Where is Portland?
The May issue of Travel + Leisure just hit the stands and the feature story is on the 50 Best New Restaurants in the U.S. (http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/50-best-new-us-restaurants-2009)
The primary themes: affordability, seasonality and connectivity. While some of the highlighted venues are high on the swanky Richter scale, the majority were friendly neighborhood joints with limited seating and small inventive menus featuring local artisan ingredients at fair prices.
To my disappointment, Portland’s representation was negligible. T+L’s one Rose City selection? Beast, (http://www.beastpdx.com/about/) Naomi Pomeroy’s meat-lovers oasis in the city’s Northeast quadrant.
Meanwhile, after several years of (relative) culinary obscurity, Seattle seems to have reclaimed its title as the Pacific Northwest dining destination, snagging seven positions on the coveted list. Featured restaurants include: Quinn’s, Pike Street Fish Fry, Spring Hill, Joule, How to Cook a Wolf, Poppy and Corson Building.
Is Portland’s run as the darling of the national food media over? Or like Seattle, is it our turn to slide into the back seat for a while?
What do you think? Email me at kristen@lanepr.com