Callaloo’s Caribbean Escape has closed. Drove past on my way to a church today (don’t ask), and it had that distinctly empty look. No details. Never made it ther myself, but they never seemed to be able to draw a crowd. Food? Location? I’m not sure why they didn’t make it. For me, I just never thought about going there.
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As I reported back in March, Tara Tulley, pastry chef at Park Kitchen, is leaving for Alaska. Now the rumor is that Heidi Weiser is replacing here. I’ve heard nothing but good comments about Heidi, most recently from Genoa. Speaking of Park Kitchen, try their fresh anchovies, or their Guancalie that had been marinated in miso for 7 days. One of the best things I’ve ever eaten.
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According to Kelly over at Willamette Week, Meriwether’s Restaurant is seating many of its patrons in the sunshine today after a one-alarm fire last night. It’s an inconvenience—but it could have been a disaster.
“They got pretty lucky,” Portland Fire Bureau public information officer Lt. Allen Oswalt said today, looking over the report of a “smoldering fire in the wall” of the Meriwether’s kitchen. Oswalt said the fire, which was called in by restaurant employees at 9:57 pm, was caused by long metal lag screws attaching a stove to the wall. The screws heated over time, and last night began to oxidize inside the wall.”
More details in the Willamette Week piece. Link no longer valid
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There has been a bit of news coverage about the graffiti and acid etching which has damaged some business at NE 30th and Killingsworth. Along with Cup and Saucer and some retail stores, I am told the Mexican restaurant Autentica, was also damaged. Replacing all the windows on businesses their size is a huge investment. It’s a good time to show these small business our support. Drop by for a cup of coffee, or a good meal.
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The long awaited Vesta Restaurant & Wine Bar has opened in Vancouver Washington. I get nervous crossing the border, so I figure Mr. MSG will have a review shortly. If anyone else makes it there, please fill us in. Until then, here’s the breathless press release in its entirety:
The food community has been talking about it for months. Fine dining – the likes of which grace New York, Paris and even Seattle – is now available in Vancouver, Wash. And the line-up on all fronts tops the charts.
Scotland-native Morris Fenton, Chef and owner of Vesta Restaurant & Wine Bar, scoured the region to pull together a team of culinary masters, top-notch servers, support staff and create a menu that redefines unique fare. The first food order Fenton placed for the restaurant included more than 70 key ingredients many of which are rare and hard to find.
From bitter chocolate braised rabbit with griottines (a brandy-soaked cherry) to pan cooked pheasant and Javanese Comet’s Tail peppered steak, creativity and flavor is in no short supply at Vesta. They say good things come in threes and choice abounds at the white-linen locale with lobster three ways (sautéed claw, risotto or tail meat strudel); duck three ways (prosciutto, braised leg and sautéed and roasted magret breast) and vegetarian trilogy (crispy grilled lasagna, white and brown rice Kalijira rice Vietnamese summer roll, and butternut squash and roasted chestnut ravioli).
“We created a menu that allows us to couple many of Europe’s common favorites with the Pacific Northwest’s freshest ingredients that will see changes daily,” said Fenton. “We’re working with local farmers and making everything from scratch in our kitchens to bring something new to southwest Washington and Portland-area diners.”
The experience at Vesta Restaurant & Wine Bar will be unlike most dining experiences in the local community. The rich, mahogany interior and fine dining décor brings regal dining to Vancouver at affordable prices. Lunch entrees will range from $8 to $12 and dinner entrees will range from $20 to $25. Sunday through Tuesday a four-course Prix Fixe menu is available for $24.
For Fenton the key will be quality and consistency. He, Chef de Cuisine Gwyn Manney or Sous Chef Zac Janssen, will personally review and finish every hot plate leaving the kitchen. To complete your experience try cheese personally selected by Maître Fromager Nathan Poppelreiter or a pastry dish prepared by Alison Murphy, gold medal pastry cook on the 2006 National Student Team.
“This is a fine dining experience – we want our guests to feel special from start to finish,” said Fenton.
Vesta Restaurant & Wine Bar is located at 14387 SE Mill Plain Blvd. Hours of operation are 11:30 – 2:30 (12:00 – 2:30 Saturday and Sunday) and 5:00 – 9:30 in the restaurant and until 10:00 on Friday and Saturday, later in the Lounge and Wine Bar. Visit vestarestaurant.net for specials and more information.
I had the pleasure of attending Vesta’s soft opening a few weeks ago, and the food was great. I had met Morris previously and I can say that he is very serious about taking food up a notch or two in the PDX area. Definitely worth checking out.
New York, Paris……Vancouver.
Silly Dude!
You can cross over, you just have to
blend in.
White socks, sandles,
natch.
1st shorts of the season
your trendsetting.
Flash photography
in the dining room,
local celeb!
Canadian euro’s (whatever) welcome!
Clark Co. – the fastest growing county in Oregon. I don’t blame him for setting up there instead of on this side of the Columbia.
Vesta – yes as Jeff stated,
So, Clark County is in now in Oregon? Awesome! Did they get rid of their sales tax too? Very witty Jeff – don’t think many readers caught that.
I hope it’s not true that Callaloo is not closed. I really liked the restaurant and the different type of food they served. The owners used to own Capitol Bistro and Coffehouse as well as Callaloo, but the Bistro staff told me that their location had been sold to another owner. Maybe this business was sold to keep Callaloo afloat? Maybe Callaloo was just closed on Easter Sunday?
I’d go check myself but I’m in Taipei for a while. :-|
Went by Callaloo today at around 1:30. The restaurant was closed, but I can’t remember if they were every open that early on the weekend anyway. I didn’t think to look at the standard business hours listed.
Everything is still in the space…. booze, trees, the awesome fans. I’ll be quite sad if this place has truly closed. While the food could be inconsistant, it was unique and quite good on average. I will miss the bar most of all. They had excellent drinks and were perfect on a hot day. Le sigh.
I drove past on Thursday night, and Callaloo was closed.
Drove by Callaloo the Friday before Easter. It was closed then. Too bad, very friendly owners.
Callaloo closed down, funds just weren’t there. It just didn’t do well with the local portland foodies.
the owners were cool. it was a husband and wife team the wife was awesome . but the husband kept her in the dark about things so it was destined to fail when neither were on the same page.
Callaloo just wasn’t meant to be. Needless to say it needed a lot more work than it had to stay successful.
all my friends worked there, that place just ended up having really bad mojo and it was good that it closed it’s doors.
I enjoyed all the dinners we had at Callaloo, too bad to see them closed down. I remember trying to explain to our friends what caul fat was, since one of the signature dishes was wrapped in it. (yum) The bar was great for painkillers and other perfect drinks. The bartenders were always right on top of things. But, I agree that it was sort of a niche menu and not everyone’s thing.
So, the husband kept the wife in the dark about the financial status of the business? Hmmm, doesn’t that sound familiar in a Hebb sort of way? I wonder if is a “guy thing”. (Suze Orman thinks so….she told me in person once at OPB that guys are always hiding financial issues from the wives.)