News and Culture

A tasty double-punch of food news for Portland’s favorite charcuterie stop/dining hall/caterer/Sunday brunch mash-up. Simpatica announced they’re adding a Saturday brunch starting this week (9 am-2 pm Saturday, Jan. 3). What’s on the menu? “As usual, it’s very meat focused. House-cured pork Tasso steaks or smoked brisket should be on the menu on one of the days, possibly with some Hoppin’ John,” hints co-owner David Kreifels. “And pear banana pancakes.”

The Northwestern eats consortium also announced that they’re closing their longtime meat headquarters, Viande, inside Northwest 21st Avenue’s City Market as of tomorrow, Thursday, Jan. 1. No worries, it’ll be back later this spring when they open their new, top-secret, east-side restaurant-cum-butcher shop. “After much deep thought and soul searching, we have decided to consolidate our entire operation to the East side of the city,” co-owner Ben Dyer wrote Simpatica acolytes.

“We’ll be without butcher shop for a while. We’ll be doing all the meats for dinner and brunch out of Simpatica for a few months,” adds Kreifels. “For the outside person you won’t notice the difference. If you love coming to [Simpatica] brunches or dinners, the names and faces aren’t gonna change.

Northwest Portland meat junkies won’t be left in the cold, though. Butchers Paula Marcus and Eric Finley, two of Viande’s most trusted employees, are taking over the City Market space and rechristening it Chop effective immediately. Kreifels says the pair will tweak the space to make the Viande counter and offerings their own in the coming months.

2009 sounds tasty already.

Simpatica Dining Hall, 828 SE Ash St., 235-1600. Brunch 9 am-2 pm Saturday and Sunday. Reservations only available for parties of eight or more. Otherwise just grab a cup of Stumptown and enjoy the wait at the door. (Weekly dinners are reservation only, call or visit the website for reservations and menus.)

Image of Simpatica co-honchos Ben Dyer, David Kreifels and Jason Owens courtesy of simpaticacatering.com. Photography by Amy Ouellette and David Reamer.

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Tags: pig balls

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 at 11:25 am and is filed under Culture, Food & Drink. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.