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food + drink<br />
BEST PLACES FOR<br />
FALL FORAGING<br />
SOKOL BLOSSER<br />
Not just a pretty patio for sipping and soaking in<br />
valley views, the Sokol Blosser family’s esteemed<br />
Dundee Hills winery is home to one of the finest<br />
kitchens in the Willamette Valley. When executive<br />
chef Henry Kibit isn’t dishing up savory parsley root<br />
custard topped with salmon roe and licorice fern and<br />
slabs of tender brisket over fried wild nettles, he’s<br />
roaming the miner’s lettuce and morel-strewn hills<br />
behind the vineyard, collecting seasonal treasures<br />
to incorporate into the six-course Farm & Forage<br />
wine pairing luncheons he serves in an intimate, sunsplashed<br />
space behind the tasting room.<br />
5000 NE SOKOL BLOSSER LN.<br />
DAYTON<br />
sokolblosser.com<br />
RACK & CLOTH<br />
Exit I-84 onto the Historic Columbia River Highway<br />
just east of Hood River and mosey into tiny Mosier,<br />
an unexpected treasure trove of antique shops,<br />
cideries and this charming farm-to-table restaurant,<br />
taproom and market. Taste husband-wife team Silas<br />
Bleakley and Kristina Nance’s handcrafted smallbatch<br />
hard ciders made with apples from their nearby<br />
farm, pick up a dozen eggs or stay for a wood-fired<br />
pizza topped with heirloom tomatoes, sweet corn<br />
and basil. Don’t leave without an armful of fresh-cut<br />
flowers, just-picked stone fruit and garden greens, or<br />
ask about buying shares of the farm’s pasture-raised<br />
pork and lamb.<br />
1104 1ST AVE.<br />
MOSIER<br />
rackandcloth.com<br />
RESTAURANT BECK<br />
Renowned for both his impeccable plating and deep<br />
commitment to local and foraged ingredients, James<br />
Beard Award-nominated chef Justin Wills serves some<br />
of the most intriguing food on the Oregon Coast, with<br />
a side of spectacularly scenic Whale Cove views from<br />
the light-filled dining room tucked inside luxurious<br />
Whale Cove Inn. As the compressed cucumber and<br />
mint sorbet of summer make way for fall fare, expect<br />
celery root macarons, roasted cauliflower panna cotta<br />
and foie gras, lettuce and tomato (FLT) sandwiches.<br />
Opt for the wine pairing with your chef’s tasting menu,<br />
or a bottle of Brick House Vineyards pinot noir—<br />
co-owner and sommelier Stormee Wills curates an<br />
Oregon Wine Board award-winning list that devotes<br />
plenty of space to Oregon vintages, at a very nice price.<br />
2345 US-101<br />
DEPOE BAY<br />
restaurantbeck.com<br />
Alan Weiner Photography<br />
Dining<br />
OK Omens<br />
written by Jen Stevenson<br />
NO LONGER Café Castagna, but still Castagna’s café, this lively new Ladd’s<br />
Addition wine bar retains the same sleek look (and beloved patio) as its<br />
predecessor, while debuting a playfully scholarly natural-wine-centric list to<br />
pair with James Beard Award-nominated Castagna chef Justin Woodward’s<br />
simple but superlative new bistro menu. Settle in for a late summer evening<br />
at one of the garden-side tables, inches from fragrant plumes of fresh mint<br />
and lemon verbena, and enlist the help of spirited sommelier Brent Braun,<br />
who won’t steer you wrong on the perfect bottle to go with Woodward’s<br />
burnt-beet-topped steak tartare, grilled squid with chicory and Thai basil,<br />
and buttermilk fried chicken with spicy greens and hot sour cream. Like<br />
the savory offerings, desserts are often twists on dishes served next door as<br />
part of Woodward’s modernist tasting menus. They shouldn’t be missed,<br />
particularly the Pacojet-pureed concoction of housemade chocolate sable<br />
cookies, heavy cream and macerated Oregon strawberries, splashed with a<br />
balsamic vinegar reduction, dusted with sable crumbs and aptly described<br />
on the menu as “kinda like a Blizzard.” Those concerned about the fate of<br />
the famous Café Castagna burger may have mixed feelings about its new<br />
incarnation, but it’s hard not to love a slab of beef slathered in smoked<br />
beef fat remoulade. If lingering over after-dinner drinks, sip the Scissors &<br />
Sidewalks, a light, effervescent, dangerously drinkable mix of Pineau des<br />
Charentes, Dolin blanc vermouth and lemon. Stay long enough (the wine<br />
bar’s open daily until midnight), and you might just end up joining one of<br />
the bar staff’s impromptu late-night dance parties.<br />
1758 SE HAWTHORNE BLVD.<br />
PORTLAND<br />
okomens.com<br />
OK Omen’s beignets are filled with Tillamook cheddar.<br />
34 <strong>1859</strong> OREGON’S MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER <strong>2018</strong>
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