The September Hit List: Quaintrelle, De Noche, Langbaan, and More

This nighttime concept of La Fondita, the Republica restaurant family’s platos rotos hub, focuses on classic Mexican dishes from across the country, like sopes filled with frijoles charros and chanterelle in adobo; a duo of taquitos fritos, one filled with pork and another with potato atop lime crema and a drizzle of salsa negra; an ever-rotating mole del dia, tostadas layered with fresh kampachi and salsa tatemada, and more. Diners can experience the entire menu as a prix fixe in order to try a bit of everything.

This fun new cocktail bar opened at the beginning of the summer, next door to the city’s longest-standing porn theater. The End, from Hey Love co-owners Emily Mistell and Nicholas Musso, across-the-street Cat’s Paw owner Mickey Reyes, bartender Dylan Long, and chef Sam Smith, brings whimsy and quirk to Division’s restaurant row. Cocktails range from s’mores espresso martinis and melon ball Negronis to a hot wings-inspired Buffalo michelada and swirled pina colada and orange-pineapple slushies. Food comes from Smith, whose summertime, garage-hosted Cup Noodle pop-up makes its return. Options for the maxed-out instant noodles include a play on esquites, budae jigae, and “krab kurry” with Ota tofu and bamboo shoots.

Find more info here.

Langbaan, Portland’s back-room Thai tasting menu restaurant, continues its star turn with a late summer menu inspired by Thailand’s culinary history. Like all menus and iterations, dinner starts the same way, kicking off with two of the restaurant’s most iconic dishes: the cara cara orange and fish sauce caramel miang som, and the crispy, sweet, salty, coconutty kanom krok, made with Hokkaido scallop. The rest of the menu weaves through bright and punchy summertime dishes, like a watermelon and aged yellowfin tuna tartare, skirt steak with heirloom tomatoes, turmeric fried chicken with rice noodle and papaya salad, and a pineapple red curry with mussels and rapini. As usual, the restaurant’s 24 seats fill quickly, so make sure to reserve well in advance.

Taking up residence in Southeast Clinton’s former home to Florentine destination Burrasca, Quaintrelle has continued its fine-dining flair in a space that feels much more like home. The menu spans a range of options and levels of commitment, from à la carte to nine-course tasting menus. Dishes, regardless of menu choice, all remain ever-changing but always seasonal and always gorgeous. In the summer months, expect oysters delivered on a bed of shells mimicking tidepools, brightened with salsa cruda and mezcal; caviar paired with a soft egg and a dollop of Kewpie mayo; and a delicate rib eye served with a splash of bordelaise au poivre, a mound of Fourme d’Ambert, and seared little gems. Cocktails, too, remain as ephemeral as the changing seasons, built out with fresh fruit like nectarines and white peach; herbs, including burdock and shiso; and savory elements, like white shoyu and oil-cured olives.

A groovy, new pizza cart just opened at Southeast Portland’s growing Lil’ America pod. Helmed by queer couple Dais Fernandez and Julie Isaacson, the flower child-inspired menu offers a short-but-sweet take on the classic wood-fired pizza trend. Options range from classic margherita and soppressata, to more creative toppings like lemon zest ricotta and garlic confit, and fennel sausage and fig compote. Rounding out the menu, a duo of salads echo the pizza toppings — the arugula & friends pulls fig compote and arugula from a couple of pies.

Find more info here.

In the four-plus years it has been open, Matta has never stopped evolving. Now it’s found a new home at the new Lil’ Dame space, where many dishes will be informed by the produce grown at Mora Mora Farm, chef Richard Le’s de facto farm partnership, as he explores a new realm of Vietnamese-inspired farm-to-table cuisine. The first menu will be broken into two sections: “eat for fun” and “eat with rice,” the latter hosting several staples from the past, like thit ko, turmeric fish, and an updated take on his mom’s omelet, now renamed for dad. There’s a handful of salads, of course all scented with fish sauce, and an exciting crudo speckled with Phu Quoc peppercorns and fresh herbs. Eventually, brunch service may reappear, as will the neon green pandan buns that most often swaddled breakfast sandwiches and fish sauce-flecked burgers.

Named for the 1960s and ‘70s-era poster company, The Houston Blacklight is the Gado Gado and Oma’s Hideaway team’s third Portland endeavor, this time, a tongue-in-cheek, playful bar concept in the former Night Light Lounge space along Southeast Clinton. While still very much in menu development days, the bar is the first project from the Pisha-Duffly husband-wife team that steps away from the Southeast Asian inspo of its sister spots. Drinks take on the retro-fantasy of the ‘70s, with neon bright cocktails, highballs, slushies, and non-alcoholic sippers garnished with toy dinosaurs and umbrellas. Food also takes on a similar retro feel, with a side of Montreal inspiration, like French onion soup ramen, Rhode Island-style salt-and-pepper squid, shrimp cocktail (coming soon), mapo tofu gravy fries, and more.

Find more info here.

Sousòl, the subterranean bar underneath Kann, is the award-winning restaurant’s dark and moody twin. The cozy space, highlighted with Caribbean blue tile and plush hot pink velvet banquettes, is inspired by the cuisines of Haiti, Cuba, The Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Mexico, and beyond. While diners upstairs are treated to large, shareable plates and full-size entrees, downstairs around the rounded bar, you’ll want to order a round of Sousòl’s bar bites, like Trini-Chinese Chicken Wings, accra with fermented pepper remoulade, and the prawn cocktail with Creole cocktail sauce, to make a meal. While the food is delicious, the fun and bright drinks are the main event. Also drawing flavors from the Caribbean canon — in both alcoholic and non-alcoholic versions, each drink arrives in beautiful glassware, garnished with fruits, flowers, and flavored ice.

This downtown Portland coffee shop, housed in a vintage bus station, is worth a morning detour. The fantastic and creative menu, which pulls flavors from the Chinese and Korean canons, is delightfully indecision-inducing, as each drink on the list seems better and more enticing than one before. There’s the cloud cream mocha, which arrives as an airy hot chocolate-meets-coffee, and the earthy, iced black sesame latte with its Neapolitan-esque layers. Then there’s the refreshing and bubbly espresso tonic, paired with aromatic rosemary springs and orange slices and the coffee-free ssuk latte, infused with Korean mugwort. The cafe recently opened a new brick-and-mortar location near Pioneer Square, so you can take that indecision indoors when the rain returns.

Find more info here.

A longstanding pinxto and tapas bar alongside Northeast Alberta, Urdaneta has become known for its creative take on Iberian cuisine. The menu starts off with a host of pintxos, like the long-running gilda (now in its 2.0 version), a spherified olive with Cantabrian anchovy and boqueron, and housemade morcilla with quail egg and piquillo jam on toasted bread, before diving into two rounds of tapas. The smaller primeros options look like jamon y melon, txakoli-marinated hamachi crudo, and braised oxtail croquetas with bechamel and pimenton aioli, while larger dishes carry a bit more heft, like the grilled Spanish octopus with chorizo XO sauce and confit suckling pig with miso corn puree.