It’s about 9,000 miles from Portland, Oregon to Paris, France. A lot can be lost in those 9,000 miles, including the ability to cook classic French bistro food. There are many places in town that offer “authentic” bistro food, but so often, they are muddled with American tastes or clouded with the lack of skill.
The restaurants that offer “bistro” food in the classic sense, do offer some great French dishes that have many American tastes fused into them. This is not a bad thing at all, and the food items taste wonderful. The philosophy of bistro food, after all, is simplicity and the use of local ingredients. There are also so called “French” restaurants that try too hard to be French that they look like a theme restaurant at Disneyland. I can think of one such place so focused on being a French restaurant with the Tour Eiffel printed wall paper and the classic Art Nouveau framed posters on the wall, that they forget the main purpose of a French restaurant – The Food! I will not mention this place, because I do not believe in restaurant critics ruining the reputation and livelihood of someone because they did not like the restaurant. After all, the critic may have been there on a bad night.
A true French bistro, as one would find in Paris, does not have this cutesy theme feel to it. They usually are simple; pretty much always have a tile floor, very little décor but have a passion for the food. It is hard to find such a restaurant outside of France, let alone on the west coast. I found one such restaurant here in Portland, to my delight.
This restaurant is called Carafe (200 SW Market Street). It is right across the street from the Keller Auditorium, which makes it a wonderful place to have dinner before taking in a show. It is also a nice alternative to a higher priced Morton’s Steak House, located on the other side of the venue.
This lovely Bistro featured fine service and excellent Parisian styled bistro food. They have a very nice, yet concise, wine selection. They also have great aperitifs, including Ricard brand Pastis, a personal favorite.
Bread is offered before and during the meal. I believe they use Ken’s Artisan bread, which in my opinion is the best baguette in town, and the only baguette I have had outside of France that is like the great baguettes of Paris.
The wait staff was patient with my wife eating bread and drinking wine at the table while she waited 30 minutes for me to arrive. This was on a night of a show at the Keller. One would expect a higher table turnover on a night like this, yet they were perfectly accommodating and nice to us.
After I arrived and ordered a Ricard, my wife and I both decided to have the Steak Frites. We usually try to each have something different, but this was a cold winter night and we both felt like something rich and wonderful to keep us satisfied and warm. It is very hard to pass up on beef with fried potatoes on a night like that.
The dish arrived and we were both instantly delighted, just from appearances and aromas. The steak was a perfectly cooked (medium rare) hanger steak over home cut, double fried (the only way) French fries. The fries were perfectly crispy on the outside and soft in the middle. They had excellent flavor. The steak had an amazing beef flavor that was both clean and hardy. It had to be a premium steak that was well aged. This dish was served with a side of béarnaise sauce, which went wonderfully with the fries and steak.
After savoring our wonderful meals, we finished the nice half liter of Bordeaux and ordered dessert. We shared a wonderfully complex, rich and moist slice of chocolate cake. I finished with a nice little glass of eau de vie.
My wife and I are in our late 20s now, and being that we’ve been married for a while and now own a home, it is a rarity that we get to the city much for a night out. Evenings are usually spent taking care of the house, yard, garden, dog, rabbit and soon tending to the chickens. It was very nice to enjoy a wonderful evening together, sharing wonderful food in a great atmosphere that is Carafe. I highly recommend this restaurant to those who have extensively traveled France, and are missing some of the nostalgia that comes with traveling in France.
