LAURELHURST MARKET
3155 E. Burnside St.
503-206-3097
laurelhurstmarket.com
Lunch and dinner, daily
$$$
The steakhouse for people who find steakhouses boring, a place where tuxedo-clad theatrics melt away in favor of roots in Portland's independent restaurant scene.
The basic concept remains the same today as it did when Simpatica chefs Ben Dyer, Jason Owens and David Kreifels opened Laurelhurst Market eight years ago: present flavorful, relatively inexpensive cuts of beef such as culotte or hanger alongside creative starters, salads and sides.
On our most recent visit, only two steaks reached above $40, a dry-aged New York with blistered padron peppers and a house rib-eye with avocado puree and "cowboy candy"). That's penny-pincher pricing by most steakhouse standards.
Still, most people were ordering bavette steak frites or flat irons with smoked bearnaise sauce for $10 or $20 less. Under chef Ben Bettinger (Paley's Place, Beaker & Flask), the food is as direct as a Callaway drive into the fat of the fairway: Scallops are paired with similarly sized slices of boudin blanc and an egg yolk in a salty onion puree; clams come in an aggressively garlic-spiked smoked paprika broth.
Good steaks deserve good cocktails, and Laurelhurst Market delivers both modern classic such as the Smoke Signals, made with smoked ice and pecan syrup, and a handful of tropical, fruit-forward drinks from bar manager Eric Nelson (Shipwreck), including a Greyhound made with slowly melting grapefruit sorbet that crackles like pop rocks.
Don't miss: The smoked chicken sandwiches at Bettinger's pop-up, Big's Chicken, relocated to the Laurelhurst Market parking lot after the storefront was destroyed by fire.
-- Michael Russell