Editor’s note: This week and next, we’re counting down our favorite new Portland restaurants of 2023, starting with our No. 10: Heavenly Creatures, an ethereal Northeast Broadway wine bar with restaurant-level ambitions.
When I think of Heavenly Creatures, I think less of the dark walnut shelves lined with hard-to-find wines, and more of the clean bar topped with fresh-cut bulbs and thick candles gathering wax that I first visited in spring. That day, the new Northeast Broadway wine shop and bar inside the old 180 Xurros space could have doubled for a Hollywood version of Heaven itself.
If it happened to be your last meal, the young yellowtail toast wouldn’t be a bad way to start, its slabs of tender fish draped over a smoky tonnato brightened with pickled onions and mustard seeds. Created by consulting chef Aaron Barnett (St. Jack) as a sort of slant rhyme on the lox bagels Heavenly Creatures owner Joel Gunderson used to bring him when the duo worked near each other on Northwest 23rd Avenue, it’s the dish I’ve ordered more than any other this year.
Now executed by chef Matt Mayer and his team, that toast and the potato chips with whipped camembert are the two must-orders, the latter defined by its pool of viscous, meniscus-defying liquid cheese dusted with dehydrated jalapeño. Elsewhere, you’ll find a menu of things you’re happy to order once (celery root and roasted maitakes tossed in a cool bagna cauda) and others you look forward to seeing again (grilled lamb ribs escabeche with apricot).
A painterly scene at the bar at Heavenly Creatures, a wine bar in Northeast Portland. November 27, 2023Beth Nakamura
Still, there’s no obligation to build a full meal here. Despite the restaurant-level ambitions, this remains a wine bar at heart, and nearly every glass I’ve tried — there are usually around 15, sometimes including a bottle or two found nowhere else in town — has been special in some way.
Some good French olives, the country pâté, the yellowtail toast (always the toast) and a glass or two of great wine set the stage for a heavenly evening.
What to know: Through the Coopers Hall brand, Gunderson and his team also manage the large space in back once home to Spanish restaurant Chesa.
What to eat: Picholine olives, country pâté, young yellowtail toast, potato chips and whipped camembert, whichever wine the deeply knowledgeable staff recommends.
Heavenly Creatures is open for dinner Monday-Saturday (with a small plates menu available on Friday-Saturday afternoons) at 2218 N.E. Broadway, heavenlycreaturespdx.com.
— Michael Russell; mrussell@oregonian.com