Caro Amico

I likes me some Italian food. The problem is that I haven't found a great many decent places in town for good Italian grub. Most places seem to go with a "more is better" mentality that doesn't always pan out.

We've covered Italian in the past here. Looking at the list of restaurants that have made the list, the only really noteworthy ones are the fairly expensive ones. Pastini Pasteria is actually pretty good, but otherwise there's really a lot of schlock out there.

We've also covered Caro Amico before, but that was related to their pizzas. We haven't had a sit-down meal there for awhile.

Which is part of what excited me about Wednesday. For Father's Day, we took my father-in-law to Caro Amico, which is one of his favorite old haunts. Unfortunately, we took my kids as well, which made it hard to really enjoy the atmosphere or to really get into the food. This review will suffer on that account.

The view from Caro Amico is nice. We were on the middle floor, which has a deck/patio area overlooking the sloping west side down to the river.



The third floor has a better view, but there was a private party up there and I didn't wish to disturb them to get you a photo.

I've recently been trying to count calories somewhat (believe-it-or-not, considering my lunch at BrunchBox today), so I tried to avoid pasta for dinner and stick with something a little less carb-o-riffic.

My wife and I split a chopped salad as an appetizer. Delicious. A green salad with a nice light vinaigrette, it also had bits of salami, olives, and provolone cheese. The full salad could easily feed three, and we left part of it untouched.

For dinner I went with the Steak Marsala. This isn't in my normal wheelhouse, since I generally like to stick with more traditional pasta dishes, but traditional pasta didn't fit as well into my current dietary scheme.

My dish was a flat-iron steak topped with mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes and garlic in a marsala sauch. It was served with some penne pasta in marinara, which I did take a couple of bites of.



(Sorry for how dark the picture is; my wife gets bent when I get all food-bloggy on her).

The meal ended up being very satisfying, even leaving half the pasta aside. The steak was well-prepared, and the flavors worked well together without any being over-powering. I drank a Lagunitas IPA with my meal, and it was fabulous.

For four adults and two kids the tab was about $112 (pre-tip), which wasn't too bad. Service was great, atmosphere was nice (to the extent that I could enjoy it); I'd continue to say that Caro Amico is among the top Italian places in town.

Mini-post: BrunchBox

Had lunch at BrunchBox today (SW Fifth and Stark). Which is to say that I stopped by, grabbed some food, and went back to the office to devour it.

I'm an avowed fan of the Youcanhascheeseburger, which is a cheeseburger that replaces the typical bun with a grilled cheese sandwich on each side of the patty. Total gut-bomb.

Today, though, in an attempt to impress my intern, I went a bit further, settling instead on the Redonkadonk Burger. This is the Youcanhascheeseburger taken to the extreme, tricked out with an egg, some ham, bacon, and a slice of Spam. It's $9.00, it is hideously large, and it is delightful.

The service at BrunchBox is always good, the food is consistently wonderful, the prices are (generally) very reasonable, and with a patch of sun floating around outside, the carts are a nice alternative.

Now to sleep off this heinous food coma...

Pinocchio Bar and Restaurant

Pinocchio Bar and Restaurant is located at 1005 SW Park Avenue. I ate there for the first time about four weeks ago with Rusty and our buddy Jose. Rusty was just about to have his second kid, so we all thought we should have lunch together before he wasn't available.

We started with the Calamari, which was amazingly light, crunchy and tasty. The consensus was that it was the best Calamari any of us have ever eaten. Rusty and I plan to take our wives there again for the Calamari, as they are big fans of the fried squid.

For my meal, I had the Vegetable Panini. It was a large, fresh and filling sandwich. A salad came with it that was as equally fresh. All in all, a satisfying meal with friends.

Masu

On Saturday, JLowe and I took our wives out for sushi at Masu, on the 400 block of SW 13th.

My wife and I had been one time previously, around Christmas time, and had found it to be worth a quick return. The reasons to go there are numerous.

First, the place is incredibly hip. I've yet to find a sushi place in town that I just can't stand, but with each one you get a different vibe. There's the usually-cramped Koji's type places, which are generally not very big but are bright and clean and spare in appointments. There's Kappaya, on Division, which has okay food but is essentially a dive to sit in. There's Yoko's in SE Portland on Gladstone, which is still one of my favorite places, which is dimly lit but really non-descript, in my opinion, if you're trying to define the style.

Masu is different from them all. The place is just south of the Pearl District, but has all the industrial-hip, low-light and big windows flare of all of my favorite places there.

Of course, the reason to go to these places is never so much the atmosphere, but instead is about the food. And, as sushi goes, Masu is currently 1a on my list (if Yoko's is 1) of the top places in town.

The servings at Masu are generally quite generous. Nigiri, as usual, comes in servings of two pieces per order. Rolls generally come in servings of 6-12 pieces, depending on what kind you get. They aren't inexpensive, but that said, they are worth what you pay. The fish is very good quality, the combinations in the rolls are creative, and there are a variety of interesting sauces that get worked into the rotation which provide some interesting variety you don't get at most places.

And they have a neat nigiri order of quail egg on fish egg, which is good for impressing the ladies.




And then bonus points to any place that has a future-tech hand-warmer in the restroom...



Masu is incredible. I'll be going back to Yoko's to see if a re-ranking is in order. And I'm interested in suggestions for other sushi places in town, so share your thoughts...

The Chart House

For New Year's Eve, we went to one of my favorite restaurants...the Chart House. My wife and I were joined by Rusty and his wife.

Our reservations were for 8:30 pm. Alas, we were not seated until about 10 pm. The place was packed, and it was New Year's Eve, so I wasn't too upset. That was the only down-side to the evening.

We started with two appetizers, the crab-stuffed mushrooms and the calamari. Both were delicous, and there was enough for four people (even after the 1 1/2 hour wait).

For dinner, my wife had the Macadamia Crusted Mahi Mahi (she always has the Macadamia Crusted Mahi Mahi). I opted for the swordfish, blackened. She loved her selection (that's why she always gets it). And, I must say, my swordfish was the best I have ever had, anywhere. It was blackened to perfection, and the swordfish was moist and tender.

For dessert, each couple ordered the Hot Chocolate Lava Cake. Here's the description from the menu: "Godiva Chocolate Liqueur, molten center, Dreyer's® vanilla ice cream, served with warm chocolate sauce and Heath Bar Crunch>" The shorter description would be "chocolate sin." If you are going to select this for dessert, and you really must order it, please be advised that you must order it when you order your dinner, as it takes 20 minutes, to prepare.

All in all, a wonderful evening and meal...good company, good food and a good view. The Chart House demonstrated once again why it remains in my top ten restaurants in Portland.

VistaSpring Cafe

Yay for payday!

My day went long today, and I was pleasantly surprised from a text from my wife recommending she pick me up from work (I biked in today) and take me to dinner. My kind of surprise.

The question, of course, was where to eat. I hate the question. The general rule is it gets asked, I throw out 3 or 4 locations that sound really good to me, and then we end up settling on Stanford's or Caro Amico (both of which have been discussed in this very blog). Not that either of these is bad, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

I threw out a Chinese food restaurant for my wife, figuring she'd bite. Nope. I didn't have the energy to try further, so then I threw out Stanford's. No dice. I even tried Concordia Ale House, figuring (since it's in JLowe's neck of the woods) that we could invite him and his wife. Again, no.

We were in the downtown area. My mind raced, and it settled upon an old standby. VistaSpring Cafe.

Vista Spring, per their menus, is now VistaSpring. The menus look different in form, but are the same in substance, which is a good thing. The restaurant itself is also exactly the same, too. So despite the new, trendy name, the place is the same old cozy place to have a bite.

VistaSpring Cafe is, as the name cleverly alludes, located on the intersection of SW Vista and Spring, on your way up from 23rd towards Council Crest. The menu is diverse, but generally contains some pastas, some salads, some sandwiches, and some pizzas (served both in a large format and in a personal size). You can't really go wrong in either category, and all are pretty reasonable priced.

The space is nice. There's an old, antique fan system hanging from the sealing, which does not appear to function but inspires great images in your mind of what it must have been like when it did. There are wood accents surrounding a pretty sparse space, where things are minimal in the good way and you end up feeling like you are in an elegant and trendy space, even if the money you pay isn't ritzy in itself.

My wife opted for a cup of the chicken tortilla soup, followed by the Southwest Chicken Salad. I was at a loss for what to order, and in a panic chose my standby item, the Reuben Sandwich. My daughter had the kids' menu spaghetti, which is around $3 and, as a warning, comes sans sauce.

I was pleased to find that I wasn't able to get my old standby beverage, Mirror Pond, or even the acceptable alternative, Stella Artois. Instead, I had to settle for Moretti, which means I was feeling pretty good about life.



The reuben itself has kraut, mayo, pastrami, and jarlsberg cheese. It's served on a light rye with kettle chips. And it is delicious. It's heavy enough that you know you've eaten a reuben, and still light enough that you don't feel like you pigged out.

I've had many of the other dishes there, and I've never felt wronged. The least impressive dish was the ravioli, but even that was good.

For two dinners, the cup of soup, the beer, a diet Coke and a kids spaghetti, we paid $32. Really not bad. The service was very friendly and very prompt, the food was quick, and we were able to get in and out without feeling rushed in about 45 minutes.

If you're in the SW foothills looking for food, definitely check out VistaSpring Cafe. You won't be disappointed.

Burgerville

I feel a bit bad writing this post. Really, JLowe is the resident Burgerville expert. And he has a regular Wednesday night date with Burgerville, whereas I simply manipulated my wife into letting me take us there as we were running late for a meeting last night.

So, JLowe, whereever you may be, please feel free to chime in on Burgerville in a separate post. In fact, here's a new rule: all three of us reserve the right to write our own posts on the same restaurants the others have already discussed. And we reserve the right to write new posts on places we've already written old posts on. However, if more than one of us goes someplace at the same time, only one of us will write up that particular visit.

Anyway, all that said, I went to Burgerville last night. Burgerville is, in my estimation, the best local burger franchise in Oregon, and one of the better burger franchises I've been to nationally, period. And apparently I'm not alone, as the Food Network recently awarded Burgerville with it's "Better Burger" award, whatever that means.

Burgerville offers much more than burgers, though. They have fish and chips (usually a little too greasy for my liking), a wide array of milkshakes (including seasonal ones based on current fresh fruits -- right now, it's strawberry), and exceptionally good fries. And, throughout the year, other things hop on and off of their menu (sweet potato fries, Walla Walla onion rings, the recent Yukon Gold criss-cut fries) as ideas and food staples become fresh and available.

Now, when I was more corpulent, my usual BV run consisted of either two cheeseburgers with extra onion and extra pickle, or one so-altered cheeseburger and the spicy black bean garden burger. And, sometimes, fries, although I've been pretty good about not ordering those for a few years now, since it's essentially a stick of oiled-up calories. I've decided I'm too old to be such a pig, so now I limit myself to one thing. And, generally, that means the spicy black bean garden burger.

The SBBGB has been on the menu at BV now for about 4 years. The inspiration is entirely unclear to me, except perhaps that Gardenburger is a local company and, generally, BV sticks with vendors from the Pacific NW. Though the genesis of the idea isn't apparent, the goodness of it is. The burger is spicy throughout, with the patty offering a hint of spiciness which is complemented and accentuated and amplified by a delicious chipolte-mayo spread and pepper jack cheese. Mmmm!

Last night's was spicier than most. And a little spread-ier than most (they always give extra spread if asked, but I never do, so when the extra shows up, it's a nice surprise). It was, without a doubt, the best one I've ever had.

My wife ordered the fries, so I had a few of hers (she only likes the stiff and crispy ones, while I'm far less picky). The oil was clean, the fries were salted just-enough, and they were fresh and hot.

The other major plus, for me, is free refills. I didn't get them last night, because we were driving through, but BV offers free refills inside, so if you can, stay there for a bit and order a small soda to take advantage of their generosity. They are also one of the few places that consistently offers caffeine-free Diet Coke (if that matters to you) and iced tea that's actually been brewed.

JLowe informed me that he'd had a milkshake. That's his own story to tell -- since we went to different locations last night, that's allowed. The punchline is that the shake that he drank, all for himself, was the one he'd bought for his wife. Priceless.

Burgerville. It's where you go when you know.

Caro Amico

There are many reasons to love our wives. From the various things to do to take care of us, to the various ways they make life easier, to the various surprises they throw our way. Tonight was such a night, where a pleasant surprise that could've been annoying ended up making me pretty happy.

In my experience, guys are often more free and easy food-wise than women. Most guys I know will go to any restaurant their significant other wants to go to, and most women I know eat by mood. Now, to be fair, there are certainly times I'm not in the mood for a type of food (usually it's Chinese that I'm not looking for), but in general even if I don't want to eat some type of food, I'll do it if my wife wants to bad enough, and I'll generally walk away happy.

In my home (I don't know how it is in yours), there's a nightly conversation that starts around 6pm. Usually my wife initiates it by saying "what should we have for dinner tonight?" Then the game is on. Usually I'll go through our fridge, freezer, and shelves first. So tonight, my first offer was to grill up some chicken and make up some barley; then to make up the homemade tamales we have in our freezer. After that, I offered to make grilled cheese and soup. And then the offerings dried up, because we need to go shopping.

So I started throwing out various choices. I could get rolled chicken tacos (one of my wife's favorite choices) from Trader Joe's. I could get take-out from a local restaurant. I even offered Chinese. No dice. "None of that sounds good to me, I'm not in the mood for that."

There's something she's always in the mood for, though, so I finally offered it. Pizza from Caro Amico. We've been to Caro Amico for a wide range of food. Their appetizer tray is superb. Their Caesar Salads are wonderful. Their pasta is good, their calzones quite tasty. And, if you eat there, the view out to the East is quite lovely.

But 9 times out of 10, if I'm darkening their doorstep, it's to pick up a pizza to take home. In fact, generally speaking any pizza served in our home is from there. And, generally speaking, we're eating the Stevie's Wonder with some black olives added.

The Stevie's Wonder is a thing of beauty. Take a thin-crust pizza, put sauce on it, then add cheese, pepperoni, garlic (and more garlic), and pepperoncinis. That, in and of itself, is lovely enough. The black olives are my wife's personal touch, and they push it over the edge from delightful to delectable.

It's pretty simple to place an order. Call the restaurant, order what you want, and show up about 20 minutes later. Go into the bar and let the bartender know you're there. He'll bring your food out and take care of your payment. And, half the time, he'll hand you a coupon towards your next pizza order.

Usually I try to show up about 12 minutes after my call-in, so that I have time to read the ever-present newspaper on the bar and drink a Stella Artois. The service is always prompt, and often there's someone in the bar who'll try to chat you up (tonight the guy next to me was reading a book, but last time I was there some out-of-towner was talking to me about his college football team, who was playing on the TV above).

There are a lot of great pizza places in town, and I don't mean to suggest the Caro Amico is the king. But for a very good quality pizza, at home or take out, and some nice environment while you wait (either way), you could do a hell of a lot worse.