Kids Included
To battle picky eating habits and encourage social competency, I suggest dining out with your children regularly. This is good for the economy, gives your private chef and your dishwasher a break, molds young epicurean minds, and entertains people who think it’s excellent dinner theater to watch you chase your little angel as they run joyful laps around a crowded restaurant. Here are a few spots where you and mini-you(s) can enjoy an excellent meal.
Apizza Scholls
Considering the wait that comes with ever-popular Apizza Scholls pizzeria’s first-come first-serve policy, and my feelings on waiting an hour in line to eat, I’ve been tempted in the past to have a brood of my own in order to make the cut for the ‘reservations only for parties of 8-12′ policy. But everyone knows it’s not the best idea to go Octo-mom in order to cut in line for pizza, so I didn’t. You however, might want to gather the kids, grandkids, aunts, uncles, and cousins and stake your claim to Apizza’s coveted one large-party reservation per night, where you can share family laughs, stories, secrets, and requisite under the table pinches, kicks and jabs along with your hot melty delicious Apizza A’more and Pig & Pineapple pizza pies. Ah, Family A’more.
- Location: 4741 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Portland, OR, 97215 Map it!
- Phone Number: 503.233.1286
- Hours: Mon-Sat 5-9:30 pm, Sun. 4-8 pm
Country Cat
After a long action-packed weekend, take a break from the kitchen Sunday night, grab the kids and make a beeline for Country Cat, because on Sunday nights kids eat free at this laid-back Montavilla neighborhood bistro, a palate and budget pleasing arrangement. (What’s on the kids menu?) Tired of using your unappreciated positive discipline techniques to ensure peace at the table amongst your brood? Go with outright bribery-even the most querulous of whippersnappers will play churchmouse when coaxed with the Country Cat pudding trio ‘n cookies, or a hunk of deep dark Nana’s chocolate cake.
- Location: 7937 SE Stark St. Portland Map it!
- Phone Number: 503.408.1414
- Hours: Sun-Thu 9am-2pm and 5pm-9pm, Fri-Sat 9am-2pm and 5-10pm
Kennedy School
Your kids will be gnashing at the bit to get to school–the Kennedy School, that is. Schoolkids and former schoolkids alike will go wild at this McMenamin’s favorite, an old converted schoolhouse where classrooms are now meeting rooms, no bell will interrupt your time in the soaking pool, the gymnasium hosts prom-themed birthday-parties, the Detention Room is a bar, and frosty pints of beer and milk are served at patio tables in the schoolyard. Running in the halls is still discouraged, but it’s comforting to know that the occasional slip-up won’t result in a letterhome.
- Location: 5736 N.E. 33rd Ave. Portland Map it!
- Phone Number: 503.249.3983
- Hours: Vary depending on activity, see website
Mother’s
With a name like Mother’s, you can rest assured that this charming, graciously elegant downtown favorite welcomes your hungry small fry.
- Location: 409 SW 2nd Ave. Portland Map it!
- Phone Number: 503.464.1122
- Hours: Tue-Thu 7am-2:30pm, 5:30-9pm * Fri 7am-2:30pm, 5-10pm * Sat 9am-2:30pm, 5-10pm * Sun 9am-2:30pm, closed Monday
Nasca
Cheery little Nasca knows family–after all, they’ve three generations cooking up traditional Peruvian classics together in the kitchen. “It’s so yummy!” the kindergartener at the table next to me squeaked as she tucked into her Arroz con Pollo, and her toddler brother seemed to agree as he picked wide-eyed at the brightly colored carrots and peas in his cilantro rice. They both cheerfully painted the brown paper tablecloths with dark purple corn pudding before departing, but nobody minded a bit.
Nostrana
To be honest, classy high-end Italian restaurant Nostrana is the last place I expect to see kids, but every time I’m there, there’s a toddler to the left of me, a newborn to the right, and I’m stuck in the middle with you. You know who you are. Lofty-ceilinged Nostrana is known for its bawdy accoustics, which helps mask any peeps, squawks and squalls emanating from your little people, it’s got thin-crust wood oven-fired pizza (that you cut yourself, no less, with a big serrated knife–very exciting), and the staff is very relaxed in the presence of young gourmands–so relaxed that it can take a while to get your food sometimes, so if your kids get cranky when they have rumbly tumblies, pack a backup snack.
- Location: 1401 SE Morrison St. Portland Map it!
- Phone Number: 503.234.2427
- Hours: Lunch Mon-Fri 11:30am-2pm, Dinner Sun-Th 5-10pm, Fri-Sat 5-11pm
Park Kitchen
In this year’s Plate and Pitchfork brochure, Park Kitchen Executive Chef Scott Dolich reveals that his favorite stress reliever is watching his kids play. Perhaps this has something to do with this popular upscale North Park Blocks Bistro’s relaxed and welcoming attitude towards your kids.
- Location: 422 NW 8th Ave. Portland Map it!
- Phone Number: 503.223.7275
- Hours: Lunch Mon - Fri 11:30am-2pm; Dinner Mon - Sat 5-9pm
Posie’s Cafe
I felt eyes on me as I walked in the door of Posie’s. Glancing nonchalantly at the overstuffed chair to my left to see if they belonged to a hot Italian prince, I saw that the chair had a small straw-colored head, and big blue eyes! Then the head disappeared and I heard a diminutive squeal, and I realized the chair did not in fact have a head, but was just infested by a small blond wiggly person with a pudding stained mouth. Small pudding-stained persons are welcome at this far-north coffeehouse, where your Ristretto Roasters espresso and housemade pastry (the owner’s mother makes them) comes with an all-access pass for your child to play in Posie’s well-outfitted little playhouse, tucked securely off the back hallway of the shop, separated from the main room by a large fingerprint-smudged window. Relax and have a mom-to-mom chat in the front lounge area, or fill out boarding school applications at one of the tables along the art-lined side wall, secure in the knowledge that your lifelong bundle of trouble joy is having a ball too.
- Location: 8208 N. Denver Ave. Portland Map it!
- Phone Number: 503.289.1319
- Hours: Mon-Fri 6:30am-9pm, Sat 7:30am-9pm, Sun 7:30am-6pm
Screen Door
Describing their food as a “survey of the south,” Screen Door’s inspiration come from everything everything from South Carolina lowcountry cuisine to Cajun one-pot cooking to the fancy French Cajun food in New Orleans, with some soul food in between. There’s an evident commitment to sourcing locally, and the food is seasonal, fresh, and well-seasoned. The cavernous dining room hosts booths, half booths, and long rows of tables that can be pushed together to accomodate familes, even old-woman-in-a-shoe-sized ones. When the restaurant is full, it’s so loud that even if your little one got up on the wrong side of the crib, their grumblings really won’t make a dent. Service is fast and efficient and the staff is noticeably attractive and good-humored, so if you don’t have any children to bring to brunch at Screen Door yet but would like to make some someday, you might want to chat up your cute, friendly server.
Staccato Gelato
Staccato Gelato is a childhood fantasy come to life–a gelato and doughnut shop that looks like a Nickelodeon set, with bright orange and blue walls festooned with cheerful bubbles, a massive mural of a Bernstein Bears-esque treehouse, lemon yellow plastic couch (great for spills), a kids play area with tiny purple plastic chairs and toys, and a fat striped neighborhood cat who strolls in now and then and lays in the afternoon sunbeams that cross the wood floors. Eighteen flavors of homemade gelato fill the cases daily, ranging from classics like Peach, Lemon, and Coconut to more experimental blends like Raspberry Pomegranate Lime and The Pope Says Hi (meringue & chocolate). Staccato makes their own doughnuts too–the Lemon Ginger and pink-iced sprinkle-adorned Fairy Princess’s are sure to please your aspiring Fairy Princess.
- Location: 232 NE 28th Ave. Portland * 1540 SE Bybee Blvd. Portland Map it!
- Phone Number: NE 503.517.8957 * SE 503.231.7100
- Hours: NE Mon-Thu 11am-10pm, Fri-Sat 8am-11pm, Sun 8am-9pm
