The March Hit List, Lunch Edition: Nacheaux, Huber’s Cafe, Stone Soup, and More

Sometimes, the oldies never stop being goodies. Tualatin’s four-year-old Ancestry Brewing sticks close to three pillars of beer tradition — American, English and Belgian — if you happen to be able to enjoy for lunch, with a lengthy list of choices that pair with practically any craving. Naturally, the food menu doesn’t stray too far from classics, with fried snacks to start, a duo of standard salads and an extensive menu of burgers and sandwiches perfect for balancing out a pint or two (or sixer to-go).

Dining status: Dine-in and takeout available.

A local favorite, best known for American standards and its excellent local beer list, Grain & Gristle has been a go-to spot for sandwiches, salads and their housemade charcuterie since opening in 2010. These days, with pandemic restrictions shortening menus, lunch (really, their dinner menu) begins at 1 p.m., with dishes like G&G’s classic Hawley Ranch burger, fish and chips, cauliflower steaks and other hearty winter warmers. Brunch still remains on weekends, with dishes that spotlight the best the Northwest has to offer in the chillier months: sockeye salmon eggs benedict, delicata-kalette breakfast bowls over spelt, fried brioche with apple-bourbon-bacon jam, and the always-good breakfast sandwich, here stacked on an English muffin with eggs, sausage, cheddar and jalapeño jam. 

Dining status: Dine-in, takeout and delivery available .

First established in 1879, Huber’s has been known for its roasted turkey sandwiches and dinners for nearly 150 years. The restaurant moved to its current home in 1910, and the brass rail-trimmed “Old Bar” is an original to the space (as well as on the National Register of Historic Places). Order pickup or delivery from the classic menu, which includes throwback favorites like crab cakes, shrimp Louie, Cobb salads, beef Stroganoff, and of course, roast turkey with all the trimmings. Those picking up can also add a host of boozy pairings, from bottles of wine and cans of beer to the restaurant’s famed Spanish coffee (served flame-free to-go) and $360 pours of Remy Martin Louis XIII. 

Dining status: Takeout and delivery available by calling 503-228-5686.

Southeast Portland’s Cartlandia’s Black-owned, Mexican-Cajun fusion cart from husband-wife duo Anthony and Stephanie Brown has been a hit since the cart first opened last March. Armed with a menu of inventive dishes, melding Stephanie’s Louisiana roots with Anthony’s L.A. upbringing, the couple have amassed a near cult-level Instagram following for their seafood-topped mac n’ cheeses, Cajun fried chicken, crunch wraps and more. And after barely a year of fried chicken burritos, Inglewood fry baskets and Doriteaux beignets (which is exactly what you hope it to be), the couple will be trading in the food cart for a more permanent home. Early this month, they’ll open alongside new bar and ice cream shop Blind Ox in the former Alameda Brewpub space along Northeast Fremont.

Dining status: Takeout available.

Only one thing longer days and warmer weather can mean: it’s almost (or already, depending on your mood) patio season. At Southeast Division’s Olympia Provisions Public House, the expansive patio is the place to soak up midday rays with a menu built as an homage to the Alpine butchery. Here, you’ll find all manner of cured, dried, and encased meats served on boards with house pickles, grain mustard, and bread, in sandwiches, on salads, dipped in Emmental fondue, on platters with potatoes and sauerkraut, and more. 

Dining status: Dine-in, takeout, and delivery available.

This long-awaited butcher shop-meets-restaurant finally opened earlier this year, after over 18 months of delays. Now that it’s open, cooks and diners alike will find something exciting to bring home, from locally raised rabbit and pork to Italian American dishes made with many of the same locally sourced meats.

Much of the meat itself comes from the eponymous farmer and butcher Austin Piccone, who runs Sandy-based farm Wallow & Root, and will be cut and cooked by a team with some of Portland’s biggest restaurant names (think Old Salt Marketplace and Ava Gene’s) on their resumes. Filling out the butcher and pantry side, Piccone’s will also sell meat from other local ranchers, house-cured charcuterie, sauces, flours, and more for perfect pantry stocking. At lunchtime, from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. daily, the shop will also run a sausage window for easy takeout grub. 

Dining status: Takeout available.

Fairly new to Montavilla’s burgeoning food scene is Sebastiano’s, a mom and pop Sicilian deli specializing in muffaletta sandwiches, housemade breads and sweets, and a Portland rarity: fresh cannoli filled to order. Besides the duo of lunchtime sandwiches — either stacked high with thin-sliced Olympia Provisions meats and cheese or marinated eggplant and house-pulled mozzarella, both on house-baked muffaletta rounds, of course — diners can also stock up their home pantries with an assortment of staples, from olive oils and housemade sauces to wines-by-the-bottle, veering heavily towards Sicily in origin, and salty snacks like olives and charcuterie. 

Dining status: Takeout available.

Some of the city’s best new sandwiches are coming out of this Cully neighborhood food cart. Sorbu Paninoteca, from Beast alum Chris Ericsen, is building a quartet of sandwiches, sides, specials, and desserts five days a week. The star of the menu might be the gorgeous porchetta, slow-roasted and served with pickled onions, salsa verde and anchovy mayo on housemade ciabatta with giardiniera, or maybe it’s the cinque e cinque, a coastal Tuscan sandwich made with grilled eggplant and a thin chickpea patty.

Specials, too, delight, like the gnudi bianchi, served simply with brown butter and sage pesto and a hearty minestrone with herb crostini. Like many restaurants right now, hours fall at the end of the week so make sure to plan ahead before visiting. 

Dining status: Takeout available

There’s something for everyone at downtown’s clean-eating and locally sourced Japanese restaurant. Meal preppers can order Naoko Tamura’s healthy frozen meal kits for next day pick-up, which range from New Year ozoni and chashu curry udon to snow crab potato croquette and yuzu shio chicken ramen.

Meantime, an assortment of bento, filled out with panko-fried wild prawn, wild salmon or yuzu kosho chicken, only require a few hours advance notice to order for tomorrow’s lunch or tonight’s dinner. And those who just need food now can order tonkatsu — either classic, drizzled with miso glaze or blanketed with Tillamook cheese — for delivery through Grubhub. Sake, wine and Champagne is also available for purchase, but must be picked up. 

Dining status: Takeout or delivery available. 

Use your meals to support a great cause. At this nonprofit food-service training program, your takeout and delivery orders help provide culinary and life skills training to people at risk of homelessness. Alongside preparing meals for people ordering takeout, Stone Soup PDX has also been managing meal production for new shelters in Multnomah County.

At the peak of the program, the nonprofit, alongside almost two dozen restaurant partners, were serving nearly 9,000 meals a week. While the menu is extremely small, each business day offers a combination of affordable chili, sandwiches, pasta bakes, and salads; those meals help support the nonprofit’s training programs and feeding those in need. 

Dining status: Takeout and delivery available.