Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Blueplate Lunch Counter; it's special!

I'd been hearing about Blueplate, Portland's retro soda-fountain style restaurant innumerable times. My friend Ron was raving about it a few weeks ago, telling me I had to go check it out. Now some people tell me that and I'm like "yeah, and didn't we have spaghetti sauce out of a jar the last time I was your house?" Well that's actually an exaggeration. Those who would commit such an act of culinary atrocity have long since been weeded out of my social network. Ron has a certain amount of credibility, so if he says it's so, it more than likely is. They do lunch only Monday-Friday and it's gotten all sorts of love in the local press, plus I had heard their chocolate malts were not to be missed. You throw a good choco-malt in front of me, I'm a fan for life! Turns out my friend DOR was on his way out of town to do some book research, so he was more than happy to accompany me.

You walk into Blue Plate, on the bottom floor of a downtown office building, and it really is like being transported back about 60 years. Tables run along the left wall, and a working soda fountain counter dominates the right side. They have all sorts of exotic...and not so...soda options. But come on, when a supposedly transcendent malt is available, you can keep the fizz. All the food is cooked to order, and the menu comprises a single sheet of paper that lists the two daily specials and their regular items, including much praised sliders that come two to a plate with a side of mashed potatoes. I actually like this simplicity. As much as I appreciate and regularly succumb to multiple temptations, I don't always want to have to make too many decisions. Here they make it easy. It was all done just right, and this spot is immediately on my regular stop-by list. Since you don't know Ron, let me tell you you need to get in....soon!
I had the meat-a-licious chili dog special. Look at it...do I even have to tell you how satisfied I was?!
DOR had the two sliders with bacon. Awesome! Every time he eats bacon it reminds me that I was the one who hand fed him the first piece of ham he ever ate. He apparently has gotten over his Jewish guilt!
Is that fucking picture perfect or what? That is what all other malts want to be when they grow up!!

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