Posted by Karen Brooks, The Oregonian May 26, 2009 15:20PM
For 21 years now, Diner has been chewing through Portland with one goal in mind: to identify the top kitchens and to celebrate the new pioneers and enduring settlers who make dining out here so distinctive.
Still, every issue of Diner has its own flavor, its own sense of The Now. And this year, now tastes like value. Our wallets are feeling puny, and restaurants -- even in an artisan scene known for its affordability -- are responding, hatching new strategies to keep quality high and prices low. High-end restaurants are thinking smaller, with three-course deals, while the lower end branches out, adding morning menus and late-night eats.
And everywhere, it seems, happy hour has become the happiest hour indeed.
As always, Diner offers an opinionated snapshot of the restaurants that matter right now -- some wonderfully ambitious, some willfully offbeat, all serving up excellence.
What's new this year is our dedication to helping you ferret out the best bargains, from food cart culture to prominent kitchens.
So pull up a chair at our table. It won't take long to figure out why Portland's restaurant scene is the envy of the country. Feed me feedback:kbrooks@news.oregonian.com
Diner 2009 101 BEST RESTAURANTS and SUBURBAN LOVE picks
Terrace Kitchen
Posted by David Sarasohn, The Oregonian June 10, 2009 12:00PM
The Oregonian
485 Second St., Lake Oswego In the extensive second-floor space that for years contained the local favorite Amadeus, former Fiddleheads owners Fernando and Marlena Divina have returned to the Northwest after adventures across the country. Their experiences, including consulting at the new National Museum of the American Indian in D.C. and a James Beard award for the resulting cookbook, have shaped a menu drawing deep from Northwest and Latino roots, including a Willapa Bay Oyster Pan Roast, Argentine beef soup and wild rice and Dungeness fritters. Nothing on the menu tops $20, and it's easily possible to assemble a meal out of less-expensive dishes. For summer, the dining area has opened up to an outside patio, strengthening the local atmosphere.
Bargain bin: Happy hour features fried oyster taco, wild rice and corn fritters, mushroom and vegetable tempura, all $5.
503-699-1136, lunch Tue-Fri, dinner and happy hour Tue-Sat, reservations, terracekitchen.com
By Anne Marie DiStefano PortlandTribune, PortlandLife Feb 5, 2009 VERN UYETAKE / PAMPLIN MEDIA GROUP
Chef Fernando Divina rolls out grill bread in the kitchen at Terrace Kitchen in Lake Oswego. Divina owns the restaurant with his wife, Marlene and their son, Zoey.
Excerpt from article: At Terrace Kitchen in Lake Oswego, chef Fernando Divina makes a fantastic seafood chowder. It’s full of manilla clams, black cod, Dungeness crab, tender fingerling potatoes, and bits of salty pork. The creamy broth is so light and sweet that it almost tastes like it has coconut milk in it.
The sweetness comes from the crab, Divina’s wife Marlene explains. The potatoes are Oregon-grown, Fernando tells me later. The pork belly is house cured. The chicken in the broth is from Harmony J.A.C.K. Farms: “Not the cheapest chickens,” Fernando says, “but they’re really delicious and they’re lovely birds.”
Early on, I gave up on the idea of approaching Terrace Kitchen as an anonymous reviewer. That would mean not sitting down with the Divinas for a talk, and their story is just too interesting for that.
Through an apprenticeship program, he began to learn French cooking in Portland at L’Omelette, an award-winning restaurant of the mid-1970s. Later, when he met Marlene, he became much more deeply interested in the native foods of the Pacific Northwest.
Marlene was raised in Portland. Her father was Norwegian and her mother [is] Chippewa, Cree, and Assiniboine. She remembers picking huckleberries on Mount Hood, and her mother knew how to gather mushrooms.
The couple, who will celebrate their 25th anniversary in April, eventually opened the restaurant Fiddleheads in Sellwood, which was the Oregonian’s Restaurant of the Year in 1997. (It closed in 2000.) The Divinas describe the food at Fiddleheads as “traditional, new and native American cuisine,” with an emphasis on native ingredients, including the namesake fiddlehead ferns. They also opened a spot called Bella Coola, dedicated to small plates of indigenous food.
Word of Fiddleheads eventually reached the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., which was in the process of building the ambitious National Museum of the American Indian. The Divinas signed on as part of the museum’s design and development team, consulting from the late 1990s to 2005 on the museum’s innovative dining area.
“They didn’t want the exhibits to stop at the cafe,” Marlene says. “They wanted it to be inclusive of the indigenous people, and food is such a big part of everyone’s lives.”
Instead of pre-made hot dogs and hamburgers, the Smithsonian cafe features five stations representing the regional food traditions of South America, Mesoamerica – a region roughly from central Mexico to Honduras and Nicaragua – the Great Plains, the Northern woodlands, and the Northwest coast.
“All the food is [prepared with] Fernando’s recipes,” Marlene says.
“It was not only a departure from museum food, but from mass feeding in general,” Fernando adds. “The price point was radically higher and there was a lot of criticism.” However, he says, “It’s been very successful.”
Also successful is the cookbook that grew out of the museum project. “Foods of the Americas: Native Recipes and Traditions” won a James Beard Award in 2005. Covering North and South America and also Hawaii, the book combines cultural history with recipes including conch fritters, buffalo jerky, pork in Oaxacan mole verde and salmon soup with wapato and cattail shoots.
After spending time in Arizona and Washington state, the Divinas returned to the Portland area, and opened Terrace Kitchen in November with their son, Zoey. The restaurant fills several cozy rooms off Lake Oswego’s main drag. In warmer weather, there will be dining on a long porch with a view of Mount Hood.
The day of my visit, the Divinas had camas in the refrigerator, which they hope to plant and propagate. Camas bulbs were a starchy staple of local tribes, along with wapato, which used to grow abundantly on Sauvie Island. As part of the research for their cookbook, the Divinas foraged for wapato, but they say it’s hard to find now, because its streamside habitat has mostly been trampled by cows.
At Terrace Kitchen, the Divinas aren’t trying to create a pre- Columbian dining experience. The focus is on local products and American cooking styles: Argentine beef soup, masa fried oysters, grilled bread with fire-roasted peppers, apple and berry compotes.
Terrace Kitchen also offers cooking classes, which will be geared to match up with produce from the Lake Oswego Farmers Market when it opens in May.
In the past 10 years, the interest in local ingredients in Portland has grown tremendously.
“We’re really encouraged by what’s happening on the Portland scene now,” Fernando says. “All we’re trying to do is live the reality of having regional cuisine, so when people come to visit, they’ll say, ‘Hey, let’s go visit Fernando and Marlene, because they set a regional table.’”
Terrace Kitchen, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 10 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday, closed Sunday-Monday, 485 Second Ave., 503-699-1136, Lake Oswego, www.terracekitchen.com .
In a location that's seen several restaurants come and go in the past few years, Terrace Kitchen had its grand opening in late November at 485 Second St. and is generating positive reviews from locals.
Chef Fernando Divina and wife, Marlene, both James Beard award-winning authors and instructors, own and operate Terrace Kitchen, which features market-fresh seasonal Northwest cuisine or "foods from friends."
In a location that's seen several restaurants come and go in the past few years, Terrace Kitchen had its grand opening in late November at 485 Second St. and is generating positive reviews from locals.
Chef Fernando Divina and wife, Marlene, both James Beard award-winning authors and instructors, own and operate Terrace Kitchen, which features market-fresh seasonal Northwest cuisine or "foods from friends."
The two also offer regular, well-attended cooking classes, with 2009 classes beginning today. Some classes were arranged by partnering with the city of Lake Oswego and the Adult Community Center, while additional classes are being planned, Fernando Divina said.
Lake Oswego resident Judy Dana recently held her 70th birthday party at the restaurant for 30 people and was thrilled at both the food and decor.
"I really like the ambience of the place," she said. "They did a great job at my party, and everyone loved it."
The restaurant serves lunch Tuesday through Friday, and dinner Tuesday through Saturday. With nearby Tucci's closing for lunch, "We're one of the few restaurants open for lunch now," said the chef. For details, visit terracekitchen.com or call 503-699-1136.
-- Syd Kanitz
DINING REVIEW: Fernando and Marlene Divina are "MASTERS OF THE AMERICAS" The Oregonian and Oregonlive.com November 2008. Read the review.
DINING REVIEW: "Terrace Kitchen gets a thumbs up from diners" by Syd Kanitz, January 2009
In a location that's seen several restaurants come and go in the past few years, Terrace Kitchen had its grand opening in late November at 485 Second St. and is generating positive reviews from locals. Chef Fernando Divina and wife, Marlene, both James Beard award-winning authors and instructors, own and operate Terrace Kitchen, which features market-fresh seasonal Northwest cuisine or "foods from friends." The two also offer regular, well-attended cooking classes, with 2009 classes beginning today. Some classes were arranged by partnering with the city of Lake Oswego and the Adult Community Center, while additional classes are being planned, Fernando Divina said. Lake Oswego resident Judy Dana recently held her 70th birthday party at the restaurant for 30 people and was thrilled at both the food and decor. "I really like the ambience of the place," she said. "They did a great job at my party, and everyone loved it."
The restaurant serves lunch Tuesday through Friday, and dinner Tuesday through Saturday. With nearby Tucci's closing for lunch, "We're one of the few restaurants [in the area] open for lunch now," said the chef. For details, visit terracekitchen.com or call 503-699-1136.
-- Syd Kanitz
ARTICLE > LAKE OSWEGO REVIEW: "Looking for something fresh and original for dinner? I suggest you try Terrace Kitchen," Barb Randall Lake Oswego Review
Looking for something fresh and original for dinner? I suggest you try Terrace Kitchen, which opened Wednesday in Lake Oswego – or as owner Marlene Divina likes to call it, LO sopo (Lake Oswego south of Portland). Marlene’s husband Chef Fernando Divina has created an inventive menu using local, organic sustainable foods.
At the preview meal last week I sampled Cornmeal Cakes with Cuban style sofrito, Grill Bread with Beef Deshebrada and the best Pulled Pork I’ve had in a long time. My favorite bites were the pickled chiles, onions and mushrooms – zippy!
The gracious Divinas are both James Beard Award winners, and have big plans beyond serving dinner. They will offer cooking classes and hope the community will use their space for corporate team building, meetings or other events during the day.
And their prices? Entrees range from $12.75 to $18.50.
The restaurant, located at the corner of 2nd and B in Lake Oswego.
We draw on our Old World, New World and Asian ancestry to present you with new as well as tried and true dishes that reflect the season. We like to present menus and some new dishes each season that motivate us and may inspire others seeking new flavors or techniques to enhance the growing list of locally available foods. In celebration of the local indigenous foods and those from our garden we present dishes that taste great and make us happy. Moving from early springtime foods like vine-grilled catfish on nettle and celery root puree, through tender and succulent steamed cattail cobbs, grilled morel mushroom salad with Oregon blue cheese, ver jus and camelina oil to steamed fiddleheads with mustard and radish flowers then on to quickly paneed tiny new turnips, carrots and beets in wildflower honey with a twist of cardamom. Late spring moves through summer providing a riot of available foods. "Finely cured and smoked breast of squab is A-O.K. too but give us plenty of summer produce while it's fresh!"
REVIEW: PortlandTribune February 5, 2009
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DINING REVIEW: Fernando and Marlene Divina are "MASTERS OF THE AMERICAS" The Oregonian and Oregonlive.com November 2008. 
