Breakfast in Bridgetown

Stumptown Scribes is making an appearance tonight at First Thursday, so come on by and say hello. For more information, head over to my personal website, PaulGerald.com.

Just heard this sad news today. I never got around to eating the lamb (testicle) fries!

This Saturday, June 27, more than 40 local authors are gathering in West Linn for the first annual NW Book Festival. Authors will be speaking and signing books from 10 to 4, and admission is free. For more information, check out the festival’s home page.

I will be there, signing and selling all of my books, which are also available at BaconAndEggsPress.com.

I am not 100% sure this link will work, but today I sent out the latest issue of the Breakfast Bulletin, my more-or-less-monthly newsletter.

When I published Breakfast in Bridgetown, one of the places that had fallen by the wayside was Echo. In the time between my visit and the book being finished, the owners had a baby and decided to scrap the brunch.

Well, a few months ago, new owners came along, and they have brought back the brunch. The place seems to have changed very little, so here, with a few modifications, is what I wrote about a year ago. Brunch is served from 9 to 2 on weekends, and the menu is right here, on their website. Address is 2255 NE MLK Blvd.

Echo

Brick-and-wood charm . . . and people in pajamas.

503-460-3246

$10–14 (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, no checks)

When Echo first opened to rave newspaper reviews, the reaction always seemed to include a mild sense of surprise at where it’s located: “I hear that place is good — and it’s over there on MLK in that kind of (iffy/sketchy) neighborhood.” Not where you’d expect a fancy new restaurant, in other words.

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Back in early September, I got a delivery of some 2,000 books. It was a wall of boxes!

And today, I am shipping out the last of those boxes. Two thousand books in, 135 given away, 1,857 sold, and now … nine are left.

I just ordered 1,200 more, and will have them in about a month. Meanwhile, I am keeping these around on the long-shot chance that somebody actually orders one from the web store.

Finally made it to Papa Haydn for brunch today. I’ve gone past the two locations a thousand times, I bet. Seriously. I have lived in NW Portland, above 23rd, for a total of 5 years or more, so that’s 1,600+ days, and how many of those would I have driven down NW 23rd …

You’re probably the same. And you also probably know about the desserts. But did you know they serve Sunday brunch? No? Join the club. Most people don’t, and nobody has ever told me I should check it out. And you know why? Same reason as with O’Connor’s: it isn’t very good.

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Alright, just got in from my first trip to Belly, with three members of the Breakfast Crew. Don’t have much time, didn’t take notes, haven’t done much research online … so here we go.

As a place, it was exactly what I was in the mood for today. I got up early, felt refreshed, had coverage at the market in trade for a crash pad (hence free), dressed up a little, went to church for some singin’ and preachin’ … in short, a good morning, and I felt good about life in general.

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Folks often ask if I wrote anything negative about a place in my book. To this, I always say, “Kind of.” Porto Terra is an example — I simply said it was not good, because that’s true — and a couple places I said the food is bad but I don’t care (see Tosis). But more often I think of what I wrote about Cafe du Berry.

It’s not that I trashed the place. I even said the food was good. It’s just that my Snootiness Alarm went off, the prices seemed ridiculous, our waiter was rude, and I said at the time that only the French Toast would bring me back.

In fact, I submitted that chapter as a post on PortlandFoodandDrink.com, and as you can see here, some of the comments even got testy. And I confess I did get rather snarky. In short, my whole thing with the Cafe felt a little off, like nobody was getting along.

So I decided to go back. And I have to say, I now wonder what I was so worked up about.

Yes, it’s a little expensive. This morning, a Benedict, an order of French Toast, a side of bacon, and a coffee came to $32 before the tip. You can spend more than that, for sure, but the average price of breakfasts in the book was about $12 with tip, so $16 pre-tip is on the high end. Fine. They’re a French bistro in Southwest Portland. You’re warned.

Our waiter was fine, the food was fine (the hollandaise in particular), and this time the place came off a little more “creaky grandma’s house” than “snooty French place.” Hell, even the French toast wasn’t as good as I recall. It was good, but I didn’t want to run into the kitchen and hug whoever created it, like I did last time.

So it was another lesson for me, one that I need to keep hearing: Get over yourself, don’t be such a smart-ass, and just tell the people the simplest version of the truth. As such: Cafe du Berry is a popular, French-style bistro that’s on the high end of the local scale, serves pretty good food in a casual, old-timey feel, has a unique and tasty French toast, and otherwise isn’t really my kind of place.

Do with that as you will. And try the French toast sometime.

For years I have been meeting with the Fellas for breakfast at Fat City Cafe in Multnomah Village. If you have the book, you can read all about this in the Fat City chapter. Eventually, we moved up the street (and up the scale) to Marco’s. Heck, sometimes we even went to other neighborhoods!

I put both of those places in my breakfast book, and then the first place that bought copies from me was Annie Blooms Books, God bless ‘em. And when I went to deliver the books, I saw this other restaurant next door, O’Connors. Never noticed it before. So I walked in, and lo and behold, they serve breakfast! Hmmm. So I asked somebody there:

“How long have you been open?”

“Oh, 16 years.”

Yikes. I guess they have a place at 826 SW 2nd, as well. Since 1933. Ahem.

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