Death by Chocolate

Pix Patisserie
3901 N Williams Ave
Portland, OR 97227
503.282.6539

Erin: Upon returning home from my trip south Erik and I spent a nice quiet evening at Pix Patisserie. Just kidding. It wasn't quiet. Ashley and Noah joined us for an all night get out of town shake your ass birthday party. I of course ordered the Amelie- winner of the Patis France Chocolate Competition. Vanilla crème brûlée on top of glazed chocolate mousse with caramelized hazelnuts. Another dessert I really enjoy at Pix is Aphrodite- goddess of love. It's always a great choice.
I was originally introduced to Pix Patisserie by a chef friend of mine. He took me there, poked his nose around in the back kitchen for a while and told me that all of the chocolates were hand painted. He was really impressed so I don't know why you wouldn't be.
However, I do have one complaint about Pix. There is no death by chocolate. I am a girl who needs a real chocolate fix now and again. Pix is not the place for such fixes. They serve what I would describe as very well thought out dessert creations. If you want something horribly dark and fudgey that makes your limbs shake and your body plunge into a diabetic shock you will not find it here. Go to Applebees and order the molten lava chocolate cake. Or better yet just hold your head under the chocolate fountain at your best friend upcoming wedding. Pix is only serving the finest quality desserts. There is always a perfect balance of sweet and not sweet, smooth and crunchy, rich and beautiful.
Erik: It was a birthday party times two and the party was for Ashley and Erin.  We went to Pix for dessert and it was MY IDEA.  It is really weird when you walk in because there is a counter but apparently you aren't supposed to order at the counter. You're supposed to look at the items in the case and decide what you want then go sit down then the waitress brings you a menu and you look at that too and then you order. Weird right?  Not something I can't handle though, at least not after the first 1-2 times.  I'm not a big dessert guy, but the desserts here are pretty good. One time my parents brought me home an apple almond thing from this place and it was MAD THE BOMB. It was encrusted on the outside with almond slices like a dang armadillo. Apples and almonds are a great combination.  Chocolate is not as good, but it's ok. At the birthday thing that we're supposed to be talking about here I ordered the Menage-a-trois. Knew immediately I wanted it because of the name.  It was legit. I "paired it" as they say, with a chocolate stout. Double chocolate YUM.   Hppy Bifday you guys!!!!

Milo's City Cafe

Milo's City Cafe
1325 NE Broadway
Portland, OR 97232
503.288.MILO

Little Red Bike Cafe

Little Red Bike Cafe

4823 North Lombard St. (between Fiske and Jordan)
Portland, Oregon 97203
503.289.0120
Click HERE for directions
Read LRBC blog here: BLOG

Erin: A M A Z I N G! Erik has been promising to take me to this little cafe for about a year now. If I only would have known what I was missing I would have begged him to take me there a long time ago. I ordered a breakfast sandwich with egg, applewood bacon and apple butter and a side of fruity granola heaven. It was all VERY delicious. (I do not like raisins in my yogurt fruit bowl -my only complaint).
The cafe was full when we got there so we had to wait outside for a spell. The nice girl at the counter came out and turned a heater on for us and we drank hot tea. It was pleasant. Then we moved inside and got our food. I was on cloud nine. If you have been watching the show The Bachelor then you have heard that term used a lot... They don't know what they are talking about. Cloud nine is not a hot tub full of 10 beautiful women who are desperate to marry you. It is a breakfast sandwich at Little Red Bike Cafe with your best friend. That is cloud nine.
On our walk through the Pearl District later (I had to check my schedule and buy some paper for a menu I am designing) a couple of men stopped us and asked us where a great sandwich place was. We were far from LRBC so Erik pointed them in the direction of Fullers. I was convinced that the men recognized us from our food blog and knew that we would tell them a great place to eat. My guess is that they weren't even hungry they just wanted to talk to us. Ha? Yeah I know there are only like 5 readers right now... But I'm sure it will catch on.
Erik: Little Red Bike Cafe is so so real. Some of the chosen few like to call it LRBC. Some people like to say NoPo instead of North Portland. So be it. Back when I lived in NoPo I used to go to LRBC all the time. I used to sleep in, skip class, and then assuage my guilt with tea, maybe some coffee, and one-of-a-kind brain flipping delicious breakfast sandwiches. My roomates tell me that I make good breakfast sandwiches, but let me tell you my breakfast sandwiches (or B-Sans as some people like to call them) are pedestrian compared to LRBC's. They serve 'em up on a ciabatta, all have egg, and you can choose one with any number of insanely good meats, fake meats, cheeses, and aoilis. They serve all this with fruit that somehow manages to look as perfect as if Bob Ross painted them on my plate. No, actually not even Bob Ross could paint something more stunning, because as I think I mentioned before, this mess is so so real. Seriously, look at that fruit and yogurt bowl and try not to weep loudly with joy.

When a little piece of heaven like this falls into yr nieghborhood, it tends not to go unnoticed, so if you go you might have a little trouble finding somewhere to sit. Do not let this discourage you though, because you could eat an LRBC "B-San" with a horde of mongols charging at you and you would take no notice as you are swept away into a delicious mythical reality where anything is possible. What? Also, do not sleep on their lunch menu. It is almost as good. Almost. The tuna happens to be my favorite. I love this place, and now that I don't live in the nieghborhood anymore I miss it woefully like a long lost lover named "Sammy B'Sam." Come back to me baby.

The Doug Fir

The Doug Fir
830 East Burnside
Portland, Or 97214
503.231.WOOD

Erin: Ok apparently to work here, or even hang out here, you need to have black or very dark brown hair, straight across the forehead bangs and thick black eyeliner. You don't necessarily have to act all hardcore but you need to show others that you are giving that scenester look your best effort. What I lacked in hardcore style I made up for in hardcore eating. I ate mouthful after mouth watering mouthful of the Doug Fir's finest roasted garlic cloves. I loved it. I could not get enough of it. And while apologizing to Erik for what I would smell like later I continued to inhale the huge soft garlic cloves. The Mediterranean salad that they came in was good but oh the garlic. My prayers at night have never been so hardcore- Bless me that I might live to see another day filled with those beautiful roasted garlic cloves from the the Doug Fir. Amen
Also, I had never tried ginger beer before and now I am quite a huge fan.

Erik: I like the Doug Fir more for its atmosphere than its actual food. This isn't to say the food isn't good. I just really get down with the 50's hotel/diner/log cabin thing they've got going on. There is a giant glass moose head at one end of the bar. There's a fireplace that you can sit around. Not to mention the fact that there's a venue in the basement where I've seen some of my favorite bands. The Doug Fir is an all around solid bet. As Erin mentioned, some of the wait staff looks like they might give themselves edgy haircuts in their free time. Our waiter had braces though. It's hard to be hardcore and have braces. He was a friendly fellow.

The drinks and food are on the mostly decent to at times excellent scale. They've got the best cowboy coffee I've ever had. This night I ordered the Fred and Ginger, which was Dewars on the rocks served with a ginger beer. Can't go wrong with that combo. I had a burger with blue cheese and fries that isn't going to make me go buckwild anytime soon, but it got the job done. Erin had chunks of garlic in her pasta dish. She gave some to me and I ate them up wif my fries. You could roast 10 whole heads of garlic, load them into one of those t-shirt shooting guns they have at sporting events, and then shoot them bullet speed at my open mouth. I'm giving you permission to do that. Garlic=simple and effective way to get me to like whatever I'm being served. The next time someone is going buckwild and you leave in the blink of an eye, just be sure to make it up to them with a cowboy coffee from Doug Fir.

Chicken Rock Hands

mEAT cheese bread
1406 SE Stark Street
Portland Or
503.234.1700
Erin will write soon... I swear.

Erik: There was no cheese with my meat bread. My meat bread had bacon beets lettuce and aoli. This was presumably a twist on the "BLT." This sandwich that I had in front of me was not called "BLB,"* because that is just not fun. No one wants to be thought of as a plagiarizer. The taste was original however, and the bacon was hefty. The beets were cold, just as a tomato might be. Great sandwich alltogether. The only real criticism I had was that the bread was a bit chewy. It took me twice as long to eat my sandwich as it took Erin to eat hers. There is a difference between Toasty and Chewy. This bread was just a bit on the chewy side, which I suppose some people like. I jaw all day at work and that makes me tired enough. Soup was ordered as well, tomato basil soup. That’s a basic, and they didn't screw it up. Good job. Meat Cheese Bread is a really good place to get a sandwich, and a place with either a really stupid or really good name. I can't decide which.

*I've now realized the sandwich is in fact called the BLB, which I do not agree with.

Location

23 Hoyt
529 NW 23 and Hoyt
Portland, Oregon 97210
503.445.7400

Erin: If I were to compare this restaurant to an old boyfriend it would have to be Andrew. Andrew was great. He was beautiful, gave me a plant for my birthday and he silently counted all the sports he played on his fingers while no one was looking. I loved him (kind of). One night he told me he didn't want to see me anymore. It broke my heart. I cried. I tried to change his mind. I think I begged? Then I feigned ill. I fell over and told him I was dizzy and didn't feel well. He left. Then I ate a bunch of ice cream and started dating his friend Erik.
Much like Andrew- 23 Hoyt gave much and took little in return. The happy hour we partook of was inexpensive and filling. 23 Hoyt was beautifully decorated and meticulously located (I mean imagine if 23 Hoyt was located on 11th and Couch). The food was great. All the waitresses were attentive and the water glasses were never empty. My 23Hoyt Burger was delicious and the onion rings were awesome. As I felt our time was nearing an end I ordered squash raviolis just to push back the inevitable. The brown butter and sage sauce that I'm usually crazy about was good but not great. That's when I knew our time had run it's course. When we finally left I did feel dizzy and my stomach definitely hurt. Probably from all of the fried food. I will, however, always look back on those tempura mushrooms with fondness. Those were the good times. Mmmm. Yum. Ponzu sauce.
Lucky for me Moonstruck Chocolate Cafe was located just across the street. I was able to move on like every other warm blooded woman in this world- with chocolate. Maybe 23 Hoyt has a best friend....

Acadia Amazing

Acadia A New Orleans Bistro
1303 NE Fremont Street
Portland, OR
503.249.5001


Erin: First of all I have been out of town for a spell and I have been living on Wendy's french fries and chocolate Oreo frosties. When Erik and I started this blog we vowed to save our pennies when not eating out in Portland by eating crap fast food and ramen noodles. Poor idea. However, that is not to undermine the complements which I am about to abundantly bestow upon Acadia (a new orleans bistro) but to punctuate the beauty of this meal when compared to fast food for a week.
Having been a vegetarian for several years and just starting to eat meat in small amounts I tend to quickly look over a menu and pick out all of the vegetarian dishes first. If none of them sound good I usually go for something extreme like steak or beef. I know, I don't get it either? Anyway, the only vegetarian dish on this menu happened to be goat cheese gnocchi in brown butter with sage, butternut squash, pecans, pears and wilted arugula. YUM!! I didn't need to look at any of my other options. I could hardly order it fast enough. It was even better than I could have expected. So many great flavors all in one dish! I also happen to know that everyone at the table (5 in all) was exceedingly pleased with their dishes. Not one of us left the table without wiping our plate clean with the bread the waitress never ceased to bring by our table.
I also have to commend Acadia for serving the perfect portions. I was completely full and satisfied but not too full. I had room for the best part of the night, DESSERT! I ordered old fashioned buttermilk chocolate cake. And I ate it all! Not one person wanted a bite. I think it was all that talk about swine flu and germs that kept people honest. Not me- I ate off everyone's plate with no regard for my personal health all night long. Just like usual!


Erik: On Mondays at Acadia you can get a three course meal for 17 bucks. On Mondays I order the three course meal and everyone else is left in the dust. I ate a salad and some bread pudding AND an entrée, not in that particular order. Some people might say that they don't want to pay for greens. Well, I say to them: you can't get greens for free dummy. The salad was simple and fresh. I ate the salad first. Then came my entrée which was blackened catfish over mashed potatoes, tomatoes, and okra, all in a hollandaise sauce. The portion was medium/small, but wow did it fill me up. It was really good, I daresay as far as southern bistro food a lot better than the Montage. For me, a sign of a really well put together dish is if it has tomatoes in it and I like the tomatoes. This might not mean to you what it means to me but "I liked the tomatoes." They were small and cherry, and they popped! Love when that happens. The bread pudding was super-excellent and didn't have any raisins in it. Keep raisins away from me. There were five of us at this event and I got stressed out about splitting up the check. The waitress was so great about it, and I was relieved. I'm still stressed about the squealing noise my car is making though. Go to Acadia and eat.