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.
