Beast

Last night we went to dinner at Beast with a few other couples from our church. It's one of our favorite restaurants in Portland. We went last year for Jeff's birthday, you can read more about that experience here. The food is absolutely amazing. The chef, Naomi Pomeroy, has been nominated for a 2010 James Beard Award. Last year she was one of Food and Wine's Top New Chefs of 2009. Her name is constantly popping up in magazines, blogs and TV shows.

We had such a fun time with everyone and can't wait to do it again.

The menu changes weekly and like I said before the food is amazing. Here is the menu from last night:

LEEK AND GREEN GARLIC SOUP
CARROT CREAM & ESPELETTE

CHARCUTERIE PLATE:
FOIE-GRAS BON-BON, SAUTERNES GELEÉ
STEAK TARTARE & QUAIL EGG TOAST
CHICKEN LIVER MOUSSE & PICKLED SHALLOT
BOUDIN NOIR & DUCK FAT APPLE PASTRY
CARLTON FARMS PORK SHOULDER RILLETTES

LOCAL QUAIL
STUFFED WITH KEN’S BRIOCHE, RABBIT LIVER,
RAMPS, MORELS & SPRING HERBS
WILTED FRISEE & SEARED FRENCH BREAKFAST RADISHES

GROUNDWORK FARMS SPRING GREENS
HALIBUT CHEEKS, ASPARAGUS & PARMESAN
BROWN BUTTER & 30 YEAR AGED BALSAMIC

~SELECTION OF STEVE’S CHEESE~
ANISE & FLEUR DE SEL SHORTBREAD
OREGON WILDFLOWER HONEY
POACHED APRICOTS & MARCONA ALMONDS

RHUBARB GALETTE
PISTACHIO ICE CREAM
CARAMEL SAUCE

Here are some pictures of Naomi Pomeroy and her restaurant Beast that I found from Google Images.

Charcuterie Plate

Beast

August 7th was Jeff's birthday, so to celebrate he wanted to go to a restaurant called Beast. The chef, Naomi Pomeroy, is from Jeff's hometown Corvallis, and she is one of the best new chefs in the country. She is also featured in this month's Food and Wine magazine.

The food was absolutely amazing. It was a six course meal and there were two different seatings, one at 6:00pm and the other at 8:45pm. The menu is a set menu that changes weekly and there are no substitutions. We made reservations for the 6:00pm seating. We started out with cream of summer corn soup with herb salsa verde and fried shallots. The soup was outstanding and the salsa verde gave a touch of brightness to the soulful soup. The second course was a sampler plate of house made pate's, steak tartare and foie-gras. The third course was a duck confit with a bean cassoulet with pork sausage and lamb shoulder with braised greens and cherry tomatoes. The duck was the star of the dish, but the cassoulet was exceptionally simple and tasty. The fourth course was a baby lettuce salad with apricot and brown butter vinaigrette with sheep's cheese and croutons. The dressing had a nice sweetness as a counterpoint to the earthy flavor of the sheep's cheese. The fifth course was a cheese plate with figs and candied hazelnuts. Finally, the dessert was a peach and amaretto mousse with blackberry sauce and pistachio praline whipped cream.

Not only was the food amazing, but the ambiance was equally impressive. While we were there, they were filming a pilot TV show for Food Network. It was fun to see all that went on to film the pilot, I don't think we were on TV, but we can't wait to watch it when it airs.

Beast has community seating and we met some very nice people at our table. We shared our table with the manager of Broder and his parents. They shared some great ideas for future food adventures here in Portland. That being said, we're looking forward to coming back to Beast many more times and making more great memories.

Here are some pictures from our fun night.

Jeff waiting for the door to open