Foodie Adventure: The Woodsman Tavern

Since I started chronicling my foodie adventures, my dinner date requests have increased exponentially. It was no surprise that my sister Amy was quick to ask if we could go on a foodie adventure when she was home for Christmas. As my list of must try restaurants grows daily, I was happy to oblige. My wonderful roommate Melissa was along for the ride(And she did literally drive us. Thanks, Mel!) for our adventure to the high brow hipster joint, The Woodsman Tavern. Next door to the original Stumptown off of SE Division this “tavern” is so popular we had an hour and a half wait for a table for three. There sure are a lot of high brown hipster lovers in Portland!

The menu is separated into separate specialties and plates. It includes drinking snacks, raw & chilled seafood, country ham, first plates, second plates, and side plates. It is quite a menu, but it doesn’t hold a candle to their drink menu. Pages and pages of bottles, glasses, and tumblers. I went with a glass of Montepulciano, while Amy and Mel each chose a glass of white. I don’t drink white wine, so I don’t keep track of it. I believe drinking white wine is for sweltering summer evenings or beginners. If you want to prove me wrong, go ahead. You’re buying.

Foodie Adventure: Toro Bravo

You would think that the wait for a table would be reasonable on a Monday night, right? Not at the famous tapas restaurant Toro Bravo. The wait for a group of four was over an hour when we arrived at 6:30, and boy was it worth it!  My cousin Beth, our friends Vashti and Amy, and I weathered out the wait upstairs at Secret Society. Toro Bravo called us when our table was ready, but that wasn’t until after the Red Cross called and roped me into my next blood donations.  I don’t think a group of people have ever been as disappointed by a red cross cold call as we were.

Above is the menu for Toro Bravo. You see that star next to the Griddled Bacon Wrapped Date, that was my way of marking a dish we ate. My group and I chose to embrace the adventure of the evening and order the Chefs Choice Tasting Menu. We were informed the Chefs Tasting Menu consisted of six to eight separate dishes with enough for everyone. On a previous trip to Toro Bravo the server had been very clear on the strict nature of the Chefs Menu, so I was surprised when our wonderful server said she could just do the choosing and keep our tasting within budget and low on the gluten side for our gluten free party members. After going over the menu that I took for research purposes there are twelve dishes with stars by them. Our server was a rock star.

Foodie Adventure: Wafu

Tonight was one of those wonderful nights when my friend Sarah Ruth was in town and we got together for dinner.  Not just any dinner, but a foodie adventure.  I plan on sharing my foodie adventures with you here from my dazzleful life.  To me a foodie adventure is any time where there is a sense of discovery and delight while eating.  It could be a scoop of gelato in Italy, a six course dinner in France, a small plate extravaganza in Portland, or a corn dog from a cart on Broadway.  As long as there is food and there is fun while eating it, it is a foodie adventure.

So for my first foodie adventure entry I’ll share with you the epic meal that was our visit to Wafu.  Lucky for us we were eating on a Tuesday night and we were seated at the chef’s counter in the back of the restaurant.  Let me tell you, if you’ve never done this it is the most exciting place to sit at a serious foodie restaurant.  You get to see everything that comes out of the kitchen and all of the prep that goes into it, not to mention it’s the warmest seat in the house. Below is our view of the kitchen along with the miso & sake marinated steak with chicken-fried mushrooms and roasted garlic au jus. Oh yeah, that was just a starter for us.