Taste of Poland

Taste of Poland
SW 5th between Oak and Stark
Portland, OR

You never thought I would review a food cart, eh?

Well, I did. I didn't think I was going to, but after I bought this plate of food, I was blown away, so I had to.

There are about ten other food carts on this block, so it's a tough choice when it comes to deciding here. I think I went down the row three times before I decided on this one.









This is a country style sausage (heavy on garlic) with five potato pierogis, sauerkraut, boiled potatoes and cucumber salad with a lot of sour cream. I'm pretty sure I paid just under $6 for this entire dish. It was very fulfilling.

Value here is everything. The food was very tasty as well. I really have no complaints about this entire experience.

The final word: if you're hungry, and you want something hearty and tasty, go Polish!

Green Dragon

The Green Dragon

928 SE 9th Ave
Portland, OR
http://pdxgreendragon.com/ (Useless website)

I have got a lot of things to say about this place. One the whole, I've been disappointed by it. They have 20 taps for different beers, but there have been a few times when I visited this establishment where only four or five of the twenty taps have been on.








They are a brewery as well as a bar, they have been open for about nine months now and I have seen no word about their house beers. They distill spirits as well, and I've seen none of those either (I've heard through the grapevine that the permit to serve distilled spirits is tough to get, but the whole thing seems like bad planning to me.)

Their food is pretty unexciting; it seems like they're trying to do some fancy dishes when they don't have the kitchen to really execute them well.

I have had a few good beers there, and they change their tap list all the time, but I have never been blown away by their selection. When I go to beer bars that have 20 taps, there are usually three or four beers that I really want to try, but when I go here, for some reason, I can barely find one.

It isn't a very comfortable place. The place is really big, but it always seems kind of lonely in there. Sitting at the bar, I feel like someone is going to come up from behind me and beat me up or something, it's hard to explain.


























I haven't been to the Dragon for a few months now, so they may have started serving their own beer, but I don't really have a good reason to go, even thought it's a ten minute walk from my house.

The Final Word: Just because you have a lot of taps and you keep them rotating all the time doesn't mean you're good. A good beer bar needs to be constantly critical of their selection. Maybe a handful of really solid standard beers on tap isn't a bad idea.

Belmont Station

Belmont Station
4500 SE Stark St
Portland, OR 97215
http://www.belmont-station.com/


This is a quality place. They have a cafe with four taps, but the great part about this place is that it's also a beer store.

Connected to the cafe is a store with over 1000 beers. So, you can sit down, have a beer from one of the taps, and then get up, walk next door and pick a bottle you want to drink, carry it to the bar, and drink it.

It seems to be a really good method, because I have heard of other beer bars that have 1000+ beers, and their organization is horrible (Brickskellar??). Food is a little lacking, but there's no kitchen, just a few panini presses and a cold food case.

This place's purpose is not food, it's good beer. The first few times I came here I wasn't too impressed by their taps, but today, they had Cantillon's Lou Pepe Framboise, Batch 2 of the Signature Collaboration by Tomme Arthur (Port Brewing) & Dirk Naudts (De Proef), Fort George Coffee Girl Imperial Stout and Skagit River Scullers IPA. These are good beers, and the atmosphere in this place is definitely good for beer drinking.

With a nice neighborhood location, this is a very comfortable place to enjoy some very quality beers.

Voodoo Doughnut

Food: Doughnuts are good, if a little bit intense, but not so intense I can't eat them.

Physically getting a bite off of one of these was pretty difficult, especially the one with cocoa puffs on it. It's a regular glazed doughnut with cocoa puffs and peanut butter drizzled on top. It tasted awesome, but my mouth was tired after eating it.

The other one is a regular doughnut stick with maple frosting on top, with bacon. Awesome.

If you're looking for a classic doughnut, don't go here. But these crazy creations were quite tasty actually.

The Final Word: You can be crazy, but be careful, because it can easily be too much.

Bailey's Taproom

Bailey's Taproom
213 SW Broadway
Portland, OR 97205
http://www.baileystaproom.com/


Definitely one of my favorite bars in Portland. Which brings up an interesting issue with this blog: my biases. I like this place, and it's going to be hard for me to say that i'm unbiased, but i'm not writing this blog entirely for other people; i'm doing this for my own records.

I really like this place. I have gone there a bunch of times (around five), and I have gotten to be good friends with the owner; Jeff, and he is a great guy.

Beer: Always a great lineup. He has 20 taps, which are always on, which definitely makes me happy.

Food: is limited. He has a few different kinds of cheese, olives and chocolates. I haven't tried any of these things, but Jeff seems to be very picky about his product, so I feel like everything would be pretty good.

His pickyness works well with beer, because the beers on tap are always changing, which is really important for me. He usually has 20 different breweries on, which definitely makes me happy. I can always find something I want, but I wonder if that's because I like this place?

Final Thoughts:
Keeping 20 taps going cannot be easy, but when it's done right, it's definitely good.

Introduction

I have a feeling that most everyone that reads this was redirected from my other blog, but in case you weren't, check it out, Am I A Chef Yet?

Here's the breakdown:

The reason I am doing this:
I go to restaurants a lot. Maybe not the most of anyone I know, but I feel that I have been to enough restaurants to know that I have strong feelings about restaurants and bars. Also, I am going to culinary school so that maybe someday I can start my own restaurant.

I have a lot of ideas about restaurants and bars, and I want to keep track of them all, so someday I can refer back to this and say, "I really liked the tap lineup of Bailey's taproom, but that was 4 years ago, what exactly was that like?"

Here it is; my ideas on restaurants, bars, coffeeshops, and any other kind of establishment that serves you.