Thursday, November 6, 2008

EAT @ 3808 N. Williams


Lunch today @ EAT Oyster Bar on North Williams. It was pretty good. Not spectacular. The decor was nice, a mix of modern and vintage tables and chairs, tiled bars and heavy wood shelves. It did have a New Orleans quality to it. We met the owner, Tobias. He was very nice and made us some sweet iced tea even though it was not yet on the menu. After a few minutes, it was clear that they had only been open for a few days. I was beyond disappointed to see there was only 1 vegan choice on the menu (fried okra). The okra was over-fried so that the batter was fried off. The vegetarian choice was a french fry po-boy. Tobias said they were popular in New Orleans. Honestly I had never seen or heard of them before today. I really can't imagine that most vegetarians would want to eat french fries on their sandwich instead of next to it. Carb overload!

I'm by no means an oyster po-boy expert, but I was born and raised in New Orleans and have eaten hundreds of them in my life. EAT's sandwich was just ok. It was not authentic. It was dressed with a spicy mayo, tomato slices and chopped cabbage. A real oyster po-boy is only dressed with mayo and shreaded iceberg lettuce. I understand that might not appeal to Portlanders though. I will certainly try EAT again, but Im going to give it a few months before I do, let them get the menu worked out. My grade for EAT B-

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