Byways Cafe--Portland OR.

Located just up the street from the world-famous Powell's Books in Portland is Byways Cafe. The chef/owner of Blueplate recommended it for breakfast.

We actually didn't roll up until way into lunchtime. Luckily we got there about a half an hour before they closed. Byways is only open until 3pm most days and 2pm on Sundays.

We could tell it was pretty packed inside as we drove by looking for parking. Once we did park, we raced a group of nerdy teenagers to the door. Their youth and acne beat us to the last open booth, but they raced for nothing! A table opened up immediately.

Byways celebrates the classic American road trip and the "home-style cooking" you'd encounter along the way. The interior is decorated with vintage travel souvenirs: plates, mugs, maps, teaspoons--don't quote me on the teaspoons, though. I'm assuming. I know my mom collected souvenir teaspoons from locations we visited on family road trips.

Above the booths are display cases overflowing with souvenirs and knick-knacks--neat little pieces of Americana, placemats featuring cartoon cowboys riding jackalopes and offensive portrayals of Native Americans on just about everything else. I wish I had gotten a picture of some of these items...stupid teenagers.

The menu hits the high points of road food and diner breakfasts and since this is Portland, there had to be some homemade granola. Maybe we had been in Portland too long, because that granola sounded really good. We knew they were closing soon so we rushed through ordering. Looking at their menu online, there's a lot of stuff that just sounds amazing.

I ordered the blue corn pancakes, which were served with honey pecan butter. I've been craving good corn pancakes for a long while and I have been disappointed so often. This dish did not disappoint. The addition of the honey pecan butter really made these special.

I ordered only the pancakes so I would be sure to have plenty of room for the pie. As we took our seats, I spied a pie plate on the counter with only two slices left. Next to it a little sign said "Tart Pear Pie" (or was is Pear Tart Pie?). I told our waitress to set a piece aside for me.

Antoinette did go full-tilt Portland and ordered the granola. It was a freshly made batch and was quite good. It's hard for granola to really be awe-inspiring or to knock your socks off. This granola had a lot of nuts, which was nice. The biscuit was delicious. It completely blew away the biscuits we later had at Pine State Biscuits.

When we were done eating our breakfasts-for-lunch, I asked our waitress to bring me my slice of pie. "Oh, right. I hope we have some left." I almost FREAKED. OUT. I told you woman!

I didn't eat a lot of pie on Dinerwood Honeymoon because my belly was full of other sweets a lot of the time (taffy and salt licorice). I wanted my pie! My tart pear pie!

Lucky for me and our waitress there was a slice left. It was a good pie. It delivered what it promised--a tart pie made out of pears. Or a pie-sized pear tart. Either way, it was good.

Even though the food was good, it didn't overly impress us (save for the biscuit), but the feeling of the place really made it a highlight. We were on a road trip of sorts and were at a place celebrating the road trip, so maybe we were biased. We'll end up in Portland again someday and we'll definitely end up back at Byways.

Food: Good.

Service: Good, but forgetful.

Price: $8-$10.

Pie: Yes.

Byways Cafe

1212 N. Glisan St.

Portland OR 97209

Interesting aside: After we returned from the honeymoon, a coworker asked where we went. When I told her about Portland she said "Oh, there's this cute little place my husband and I used to go every time we were in town. The food is so good. It's called Byways Cafe."

Blueplate, Portland OR.

One of the places I desperately wanted to go while we were in Portland was Blueplate in downtown. The problem was that its normal hours weren't going to coincide with when were available to go eat. The Diner Gods smiled on us and made the weekend we were there the first weekend Blueplate was open for dinner service.



I knew it was a small place and I actually thought we might need reservations. It was only the second night of dinner service--I thought that was a big deal--but when we walked in things were very low-key. Then I remembered that this is Portland and Portland is a laid-back town. It was silly to think we would need reservations.

There were a few tables occupied and the counter was completely open. Antoinette and I took seats at the counter. Antoinette appreciated that each had its own step-stool to get up onto the seats. My wife is short.




It's almost a gimmick the way things are cooked at Blueplate. It's a tiny place without an actual kitchen. It's all done on this tiny cook top (supplemented by electric griddles during peak times). Out of necessity, the menu is about as small as the restaurant. It's all modern gourmet takes on classic comfort food: things like shepherds pie, sliders and meatloaf.

The special that night was a chicken and waffle sandwich.

Okay, this is going to sound just a little snobby but--I'm from LA, trick! Chicken and waffles is kind of played out, but I wanted to give it a shot.




Okay, this sandwich was bomb. Yep, I called it BOMB! It actually worked as a sandwich. I assumed it was going to be like a pancake sandwich which is never actually a sandwich. This had two savory waffles holding a delicious piece of chicken breast, lightly battered and fried--it could not have worked if it had been the least bit greasy--with shredded apple and a honey mustard sauce. Bomb, right?
The sandwich and the candied carrot side were phenomenal tasting.




Blueplate is known for its meatloaf so Antoinette had to order that. If she hadn't, I would have had to order that to take back to the hotel for later. Now, for the dinner that night, they were only serving the meatloaf sandwich as they didn't have any gravy. Antoinette didn't mind, she just wanted mashed potatoes and meatloaf. The meatloaf was very moist and delicious, and the potatoes were creamy and perfectly seasoned.



Along with the delicious food, Blueplate serves up homemade sodas and milkshakes. I ordered the R.P. McMurphy, named for Jack Nicholson's character in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.




I have a deep love for butterscotch and when you add to that some honey roasted peanuts and toffee covered cashews, it becomes heavenly.


We talked with the owner--who was also our cook--after we finished eating. We asked him to recommend some other places to eat in town. He said where he goes for breakfast was a little place called Byways Cafe. A review of this place is coming soon.


Blueplate completely lived up to my expectations. I do wish we had been able to make it there during the day, I would have loved to see it at the height of business at lunch. A full counter and tables I think would have made the atmosphere really pop. The next time we are in Portland, we'll make that happen.

Food: Great.
Price: $10-ish.
Service: Great.
Pie: Sadly, no.

Blueplate

308 SW Washington St
Portland, OR 97204
(503) 295-2583

On the Road: Portland and Vacouver's diners: Fat Dave's, Jam, and Stardust

Here's another long in the hopper, "On the Road" edition from my trip back in October.

After my long stint in Spokane, I crossed the state by plane,rented a car, and headed south to see my friend Greg (whom you may remember from the Joe's Diner review) in his new town of Vancouver, Washington. It sits right on the border with Portland, Oregon, also known as "the city that freeway planners forgot." I also took the opportunity to visit my old college friend, Amber. In a mere day and half down there, I hit three diner/breakfast joints.

First off, Amber took me to Fat Dave's Restaurant and Lounge. Apparently the place had just recently been upgraded from "dive" to "slightly musty." We rolled in about mid-afternoon and were just about the only people inside, aside from a regular, or at elast the kind of guy who looks like a "regular," be it at a lunch counter or a bar at last call.

I got the "Fat Dave's Special" which included 3 pancakes, 3 eggs, sausage, hash browns, and toast. Amber got the cheese omelette(picture lost to the hard drive ether), which included just about all the same sides.

The food was unremarkable for the most part. The hash browns were the stand out, being a thick mound of potatoes. Shredded at some point but then packed together tightly for their time on the griddle. It was still on Hash brown Road but pointed toward Latke Blvd.

The coffee was good, but an incredible oddpoint: you were only allowed one refill on sodas. Coffee is flowing like the mighty Mississippi, but soda levels are down to LA River measurements.

The best part of Fat Dave's is the stained glass window that adorns the dining room.

Says it all really.

Food: Unremarkable.

Service: In my notes I wrote "odd". I have since forgotten what was odd about it. So.. be warned.
Price: $6-10

Pie- Yes.

Fat Dave's
1511 NE 99 St.

Vancouver, WA

For dinner that night I hooked up with Greg and he took me to the Stardust Diner. Don't let the sign fool you. It is not called the "Blurry Something D-R." My camera phone is not kind to me at night.



Like San Diego's Studio Diner, Stardust is of the shiny metal variety. This place even decorates for desserts. The entire staff appeared to consist of teenagers. At first, this was a bit disconcerting on account of how shitty teenagers are at everything except screwing shit up. However, they proved to be highly intelligent and thorough food workers.

The only low point of the service was at one point they all seemed to disappear to go sing "Soulja Boy" in the kitchen. Jut out of frustration, I was about ready to Superman some hos myself.

I did really like that the Stardust Diner had its own newsletter.

I took a chance and ordered the Philly Cheesteak. Our waiter asked if we wanted to try their new curly fries. He was really excited about these curly fries. I opted in.

Greg had the bacon cheeseburger. Greg got the curly fries, too. The waiter was just too excited about these for us not to turn him down.

The food was only okay. Both of our meals felt overly heavy in our stomachs. So much so, that having after having opted in for the curly fries, we had to opt out of a dessert.

I felt bad because, as I stated earlier, they totally decorated for their desserts.

Food: Okay.
Service: Surprisingly friendly and efficient.
Price: 8-14
Pie: Yes.

Check out their website. Warning: rock and rolling from the get go. Turn your speakers down.
http://www.stardustdiner.biz/

1110 SE 10th Ave.
Vancouver, WA 98683

ETA: Stardust has since closed down. Bum news.

Jam on Hawthorne is probably known to most modern Diner aficionados. It was featured on the "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" show on Food Network.

This eclectic little breakfast joint is nestled in one of Portland's fine hip neighborhoods. Greg and I stopped in about mid-morning on my final day down on in the P-Land-O. (I just made that up. Can people start using it for Portland Oregon? I think that would be cool.)

Jam has a nice neighborhood vibe. I would say it's Portland's Square One, or rather Square One is L.A's Jam. Hipster clients mixed in with regular folks and soccer moms who just got out of their Pilates classes all gathered for breakfast here.

I had to break out of my current breakfast rut and try something new. No, no, no, nothing as drastic as a fruit cup or a bowl of granola--Close, though.

I ordered the VEGAN blueberry pancakes. WTF! OMG!! Vegan! Yes, I ordered them and ate them and they were good.

Greg got the famous Corned Beef Hash breakfast. This was not dog food. This was high-quality (so high-quality I want to put an accent mark somewhere on it) corned beef. Moist, but not mushy; salty, but not briny. It was m-f-ing, Campbells Mmm Mmmm Good!

This was a great way to end that leg of my trip.

Food: Excellent.

Service: Friendly.

Price: 7-13

Pie: Sadly, no.

2239 SE Hawthorne Blvd

Portland, OR 97214

Phone: (503) 234-4790