PDX: Doing the Brunch Thing at Tasty N Sons

“Why is brunch so popular in Portland? Why isn’t happy hour popular?” I hazarded a guess it had to do with the implication happy hour is for the hapless cube monkeys who need release after a day at the grind. While hipsters don’t have jobs. Or something like that. Whatever the reason, brunch is king in Portland. And our choice for our last full day in PDX was a visit to Tasty N Sons.

We immediately ordered a round of biscuits and Bloody Marys. They have a separate menu. While nothing as crazy as the Bloody Royale came out, I was pretty happy with my rye bloody called the Lady Vengeance that was made with fish sauce and topped with kimchi.

I love biscuits. Tasty’s were larger and flatter than ones I’m used to but it was still pretty fluffy. I added a tiny bit of butter and jam and it was ready to go. Some thought the butter may have been flavored or partially whipped with bacon fat but I think some people may have tasted that since our other starter was the roasted apple with bacon lardons. I didn’t taste anything unusual about the butter.

I hadn’t seen anything like a roasted apple before for a breakfast or brunch menu. I found it very interesting since it was tapped with cheddar and the aforementioned bacon lardons. It was a bit like eating apple pie without the crust. I know some like to top their apple pies with cheese.

We know we were in Portland because each of us ordered a dish topped with an egg or two. And that was not a bad thing. I had to have the corned beef hash. I expected a bit more corned beef. It was mostly potatoes. However, I liked the egg on this best as it was fried a little bit more than the others.

 

With the polenta and sausage ragu, I wanted some sort of textural crunch to balance creamy polenta. True, it was still a bit gritty but this would be even better topped with a sprinkling of green onions or try this on for size- chicharones! A little fried pork skin never hurt anyone.

As mentioned I got the Lady Vengeance to drink. The rye Bloody Mary is made with Old Overhold, tomato, fish sauce, kimchi juice, lime and Korean chili salt.

I also enjoyed the Belladonna (Krogstad aquavit, tomato, red bell pepper, lemon, Calabrian chili, olives) and the Dim Summore (vodka, tomato, hoisin, lime, sriracha, ginger). We could have made them Tasty Jerk which includes house made beef jerky for a buck more. Or you can go Midwestern and add a beer back for also another $1.

Shashuka was described as a red pepper and tomato stew. You had the option of adding mergeuz sausage but it seemed we had enough protein already considering the two baked eggs. I liked the sauce over the rice from the Burmese red pork stew.

 

My favorite dish was the Burmese red pork stew. The pork was very tender and flavorful.  It wasn’t really a stew since it was relatively dry and the rice benefited from the sauce of the Shashuka. This dish was topped with fried egg and also had chopped seasoned hard boiled eggs.

There’s a Tasty N Alder closer to our hotel but we opted to go to Tasty N Sons because it was the original. Perhaps next time I’ll try the Alder location to get a sense of it. Either way, I know I’ll do brunch again in Portland.

 

Tasty N Sons

3808 N Williams Ave, Ste C, Portland, OR 97212  —  (503) 621-1400

© The Minty 2013