout before we indulge in a happy hour or bottle(s) of wine.

Maggie and I met for a Barre3 class and then booked it from NW Marshall to SE Hawthorne in record time for happy hour at Short Round. Side note, we have decided Barre3 classes are too full and the consequential foggy mirror grosses me out.

Anyway, Fish Sauce's sister restaurant opened last summer and is serving up Saigon street food with a daily happy hour from 3-6pm and 9pm-midnight. We arrived at 5:55pm and managed to put in an exhaustive food order and two drinks by 5:58pm. Our bartender was on it, and I appreciated the assist versus semi-ignoring us to avoid the end of happy hour all together.

We started with a Gin Gimlet ($6) and Whiskey Sour ($6). When summer time hits and Maggie and I meet here - it's between our digs so I anticipate a second visit - I will be into trying the fresh Watermelon Margarita frozen cocktail ($8).

For food, we ordered seven things and the variety and corresponding price tags made it possible to get a true sampling. In order of how things came out...

First up, Chao Tom* ($3), the fried sugarcane shrimp.
*lets just note that the proper Vietnamese characters are not included

The Grilled Mussels ($5) were a bartender recommendation and I think they were one of our favorite items. We were doing some serious catching up and I wasn't paying nearly enough attention, but there where cheese and peanuts involved, and that sounds like a weird combo, but we were into it.

Bo La Lot ($4) beef wrap betel leaf. Perhaps our least favorite, but I'm glad we tried it.

I love the texture of sticky rice. so the Banh Tet ($3 - pan fried sticky rice cake with pork belly and mung bean) was simple but satisfying.

Another bartender recommendation, the wings ($4). I'm not typically a wings kind of gal, but if I had to choose I would go Asian vs buffalo. Plus, these were crispy and drizzled with just the right amount of sauce.

These Cha Gio ($2) are pretty self-explanatory. For $2, why not?!

And lastly, the Chicken Banh Mi ($7) with a side of sweet potato fries. My fav Banh Mi is at Lela's so in order of Banh Mi's, I probably would skip this for more mussels, wings, or to try some of our bartenders other highlighted dishes, i.e. the Soy Sauce Geoduck ($7) or the prawns.

Verdict? I would definitely go back. The industrial space has the owner's mom and mother-in-law in the kitchen. Something I didn't know at the time, but makes it more charming. And for five drinks plus all this food, our grand total was $64. It's in the budget!

Portland Restaurant: Olympia Oyster Bar

What: Olympia Oyster Bar 
Where: 4214 N Mississippi 
When: Tues-Thurs 4-9 pm, Fri & Sat 2-10 pm, Sun 2-9pm, HH open-6 pm Tues-Fri 
Honeys Heart: Natty and Shellfish Wednesday Special

My life really got a solid shake up in 2017 and as a result, my cousin Chase got an expected new roommate: yours truly! My new living situation means more than a few things have changed for me. For example:

• I drink good wine now (because I drink Chase's wine).
• I watch substantially more sports and boy movies, i.e. movies with Keanu Reeves.
• I have been exploring more of my new neighborhood, Mississippi St.
• I don't cook anymore because one of my roomies cooks, or I order food, or I meet up with friends.

In accordance with those last two bullet points, I think I have now been to every restaurant on Mississippi, my favs being Lovely's Fifty Fifty, Por Que No, and my #1, Olympia Oyster Bar.

(photo courtesy of Olympia's website)

Olympia Oyster Bar (can we just call it OOB because I'm typing this hungover and it's a long restaurant name?) is just the cutest neighborhood oyster and wine bar with dishes inspired by Chef Maylin's Mexican heritage and flavors influenced by Japan and the Mediterranean. It's where I like to go when I want to class it up a bit and balance out those nights of drinking beer at dive bars (because I do that now too).

The best discovery I made about OOB is their Wednesday night "Natty and Shellfish" special. It's a $20 bucket of mussels and clams and $20(ish) bottles of natural wines. The bucket is enough to share, but if I'm going to be drinking/eating alone (add that to the list), it feels better to do it somewhere nice.

On my recent solo visit, I did take home about half the mussels and clams and half the bottle of wine because Chase and I needed to watch The Voice. #priorities

I also probably didn't need to add oysters into the mix that night seeing as how I was a party of one, but I felt like trying their Raw Pomegranate ($13) preparation with pomegranate elixir, ginger amaranth, and blood orange oil. I mean, it was tasty but I would rather go on "Oyster Tuesday" and just get a $9 half dozen. 

Because I have become obsessed with this Wednesday night special, I try to go a lot. A friend I hadn't seen in six months wanted to grab happy hour and I knew the life update would need to be accompanied by plenty of wine - perfect opportunity for the OOB Wednesday night special!

Bottle one. Look at that funny dog...

Yes, we got the mussels and clams and yes, it was delicious again.

Bottle two. 

Two bottles in means more food, obvs. We tried to get bread and goat butter, but they were out of butter so instead we tried the Trout Conserva Toast ($7) off the happy hour menu. It was light, fresh, and delish.

There were a couple other things on their happy hour that looked tasty, so I'm open for Wednesday night dates (friend dates, come on...) with people so that I can try more things.

Bottle three. (Yes, you read that right. We had three bottles of wine and the best part is that for three bottles of wine, mussels and clams, and trout toast, I think our bill was only $96 aka $48 per person... um, that's a good deal for all that food and wine!)

In addition to great food and drink, the service at OOB has always been exceptional. Their staff is friendly and they offer recommendations, which is important for someone who lacks certain decision-making capabilities.

Even when I move out of the hood (I can't live with my cousin forever, I am a 30-year-old single lady, after all) OOB will bring me back. And probably I'll also swing by Chase's for some wine while I'm at it...

Portland Happy Hour: Kachka

What: Kachka
Where: 720 SE Grand Ave
When: Happy Hour is daily 4-6pm and 10pm-midnight
Honeys Heart: Dumplings & Moscow Mules

It's crazy that we haven't written about Kachka yet since it's possibly number one on Katie's list of "Favorite Portland Restaurants", but we finally have pictures and recently had a pretty great happy hour.

This June, I was recruited to run the Helvetia Half Marathon with Doug with the primary goal of beating Katie's best half marathon time (just some friendly competition between husband and wife). I will say we did pretty well, and earned ourselves a whole day of bar crawling... and as supportive spouse and primary drinking partner to us both, Katie obviously partook in this reward.

After beers at The Commons, a gin and beer tasting at Loyal Legion, and a quick beer at Bithouse Saloon, we went to Kachka just minutes after they opened for happy hour at 4pm and luckily got one of the last tables in the lounge.

Despite having been on a beer kick, Katie and I started our happy hour with a Moscow Mule ($5) and Doug went big with a Yorsh ($7), i.e. a pint of beer with a rotating vodka. I will say the vodka was perfectly chilled and Katie might have downed the last half of it before we left.

For food, we got an array of items because our friend Alex, who also ran the race, was there and had never been to Kachka. Plus, his fiance is a vegetarian so he has to take advantage of a meal with meat eaters!

Because we had worked hard and needed to replenish with some carbs and fat, we ordered the Bread and Whipped Salo ($2) which is just what it sounds like - cured fatback mixed with garlic and coriander and bread. A sprinkle of salt and this is uber satisfying.

For another shared dish, we got the Sprat Snack ($5) with tiny hot smoked fish, parsley mayo, and rye bread. These little cured fish aren't my favorite to look at, but they're salty and definitely satisfying with the mule or a beer. 

Alex, on a meat kick, ordered the Golubtsi ($8), which is a pork and beef-stuffed cabbage roll. I wouldn't say this was the easiest for sharing but the combination of the roll in the sauce and cream definitely was a comfort food dish.

So far, I haven't had something I didn't like at Kachka, but I crave the Siberian Pelmeni ($9), dumplings filled with beef, pork, veal, and onion. 

Even though the happy hour is a good deal, the dinner menu apps aren't a bad price and a favorite lives on that menu. The Herring "under a fur coat" ($9) is "a seven layer dip. but Russian. and actually a salad" aka it's layered herring, potatoes, onions, carrots, beets, mayo, and eggs.

Katie and I often stray from our happy hour roots these days due to schedules and thinking we have more money now (our bank accounts post home-buying would say differently), but this was a definite reminder that there are excellent happy hours in this city and it's a shame not to take advantage of them.

Portland Happy Hour: SuperBite

What: SuperBite
Where: 527 SW 12th Ave 
When: Daily HH from 5-6pm (also available at Kask 4-6pm)

Katie and I are super proud of ourselves when we actually make it to a happy hour these days. This is partially because we rarely have weeknight dates (thanks, dogs and husbands) and partially because we never make it anywhere early enough for happy hour (looking at you, semi-demanding work schedules). So when we finally scheduled a SuperBite happy hour date, we had to make the most of it.

Our dining experience at SuperBite started with a bit of seat-selection anxiety. Katie arrived 10 minutes before me and played musical chairs, ultimately ending up choosing a seat in the bar. Moments after I arrived and sat down, Karen Brooks, Portland Monthly's food critic, walked in and sat at the well-lit kitchen bar in the main dining area, highlighting what Katie already knew to be true: she had made the wrong seating decision. Basically, we missed out on any potential hobnobbing and the lighting was terrible for photos, but we'll forgive Katie, it's a lot of pressure!

Anyway, regardless of seating choices, we unfortunately left SuperBite underwhelmed.

Our expectations were high going in because 1) this is the second venture for the husband-wife chef team behind the impressive Ox and 2) if your whole restaurant concept is built on combining unique or seemingly separate flavors into one "super bite", that one bite better be fucking phenomenal.

When we finally were able to track down a server (we know we're not Karen Brooks but come on!), we asked for his top happy hour recommendations and he tricked us into buying all of the bites, which were $2 each. The bites are really the right size for one person but we opted to share all but the salmon. Also, he didn't really trick us, we're actually very easily convinced to order lots of food...

The Salmon Crudo is served with hibiscus ponzu, pickled jalapeno, and shiso, and was a pretty solid bite - I suppose at $2, it's similar to getting a piece of sashimi at a sushi restaurant.

Both of us really enjoyed the Dungeness Crab taco with celery root tortilla, sesame mayo, orange, and tobiko. The celery root tortilla provided a unique texture and the bite featured a solid serving of crab.

I think we were originally most intrigued by the Grilled Shitake with miso-procini marshmallow and sauternes glaze, but the porcini marshmallow didn't quite live up to the hype and was fairly indistinguishable.

Next up was the Beef Tongue "spam" musubi with cucumber, and Chinese hot mustard served on top of rice. This was one of our server's favorites and I could imagine it being one that people lean towards since it is a bit more substantial.

Finally, we tried the Duck Croquette A L'Orange with crispy duck rillettes and tangerine aioli. Neither of us had tried duck l'orange prior and while it was good, again we wanted to be wowed and didn't quite get there.

As I write this, I'm wondering if our expectations were unreasonable or if the experience really was missing a little something something.

To round out our happy hour, we also ordered the Nashville-style Hot Fried Cauliflower which was super spicy and a dish I probably would skip next time around (if there is a next time around...).

Last up, we had the Double Stack Cheeseburger ($10) with ground beef and shitake mushroom topped with fontina and cheddar, fancy sauce, dill pickle, and onion on a sesame seed bun. It sounds like a good idea and a ton of burger for $10 so we jumped on it. I would actually like to get Doug and Adam's take on this burger because Katie and I were not digging the texture that the mushroom added.

The real topper on the iffy service and underwhelming food is that we both felt nauseous for the rest of the night. Not the best way to remember what should have been an enjoyable happy hour.

Basically, we're not raring to try this happy hour again anytime soon - but we are curious to know if our experience was the norm, or if we caught SuperBite on an off night. Let us know!

Portland Happy Hour: High Noon

What: High Noon
Where: 822 SW 2nd Ave
When: HH Mon-Fri, 3pm-7pm
Honeys Heart: Lots of happy hour food & drink options

Sometimes you just have to embrace being a #basicbitch and go see 50 Shades Darker with your girlfriends. If you saw the first 50 Shades movie, you know that a certain level of tipsiness is necessary to endure two hours of horrible dialogue and "kinky f***ery", so with that in mind, Kel, Dana, and I met for happy hour at High Noon before heading to the movie theater.

High Noon's slogan is "Southwest by Northwest" and their menu highlights Southwestern dishes like frybread, arepas, and nachos, all prepared with local ingredients. While the decor borders on gimmicky (at least they got rid of the John Wayne mural?), we were impressed with the number of food and drink items on the happy hour menu and the prices.

From the happy hour menu, we ordered the Nachos ($5), Hush Puppies ($4), and Street Corn ($3), plus Grapefruit Drops ($6).

The nachos were tasty and a decent-sized portion and the hush puppies were good too. I never say no to street corn and High Noon's version did not disappoint.

While my first Grapefruit Drop was on the weak side, a pet peeve of mine when it comes to happy hour drinks, the second seemed like a standard pour, making the $6 price tag feel like more of a steal.

Since none of us had tried frybread before, we also ordered a Sweet Pork Frybread with Roasted Pasilla Verde ($9) off the regular menu.

High Noon describes frybread as "southwest scones" which I don't think gives an accurate picture of this dish. Frybread is more like flatbread that has been fried... so exactly what it sounds like and not like a scone at all. Descriptions aside, it was flavorful and delicious, and worth the non-happy hour price.

I should also mention that the service was a bit touch and go, depending on what server was helping us.

However, overall, we left very satisfied with our happy hour experience at High Noon and I would recommend it as a great post-work spot for the downtown crowd.

Seattle Happy Hour: Rachel's Ginger Beer

What: Rachel's Ginger Beer
Where:1610 12th Ave, Seattle, WA
When: 4pm-6pm Daily
Honeys Heart: $6 Moscow Mules (in pint glasses!)

Not to brag, but Kel and I have been really good about going to happy hours recently. I mean, that is kind of our thing so it's probably not that boast-worthy... but we're still pretty jazzed about it.

We have like 10 Portland happy hours to tell you about, but before we do that, I'm going to fill you in on a great Seattle happy hour that, fingers-crossed, will soon become a Portland happy hour too.

Rachel's Ginger Beer got its start selling artisanal ginger beers at Seattle farmers markets before opening up brick and mortars in Pike Place and Capitol Hill. They offer a ton of different flavored ginger beers like blood orange, caramelized pineapple, and pink guava in bottles and for growler fills, plus cocktails on tap.

Their cocktails are already very reasonably priced at $8, especially considering they come in pint glasses, but during happy hour, Moscow Mules and Montana Mules (whiskey and ginger beer) are only $6 a piece. That is a seriously good deal.

Also, they're seriously good.

That's a Porch Swing (gin, aperol, and ginger beer) above, which was okay, but really, just stick with those Moscow Mules and you'll be happy you did.

Here's to hoping that RGB will keep that same happy hour offering at their new location on Hawthorne!

Portland Happy Hour: Rae's Lakeview Lounge

What: Rae's Lakeview Lounge
Where: 1900 NW 27th Avenue
When: Daily happy hour 2 - 6 pm
Honeys Heart: $9 Carafes

It's been a while since Katie and I reviewed a true happy hour, but we recently met up halfway (ish) between our two work establishments for some end-of-week unwinding (aka wine drinking).

Rae's has been around for quite some time (like 50 plus years) and for people who have lived most of our post-college lives in NW, it's maybe a little surprising we didn't make it there before now.

The restaurant has a neighborhood dive feel inside, so we opted to sit outside on the patio where we soon learned that it's assumed you'll share your picnic table if you're a party of two. That's okay by us, but it would have been appreciated if the server could have given us a heads up before he plopped two menus down next to us.

Also, within a few minutes of us being seated, the bros behind us began to surround us in plumes of smoke from their e-cigarettes. I mean, I guess it didn't smell as bad or linger in my hair as long as a regular cigarette, but it for sure affected our patio experience.

To help take the edge off our so-far iffy visit, we decided to order a half-carafe of the house wine ($9)... followed by a second carafe. The second carafe was obviously a different wine than the first, but whatevs. Cheap wine is cheap wine, right?

For snacks, we ordered the Cheddar Mack ($4.50) and Black and Tan Hummus ($6.50). Both would definitely fall into the greasy bar food category and while I wouldn't go to Rae's for the culinary experience, at least the prices were cheap?

Maybe we're just getting old, but I think both of us would willingly pay a bit more for higher quality food and a better ambiance. Those $9 carafes might convince us to come back though...

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!

Portland Restaurant: Donnie Vegas

What: Donnie Vegas
Where: 1203 NE Alberta 
When: Daily 4pm - Close
Honeys Heart: Roll the Dice!

Adam and I got bikes for my birthday and decided to put them to good use right away. I know, Adam got a bike for my birthday too, but don't worry, I'll be getting something for his birthday now that I know this is a thing. I'm a fan of riding to a rewarding destination so we biked to Donnie Vegas on NE Alberta for a drink and a hot dog.

Isn't my bike cute? Adam says I'm too matchy matchy with my white and teal bike, and black and teal helmet, but I'm okay with it. 

Lucky for us sweaty bikers, Donnie Vegas has an awesome back patio area where we started with a couple cocktails. Moscow Mule ($7) for me and a whiskey tea cocktail for Adam.

After settling in with our cocktails, we decided to try their $5 hot dogs. Adam chose the Dirty Hawaiian with teriyaki, pineapple, and scallions. The hot dogs aren't particularly special on their own, just a simple beef dog, but the toppings, price, and patio make it a nice, low key place mid-bike adventure.

I chose the Banh Mi Dog with hoisin, pickles, and cilantro. I preferred mine to Adam's but they were both good!

So you may be wondering how we ended up with four drinks on our table...

Well, a fun drink option at Donnie Vegas is to roll the dice for a $4 drink. I can't remember all six options but they included a tequila shot, pickle back, featured cocktails, and a few other options. Each is associated with a number and you get whatever it lands on. Risky, but for only $4 we were in. We both happened to get featured cocktails and ended up with another bourbon tea cocktail and a mojito. 

This would definitely be a great spot for a drink and hanging out with a group. Everyday they have happy hour including a drink special, $1 off drafts, and $2 plain dogs. Oh and they give fair warning on the site, that "Donnie changes the menu whenever he wants, ya dig", so don't be surprised if none of this is relevant.

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.