It's the stereotypical "Why I Moved to Portland" story: An East Coaster visits town, preferably during summer, gets floored by the food and overall quality of life, then leaves, already crafting plans to relocate.
Only in this case, that person was Washington Post restaurant critic Tom Sietsema, who ate his way through Portland in June as part of his year-long, dozen-destination quest to find the best food city in America.
Today, we learned his decision: Portland was the surprise pick at No. 1.
"I didn't know where Portland would fall when I was eating with you," Sietsema said by phone Monday. "But pound-for-pound, it's the city I would want to move to if I didn't have my job here."
Sietsema isn't planning an imminent move west, but if he were, it would be to get another taste of Portland's coffee shops, bakeries, cocktails bars, farmer's markets and more. He stresses that the list doesn't just recognize restaurants, though those played a prominent role, but rather the totality of a food scene -- "the whole enchilada," as he puts it.
"I looked at things like creativity, tradition and community," Sietsema says. "Across the board, Portland scored really high on every level. I ate breakfast well there, I drank well there, I could shop for cookbooks," Sietsema said. "All the trends that people are doing across the country -- doughnuts, ice cream -- Portland surprised me by doing so well."
Sietsema singled out Portland's Southeast Asian restaurants, breakfast scene and grocery stores as particular highlights.
"You have really excellent examples of Thai, Spanish, even Italian," Sietsema said. "And then there's this quilt of quirk that goes over the city that I was just charmed by. And no one does breakfast as well as Portland."
Portland at No. 1 wasn't the only surprise. At the start of his research, Sietsema figured New York was a shoo-in for the top spot. Instead, it fell to No. 7.
"How could it not, with 200 cuisines represented and all the attention it gets?" Sietsema said. "But I think the important thing to have in mind is that a lot of the national media lives in New York, and they have a vested interest in promoting the city. New York just has more, not better. I found some egregious examples of what was called 'fine dining' there that were a huge rip off."
And, after leaving Seattle off the top 10 list entirely, Sietsema has been hearing from Emerald City boosters.
"I'm getting a lot of heat from Seattle, but it just wasn't their year, and I went there twice," he said. "Right now, I think Seattle would be 11th or 12th."
-- Michael Russell