Articles by Éva Pelczer

Your at-home cocktails gardens are resting prettily in the windowsill. There are no major holidays for which to prepare grog. And, your infusions are happily marinating on the shelves. So, what’s the next step in your home mixology program? Let’s try homemade bitters. With your new bitters brewed, you’ll be able to round out some of your homemade cocktails, make some much-loved, classic cocktails, more...

It’s some time past a respectable hour to get out of bed, you’ve yet to have your first meal of the day, and there’s only one thing on your mind: biscuits and gravy. The line at Tin Shed is enormous. Pine State will be an hour, at least. Driving out to Arleta Library Bakery Cafe seems an insurmountable task. What is a biscuits-and-gravy-craving Portlander to do? This humblest of humble dishes, more...

Although amari are most commonly drunk as a post-meal digestif, the unsung heroes of the Italian bitters family should not be limited only to soothing diners who have overindulged with one too many courses. Usually drunk neat, the complex, herb-infused digestifs can vary widely in flavor and even alcohol content, but they also lend depth to cocktails and make excellent compliments to dark and light liquor alike. more...

Portland may not have “traditional” roots in frying chicken, but it doesn’t take an expert to grasp that fried chicken is “finger lickin’ good.” And although KFC ditched that slogan of 50 years for something “healthier” sounding, Portland knows fried chicken is just that. Luckily, we have our own deliciously crispy fried chicken scene (yep, we said it, there is one) more...

Why waste your neighborhood-dive order at Portland's craft cocktail bars? Shake up your 'usual' with a snappier alternative. more...

It’s getting cold out there, fellow drinkers, and soon, the rains will come. We have two choices: to despair at the impending sunless months or to reacquaint ourselves with everyone’s old winter friend, the hot toddy. But let’s be honest; there’s an obvious winner here. Portland loves a good toddy, as evidenced by the beverage’s regular seasonal appearance on our bar menus. Sure, most more...

Let’s imagine that it’s already Halloween, you have your patio lights up and a few carved gourds on the porch, and the important question lingering in the fall air is: what on earth are you going to be serving to your thirsty, be-costumed guests? Grog, fellow drinkers. Go with grog. Because there is no better complement to a night dripping with zombie anythings and sexy everythings than a drink whose more...

We know you haven’t had enough of old-school drinks and cocktails yet, so here’s the next in line we’d suggest for your go-to winter list: sherry. That’s right. Sherry. There’s a dry, complex quality to this Spanish wine that makes a lovely pair with the crisp (erm, soggy) autumn breeze starting to blow around Portland. It’s a great drink to offer guests arriving at your dinner more...

Welcome back, rainy fall days! Perfect timing, because we’ve been looking for a better excuse than a hangover to get back into our weeklyphơhabit. And what a town to do it in! Not only is there a lot of this savory Vietnamese beef noodle soup in Portland, we also have a surfeit of regional variations on the dish, ranging from a soup with escargot to one featuring pig’s feet. With this bounty comes a lot more...

Well, this topic has been a long time coming. We’ve been to a lot of patio bars, had a few too many punch bowls, and we might have tried to drink our nocino way too early. So what can you do with your heavy, nauseated sack of a body when you’re hung over? Your choices are to sit quietly and hope to die or ingest something. We think that doing the latter—really taking charge of one’s more...