[From E+D, the Mercury's new Spring Eat & Drink Guide!]
PEANUT BUTTER PIE at Metro on Broadway. Cobb salad at Meier & Frank's Georgian Room. Fried calamari—and the Decemberists—at the Grand Avenue basement bar, the Rabbit Hole. These are just a few of the dishes and places that once defined the way Portlanders ate before we became the critical darlings of the New York Times. We were once just a casual dining town populated by pie shops and lunch counters. A hundred years ago, we were a town crazy about oysters and tamales, with parlors serving both all over downtown. And earlier than that, Portland's collective sweet tooth was sated by Hazelwood Creamery's strawberry ice creams and Swetland's Sweet Shop confections.
We were a cookies and crackers town. We were a chop suey town.
Portland has a long history of feeding its people with a unique combination of foods that both echo national trends and celebrate local bounty. To newcomers and outsiders, our food scene might seem like a flash in the pan, but we started catching the eye of big-city culinary critics way back in the '80s.