Wine & Cheese
Romeo and Juliet, ham and cheese, wheels and brakes, me and champagne…some things just belong together. Wine and cheese are the yin and yang of the food world, and Portland just so happens to have some of the best and flightest wine bars around, so you should have no trouble uniting these two.
Bar Avignon
Blessed with two expert owners at the helm (co-owner Randy Goodman used to be the wine director at Wildwood), it’s no surprise that stylish yet pleasingly rustic neighborhood hangout Bar Avignon’s wine and cheese lists are superb. And since next to every good wine there should stand a good cheese, Bar Avignon has a sterling selection of artisan cheeses paired with the appropriate condiments, like the firm, richly flavored sheep’s milk cheese Pecorino Sardo with cherry conserva, Caña de Cabra goat’s milk cheese with marinated olives, and raw cow’s milk Great Hill Blue with Buzzing Canyon honey, which is harvested in nearby Estacada. Cheese are $5 each, and if you go during happy hour (Mon-Fri 4-6pm) you can enjoy the cheese of the day with baguette for $4, and $5 glasses of red, white, and rosé wine.
- Location: 2138 SE Division St. Portland Map it!
- Phone Number: 503.517.0808
- Hours: Mon-Thu 4-11pm, Fri-Sat 4pm-12am, Sun 4-10pm * Happy Hour 4–6 pm daily
Evoe
When Evoe Executive Chef Kevin Gibson raids the pantry, he does it right. And since he has carte blanche to pull whatever catches his eye and palate from the adjoining Pastaworks Market, and Pastaworks has one of Portland’s most blissful cheese selections, you can rest assured that the three cheeses he puts on your cheese board on any given day will be superlative. Each cheese is paired with condiments like marcona almonds, housemade plum compote, and freshly cut figs, plus slices of Pearl Bakery baguette cut right in front of your eyes. Order a glass of wine from the chalkboard menu, or buy any bottle from Pastaworks wine shop and bring it along, the corkage is just $5.
- Location: 3731 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Portland Map it!
- Phone Number: 503.232.1010
- Hours: Wed-Sun 12-7pm
Foster & Dobbs
If you’ve had a hard day at work, I highly suggest unwinding at Northeast specialty market Foster & Dobbs, where you can chase all your troubles and cares away with one of their fantastic DIY cheese plates and a bottle of wine or something from the by-the-glass menu–which usually offers a white, red, and rosé for $5-$6. To create your cheese plate, choose your favorite cheese(s) from Foster & Dobb’s well-stocked cheese case and then select one of three accompaniments to complement it–Savory (olives, marcona olives, bread), Sweet (dried fruit, hazelnuts, bread), or Ploughman’s (greens, bread, and mustard or chutney). The plate setup is $5, plus the cost of your cheese, by weight. Sit back with your wine and cheese at one of the little indoor or outdoor bistro tables and watch the after work crowd as they trickle in–the young professional couple buying two bottles of red wine for their dinner party, an older professorial-looking twosome discussing an NPR story on Sudan while choosing charcuterie, a Levi’s-clad 20-something sampling the Yakima Applewood Smoked Salt, two stylish sisters speaking French but obviously arguing over the Fromage d’Affinois, and a grandmother who smells faintly of lavendar and cats spooning olives into a to-go tub. Listen to the soft jazz music and eye the table of chocolate hopefully and one by one, the irksome memories of your boss’s inane requests and unfavorite coworker’s outbursts will vanish, and you’ll be refreshed and renewed, or at least a little buzzed, happy and mellow. That’s the power of wine and cheese.
Kir Wine Bar
This tiny jewel of a wine bar is slightly off the beaten track at NE 7th and NE Couch, just a cork’s pop from bustling Burnside Ave. Owner Amalia Roberts has a vast knowledge of good (and not too pricey) wine, an affinity for rosé (a whopping 10 rosés are available by the glass in honor of summer), and a warmth and genuine love for her craft. She’ll help you pair your wine with satisfying small plates like her meat, cheese and fruit plate ($10), or delicious proscuitto, fig compote, and fromage blanc crostini ($6). After 10 pm all open glass pours are $2 off, making this the perfect stop after dinner at Le Pigeon or a show at Doug Fir Lounge.
Lupa
Hidden in plain sight, Lupa is roughly 10 feet of storefront along Mississippi Avenue between perpetually congested Gravy and ? Inside, another world awaits: amber votives dot each table and antique pendants drape from the ceiling, casting a glow that would be eerie if it weren’t so cool. A dark wood wine bar cuts through the room, the back wall is made of wine boxes, the strains of the Gotan Project twist through the room, and eight foot high walls of wine call to you–choose a bottle under $40 and the corkage is $5, over $40 and the corkage is $10. Wines are served by the half glass ($4), the glass ($8), the carafe ($22) and the bottle ($37). The house white and red wine is $5 a glass, and the cuts of cheese are generous for the scant $4 price tag–a recent cheese plate had a wedge of Al Pimentino, Oregon Blue, and Ossou Iraty, $4 each or $11 for all three. During happy hour , $3-$6 daily and all day Sunday, wines by the glass are $1 off and Guinness is $3 a pint.
Metrovino
Metrovino, the Pearl’s newest and most ambitious wine bar, is serving up multitudes of lovely wines along with Chef Gregory Denton’s (formerly of Luciere) inventive international cuisine. The wall of wines behind the bar—with its rows of bottles in gleaming glass canisters—looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. Herein lies Metrovino’s claim to fame—European-style Enomatic machines that preserve opened wines for a month or longer, allowing Metrovino to serve tons of wines by the glass, including rare and expensive wines us regular folk might not otherwise get to try. Metrovino’s wines by the glass list is unsurpassed, and they have a special list of $9 and under wines, making this the perfect spot to sip a drink and nibble a wedge of creamy Spanish Valdeón blue cheese with port-poached pear and toasted walnuts ($7).
- Location: 1139 NW 11th Ave. Portland Map it!
- Phone Number: 503.517.7778
- Hours: Dinner Mon-Sat 5:30–10pm; Happy hour Mon-Fri 4–6pm
Noble Rot
At Noble Rot, your wine and cheese comes with a free view, and what a view it is
—a lofty eastside perspective of downtown Portland, the sparkly Willamette, Mt. Hood, and the front door of Union Jack’s, so you can see if your honey is really going to “watch the game” and that’s why they flaked on getting after-work drinks, or if that’s just a big fat lie and they are actually going to look at boobies. The Noble Rot cheese plate is a rotating assortment of truly lovely cheeses—you may find Cowgirl Creamery’s mellow St. Pat, a tangy Caña de Cabra goat’s cheese, creamy Cashel blue, and a Pleasant Ridge Reserve cow’s milk cheese sharing the plate with rounds of Grand Central Bakery baguette ($12). Noble Rot’s wine flights are very popular ($10-$14) and their four house pours are a steal at $5. During Noble Rot’s M-F happy hour, 5-6 pm daily, your house wine is a mere $3 and the cheese plate is $9 and the view is still free.
Pastaworks Mississippi
Pastaworks was probably already one of your favorite spots to buy wine and cheese, but did you know you can buy your wine and cheese and eat (and drink) it too? Select your favorite cheese from Pastaworks’ enviable cheese case, and perhaps a bit of your favorite salumi too, and either take advantage of one of their lovingly curated wine department’s proffered glass pours or buy your own bottle and sip it on the spot for a small corkage fee. Since this sleek Mississippi Street specialty grocery store hasn’t been doing this very long, being the newest addition to the Pastaworks family and all, all the details haven’t been ironed out and there might not be much information lying around about how to go about constructing your personal wine and cheese party, but they told me all you have to do is ask and they will fix you up. Just be mindful of their 7 pm closing time–you and your Barbera and Gorgonzola must be but a memory by then so that the friendly Pastaworks employees can go home and have their own wine and cheese parties.
- Location: 4212 N Mississippi Ave. Portland Map it!
- Phone Number: 503.445.1303
- Hours: Mon-Sat 9:30am-7pm, Sun 10am-6pm
Square Deal Wines & Steve’s Cheese
My favorite stay-at-home meal is a wedge of Triple Cream Brie, a crusty baguette, a butter lettuce salad with fresh herbs, and a bottle of wine. So, on those rare and wonderful nights when I actually stay in, after work I head straight for Square Deal, which also houses one of the city’s most exquisite little cheese shops, Steve’s Cheese. Steve or one of his knowledgeable helpers recommends the perfect cheese, I buy it and walk three steps to the wine counter, and a Square Dealian helps me pair my new cheese with the perfect bottle of wine. Just down the street is St. Honore Boulangerie, where I grab a crusty baguette before heading across the street to Food Front Co-op for fresh organic salad fixings. Then it’s home to for dinner and the 1,564,982nd home screening of Bridget Jones’ Diary. Life is good.
- Location: 2321 NW Thurman St. Portland Map it!
- Phone Number: 503.226.9463
- Hours: Sun/Mon 12-6pm, Tue-Sat 11am-7pm
Vino Paradiso
Half art gallery, half swanky wine bar, the Pearl District’s Vino Paradiso has a very calming effect on the soul, particularly once the soul has absorbed a bottle of wine and the cheese and salumi plate, served with Pearl Bakery artisan breads ($13). During Vino’s 4-6 pm happy hour, bottles from the glass pour list are half off, which makes my soul very happy. If you’ve already acquired your cheese and wish some wine to go, Vino Paradiso offers takeout bottles—wines on the glass list are half off, and those on the regular bottles list are 30% off.
- Location: 417 NW 10th Ave. Portland Map it!
- Phone Number: 503.295.9536
- Hours: Open Tue - Sat 4-11pm (or so), Sun 3 - 9pm * Happy Hour daily 4-6 pm
