Friday, April 19, 2019

Honeys Heart: April 2019

Writing full posts is hard so here's a quick and dirty list of places we are and aren't into this month. Maybe this will be a regular thing and maybe it won't!


Honeys Heart: 


Gin & Tonic at Freeland Spirits 


Seriously, what is not to love about this women-owned and run distillery? The design in on-point, the cocktails are tasty and they're now serving food. We've liked all the cocktails we've tried here, but our vote goes to their classic Gin & Tonic. 

Everything at Eem 


Like pretty much everyone in Portland, we are obsessed with Eem and it's commitment to "smoked meats and vacation drinks". Our favorite dishes so far are the White Curry with Brisket Burnt-Ends, the rice-filled sausage (apparently no longer on the menu?), and the Chopped BBQ Fried Rice. We'll also take any one of those cocktails. Pro tip: if you want your cocktail served in the puffer fish glass, all you have to do is ask. 

Saturday Happy Hour at Rosa Rosa in the Dossier Hotel



A good Saturday happy hour is hard to find so Kel and I were happy to stumble across Rosa Rosa's on our way to a dance show downtown. Served from 3-6pm and 10pm-close daily, the happy hour menu at this Vitaly Paley spot features well-priced small plates including kebabs, hummus and pita chips, and meatball sliders plus $4 beers and $6-8 wine and cocktails.

Katsu and Egg Salad Sandwich at Giraffe Goods


This quirky little Japanese deli is housed inside Cargo in SE. We were partial to the Katsu and Egg Salad Sandwich and Salmon Onigiri, but we need to go back and check out the bento boxes since they were mostly sold out when we arrived for a late lunch on a Sunday. 


Yeah, We'll Pass: 


The Vibe at Montesacro
Ugh this place. The same Saturday we hit up Rosa Rosa, we also swung by Montesacro to check out their Saturday happy hour. We were a little confused since their website lists happy hour as 4-6pm but Google Maps alerted us that the restaurant doesn't actually open until 5pm. We called ahead to check and received confirmation that happy hour was being served, so imagine our surprise when we walked in on what was clearly a pre-service staff meeting in a totally empty restaurant. Everyone scattered awkwardly to their stations and our bartender made no attempt to hide his annoyance that we were encroaching on his set-up time. Sorry, dude - it's not our fault we came to a restaurant we were told would be open! On top of the iffy service, the margarita "pinsa" was just mediocre, so we will not be back. 

Monday, December 31, 2018

Travel: Porto & Lisbon Highlights 2018

With one day left in 2018, seems like it's about time to recap the second half of our HHH Euro Trip: Portugal!


Europe Trip: Portugal Itinerary & Highlights


Day 5: Porto
  • Fly to Porto to meet up with Lauren (read her recap here)
  • Vinho verde at Base

Day 6: Porto

Day 7: Road Trip!

Day 8: Lisbon

Day 9: Lisbon
---

Our Porto AirBnB host greeted us with traditional Portuguese pastries, pasteis de nata. 


 A highlight of our time in Porto was sharing a bottle of vinho verde at Base.



Good thing we're from Portland and didn't mind a little rain during our bike tour along the Douro. 


Walking the town wall in Obidos, the first stop on our day-long roadtrip from Porto to Lisbon.


We ate A LOT of seafood in Portugal and this lunch at Taberna do Ganhao in Baleal was one of our favorite meals. 


We didn't make it to Sintra in time to tour any of the grounds but we did get this quick peek at Pena Palace. 


The wait to get into Cervejaria Ramiro on our first in Lisbon was no joke (we weren't seated until after midnight) but this was another of our favorite meals.


We had a blast on Sightseeing Lisbon's street art tour.


Until next time, Lisbon!


Thursday, November 29, 2018

Portland Restaurant: Hey Love (and a quick throwback)

What: Hey Love and Elephants (again) 
Where: E Burnside 
When: 5pm - 2am
Honeys Heart: Decor and cocktails

In between Katie coaching dance, me trying to figure out this whole dating thing, and us kindly inviting Doug to join us when we go places he wants to try too, Katie and I still try to prioritize checking out new bars and restaurants just the two of us. Recently we decided it would be fun to do a "back in time" bar crawl where we started somewhere we might like to go now, as mature 30-something year olds, and travel back in time through the night to places we frequented in our 20's (aka only places in NW).

Our list included Elephants, a toast to The Gypsy (from Muu-Muu's), Vault, and Life of Riley. Disclaimer: we did not make it to all of these places.

Image may contain: 3 people, people smiling
Elephants circa 2014- those are the strongest drinks of all time

To begin, we checked out a recently opened restaurant/bar called Hey Love in the newly-built Jupiter Hotel addition. With its tropical vibe and elevated tiki-style drinks, it was a great start to the debauchery to follow.


Hey Love's description of itself: "a community meeting hall, an afternoon study spot, an exceptional cocktail lounge, a hidden garden, and a house party - all wrapped into one." And to be fair, we met there, studied the menu, drank cocktails, commented on the plant-life, and returned at 1am to a wedding party and a DJ playing old-timey jams without a dance floor. We liked the vibe. 


Our bartender, a friendly woman with bright red hair, big earrings, and a colorful top, offered a warm greeting and suggestions of her favorite cocktails. We started with the Companion Fare ($11) and one of two rum slushy options. The one below featured strawberry and some fresh citrus and while both slushies were delicious (obvs we had to try both), they aren't sustainable additions to our daily drink repertoire as they lean a little sweet.


Recognizing that we had plenty of drinking ahead of us, we decided to try some of the tropical-inspired comfort foods. The Macaroni & Cheese Pie ($7) was an obvious choice for us and was made even more satisfying with wagon wheel pasta and the accompanying sauce.


After another round of cocktails, we ordered the pork cheek sliders to be safe. Good, but I don't think about them like I think about the mac. 


We wrapped things up, saying again "oh my gosh, we just love this place" and requested a Lyft to Elephants.

You might remember our first ever Elephant's post in April of 2009 where we raved about their incredibly cheap happy hour, then in October of 2009 when I explained my preference in bartender (sorry bartender Kelly), then in 2010 when Katie and I were SO funny and Kelly and Steve chased us out of the restaurant, then in 2011 when we copied their three citrus margarita recipe (we'd seen it made a few times)... and that's probably not every time they were mentioned. Point is, this stop was a MUST.


On our way there, we debated whether or not we would stay if bartender Kelly wasn't bartending. We decided we'd skip it since it just wouldn't feel the same without his adoration of us. As we walked up to the door, Katie saw him through the glass and immediately goes, "oh shit." We walk in, a bit enthusiastically, and from behind the bar we hear "oh shit." Bartender Kelly shared our sentiment, and probably a little bit of fear, of where this night was going.

We had a couple real strong cocktails and for old times sake, I put the bar stools up.


We left here to have shots at Muu Muu's and toast to The Gypsy's old location, now home to a new building full of retail space and apartments. Then went to Low Brow for lemon drops and went in very drunk search of somewhere to dance. We failed. As you can imagine the night went downhill and we should let the past live fondly in our memories.

Wednesday, November 21, 2018

Portland Restaurant & Wine Bar: Park Avenue Fine Wines

Where: 626 SW Park Avenue, Portland 
When: Spatzle & Speck caters Tuesday - Saturday from 2 - 9pm (the shop has other hours)

First of all, if you find that you highly value our content and opinions (and if you really do, maybe reflect on that...), you should follow us on Instagram for more regular, but still mostly irregular, updates. You can find us at @happyhourhoneyspdx

It's been four months so I'm sure you're dying for an update. Good news: our throuple is going strong (the throuple being Katie, her husband Doug, and me). Don't get confused, it's not romantic, but it makes me feel better than referring to myself as their "third wheel" on many, many a date. 

Us at a rooftop movie this summer

Recently I joined Katie and Doug at The Color Purple at Portland Center Stage and we decided to check out Park Avenue Fine Wines prior. Karl Holl, chef of Spatzle & Speck cooks up delicious eats there Tuesday through Saturday, and we knew he wouldn't disappoint. I had been last winter before a writing class and was angling for a reason to return, plus Karl caters my cousin's member events at L'Angolo and Portland Monthly named him their chef of the year...


We started with a bottle of wine (not pictured) that was a good deal for the three of us and, as I recall, tasty. They have wine by the glass and featured wines, but you can also get any wine in the wine shop. We told our server what we were hoping to spend and let her make the call. 

For food, we started with Oregon bay shrimp ($9) with hazelnuts, sultana, and a rustic baguette, which I was a little hesitant on. I don't usually like bay shrimp or raisins and the combination wasn't necessarily calling to me, but as in all relationships, you compromise. And sometimes you find out you do like something! 


Their menu is fresh, seasonal, and often changing so this particular burrato/tomato combo isn't on there right now, but it was fresh and light. Also, everything was so pretty, it was just nice to have it arrive at the table.


Next up, a more predictable crowd pleaser, Tempura Vegetables ($14) with their garden ranch dip and dusted with smoke parmigiano reggiano. 


We ended with the 100 Layer Lasagna ($21) with wild mushrooms, ricotta, fonduta, winter truffles, and more parmigiano reggiano (do you see it there?). It was delicate and silky, and I'm glad we tried it. There are other pastas and vegetable dishes that I would try next time before having this again, but don't get me wrong, if anyone ever just set this in front of me, I would thank them. 


Overall a lovely fall evening that I would highly encourage you to replicate. It's fine, we like to be copied. Next up on the blog: Katie and I go from the present to the past and remember why we like the present.