There's a new restaurant in Portland (Swank) next door to a new whiskey bar in Portland (Swine) and together they're Swank & Swine, at the Paramount Hotel downtown on Taylor between Park and Broadway. They opened a couple days ago and we've been looking forward to this place! The chef (Daniel Mondok) is a longtime favorite of ours (since the days of Sel Gris over on Hawthorne) so of course our hopes were high. (Spoiler: we were not disappointed.)
We got an early reservation for Saturday night and decided to check out Swine for a cocktail and a snack first before heading over to dinner. The cocktails were great, and the salt & pepper calamari was gone in less than a minute. Delicious!
I took no photos next door during dinner at all and that's because it was too good. The service was fantastic (Joseph!), the food was creative and delicious, and the wine pairings recommended were spot on.
We ordered (from the "One" category) a lamb tartare with smoked feta, a quail egg yolk (fabulous), and a sunflower "risotto" with some hearty glazed mushrooms — no arborio, only sunflowers — the texture was great.
From "Two" we had the Salad Lyonnaise (with a perfectly braised pork belly, frisee, and a sous vide duck egg), and the crispy sweetbreads, accompanied by an aebleskiver with an egg yolk inside and bacon-maple syrup. Seriously good.
From "Three" we had the hamachi with squid ink noodle and pho, and the beef bavette with smoked potatos and duck liver-roquefort butter. Holy crap. I think this might have been our favorite dish (closely followed by the crispy sweetbreads).
We're total fans of this place and hope you get a chance to try it. Swine, the whiskey bar, has a smaller menu with some of the same items (and they do a good happy hour from 3-6:30 if you want an early light dinner.
Yesterday (Sunday) after a much needed and really hard spinning class in the morning at Revocycle, we headed up to my mom's with the Traeger and a cooler full of goodies and had a little backyard barbeque. We made some smoked burgers with chorizo, bacon, blue cheese, garlic aioli, tomatoes, lettuce, and pickles on brioche buns, and a caprese salad with bufala and heirloom tomatoes (and basil from her garden), along with some festive orange Aperol spritzes. It was a really nice afternoon!
Tomorrow we'll head down to Champoeg with some family for some more local camping, cooking, and bike riding!
