Every Sunday my friend Ty and I try to get together for brunch. I say "try" because often I sleep through his Sunday morning phone call and brunch doesn't happen.
We've tried to start making plans the night before to prevent this from happening. Last Saturday night we planned to meet at 10:00am for Sunday Brunch at Mother's Bistro & Bar - I haven't been, but I run by a couple times a week and it looks interesting. Mother's looks adorable from the outside, kind of country kitchen decor, with contrasting huge crystal chandeliers.
Unfortunately, our plans to brunch at Mother's were thwarted by the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. It was sprinkling, so I decided to drive the .6 miles to Mother's. What should have taken me 5 minutes took.. well.. forever. After 24 minutes of trying to get to Mother's I was beyond frustrated (the Race for the Cure is a GREAT cause, however the people doing traffic control were AWFUL and at one time were directing people the wrong way down a one way street). I was about to text Ty and tell him never mind (it wouldn't REALLY be texting and driving, I was pretty much parked in the street at this point), when my phone rang - he was experiencing the same awful traffic, so we decided to meet up at Irving St Kitchen instead.
We usually forgo Irving St Kitchen in favor of somewhere less popular, as sometimes the wait can be too long for our impatient personalities. Fortunately it seems that the usual brunch crowd was also tied up in traffic, we were able to walk in and get a table at 10:30 without a wait, and there were very few other diners in the restaurant.
Bloody Marys were served quickly and were just the right amount of spicy.
Not the best Bloody Mary I've had in Portland, but it's certainly high on the list.
By the time we ordered I wasn't really in the mood for brunch-y food anymore, so I ordered a sandwich, and Ty got the same thing he gets at every restaurant (that has it on the menu), chicken and waffles.
My Slow Roasted Porchetta Sandwich was lovely. It featured porchetta, provolone, and bread and butter pickles. As well as herbed fries served with what I assume was a garlic aioli. The sandwich was delicious, but the porchetta was too heavy and greasy for so early in the morning (I knew when I ordered that this might be the case, considering porchetta is, by definition a fatty roast). The porchetta was very, very good, savory and melt-in-your-mouth delicious. I'd get it again, but in the afternoon. The garlic aioli (?) that accompanied the fries was a strange choice. It just tasted like mayonnaise. I'm not a fan of any kind of creamy dipping sauce. It went untouched after the initial sampling.
Ty's Organic Fried Chicken & Waffles was fabulous as usual. We tend to hold all chicken and waffles in Portland to the standard set by Irving St Kitchen. I'm usually not a fan of syrup - but their house made buttermilk syrup is AMAZING. It has the viscosity of honey, not traditional syrup, and is sweet, but not overpoweringly so. Ty actually orders another side of it and uses so much that the poor fried egg atop the fried chicken drowns in syrup. The boneless fried chicken, like always, was cooked to perfection and tender and juicy without being greasy.
We had - Irving St Bloody Mary - $10.00, Slow Roasted Porchetta Sandwich - $13.00, Mary's Organic Fried Chicken & Waffles - $15.00
If you'd like to check out Irving St Kitchen for yourself, they're located at 701 NW 13th Ave in Portland and serve brunch from 10:00am - 2:30pm Saturday and Sunday, Happy Hour is 4:30pm - 6:00pm seven days per week, and dinner is served 5:30pm - 10:00pm Monday - Thursday, 5:30pm - 11:00pm Friday & Saturday and 5:00pm - 9:30pm on Sundays.
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