Futility Now

I am here to tell you about hamburgers from The Savoy, and Clyde Common, the restaurant that is attached to the Ace Hotel. One thing I’d like to point out right away is that both of them are accompanied by bright-pink pickled onions. I don’t know who started this, or if it’s a coincidence, or what. I guess it doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that people should take note of this. I think that in an ideal world, every restaurant should serve them with everything. Maybe even with ice cream (decision pending).

The Clyde burger comes with a really intense house-made catsup which is very dark, and much richer than the stuff you’re used to. It’s awesome for putting on the burger, but not really suitable for fries (it’s not tangy enough, and it’s way too thick for dipping). There’s another sauce which is, I think, supposed to fill that gap, but it’s not very interesting, and tends to drip. I just ate the fries straight, which was okay, really, because they were nice enough for that.

Recent accomplishments:

Pork chops with figs:

Burgers to celebrate the waning days of American greatness (sigh):

I know I said I’d provide pictures next time I wrote about snacks, but I LIED, I LIED (although I did try, I promise). At any rate, I will now discuss a couple of Portland standbys.

When I lived in Brooklyn, I was a huge fan of Dumont Burger. As a caveat, I have to say that my last visit there before telling New York to fuck right off was a little disappointing, but even if it has stumbled I can’t deny that I have eaten many memorable burgers there. Since I arriving here I have occasionally cast about haphazardly for a replacement. I think that I may have found it at Cafe Castagna, which we’ve been ducking into for (extremely nice) cocktails for some time, but only recently bothered to get dinner at. At any rate, serious burger quality. It was a bit overcooked for my tastes, but I think for the time being I’ll blame more timid guests for that.

Yesterday we went to East-Side classic The Montage, the site of CHD’s first legal adult beverage, and the only restaurant in town that I’d heard about before I ever started visiting here. The Montage is deeply inconsistent but almost always quality fun. Also, there are staples where are very reliable. Also, it’s totally huge. I think I’ve worked in a place that approached that scale, but it was much more tightly structured. I suppose that’s why the place I worked was horrible and the Montage is, on balance, pretty great.