La Trappe trappist Quadrupel on draft.. goes great with our new Poutine (Belgian Fries with homemade bacon cheddar gravy).

Last Thursday, seeing as how it happened to be Canada Day, Heather and I declared that we would celebrate with some poutine. We made our way to The Victory Bar.

We shared a plate of poutine and an order of hushpuppies. The excellent french fries (virtually all the Portland poutineries have good fries) were stacked high with chunks of melty cheddar. The bacon gravy rested mostly at the bottom the plate, but morsels of thick cut bacon remained atop the fries and cheddar. The poutine was excellent. The hush puppies were good too. I washed my share down with the delicious Line Dry Rye from Oakshire Brewing.

We’ll be back, both for the poutine and to the peruse the amazing beer selection more thoroughly . . .

The Victory Bar
3652 SE Division St. (37th & SE Division)
Portland, Oregon 97202
Web: www.thevictorybar.com
Twitter: @VictoryBar

Potato Champion is the grandaddy of Portland poutine. I have no doubt that more Portlanders tried poutine for the first time at this modest food cart parked at the corner of SE Hawthorne and 12th than at any other poutine purveyor in town.

The fries are excellent, and there are plenty of cheese curds plopped on top. The gravy though, is strange. It’s oniony and tart (but not vinegary, and not sweet like at Fats Pub). Due to the tang, It’s not my personal favorite, though plenty of Portlander swear by Potato Champion’s poutine.

Indeed, my brother Steve, visiting from Elko, Nevada, tried Potato Champion poutine for his first time on recent return to Portland, and he was quite amenable to the tang.

Potato Champion
SE 12 and Hawthorne Food Cart Pod
Portland, OR
Web: www.potatochampion.com

When Heather lived in NW Portland, the Laurelwood NW Public House was one of our favorite weekend brunch spots. But since we moved to North Portland, we seldom have reason to visit the neighborhood. Recently, however, we learned that the menu had been revamped, and that one new menu (pdf) item in particular would provide the impetus to revisit Heather’s old stomping grounds:

Poutine $5/$8
House Cut Fries, Cheese Curds,
Mother Lode Golden Ale Gravy

Before the Timbers match Saturday, we visited Laurelwood for beers and snacks. And of course, we ordered the poutine.

The small was plenty. And wow, this is good poutine. The french fries are a mix of sizes and crispinesses, the cheese curds are plentiful and cheddary, and the Mother Lode Golden Ale Gravy is delicious. This is one of the better poutines in town.

I believe we’ll be making trips back to the old neighborhood more often.

Laurelwood NW Public House
2327 NW Kearney Street
Portland, OR 97210
Phone: 503-228-5553
Web: www.laurelwoodbrewpub.com

We can’t be expected to spend a weekend in Seattle without poutine can we?

Anticipating our trip we solicited Seattle poutine recommendations on Twitter a few weeks ago. Hattie’s Hat, Night Kitchen, and Squid & Ink were all suggested. We had a busy couple days, and unfortunately these three had hours and/or locations that proved inconvenient for us.

But after a visit to Fremont Brewing on Friday, where other than beer all we had to consume was pretzels (mountains and mountains of pretzels) we yelped and googled until we identified some nearby poutine.

We set our sites on The Traveler, just a short way northwest of Fremont in the Ballard neighborhood.

The Traveler is a small and friendly neighborhood pub with much the same feel as North 45 Pub in NW Portland. Their menus are even similar – Belgian beers, frites, mussels, etc. But the poutine (something North 45 should consider adding to their menu!) is why we came.

We asked the bartender (who we suspect was the bar owner) about the poutine. He gets it; french fries, cheese, gravy, what is not to like?! He explained that they make their own caramelized onion gravy for the poutine. They use mozzarella in lieu of curds, however, as curds are strangely difficult to come by at a decent price in Seattle (as is also the case in Portland). Curds should be about the cheapest cheese around, but until there is more demand for them (yet another reason we need more poutine!), the cheese mongers will charge us an arm and a leg.

The plate arrived hot with melty cheese atop the fries, slightly browned under a broiler; a sprinkle of parsley. There wasn’t much gravy; I’m a fan of a full slathering, but what was there was delicious. One of our party compared it to french onion soup – sweet, oniony, and savory. The fries were good too, as you can see in the close up photo above – golden brown and crispy. Washed down with a draft Hennepin Ommegang, my poutine craving was sated.

We definitely recommend The Traveler’s poutine. It’s enough for a meal (especially if you’ve already consumed large quantities of beer and pretzels – four of us shared two plates and that was plenty), but the rest of the menu looks good too; mini burgers, mussels, braised chicken, smoked salmon, steak frites, etc. Next time I’m in Ballard, I’ll stop in again.

The Traveler
4354 Leary Way NW
Seattle, WA 98107
(206) 783-4805
Web: www.thelearytraveler.com

Having grown up in Portland, I’ve always thought of Papa Haydn’s as a dessert place. Well apparently since the 80s things have changed. Papa Haydn East, the original location, now has, in addition to brunch, lunch, and dinner menus, a Cocktail Hour menu, which is to say a happy hour menu (3-6pm 7 days a week!). And a report came in recently that upon this happy hour menu (and lunch menu too, sometimes I think), there is an item called . . .

Poutine
Hand-cut Kennebeck fries, pulled chicken, thyme gravy and cheese curds
$6.00

Saturday, you may recall, was a beautiful day. We ventured to Southeast Portland in the afternoon and secured a table on the patio (after getting confirmation from our hostess that indeed, poutine is on the menu). An old friend, Lise, joined us. We ordered drinks, salads, and a plate of poutine.

Papa Haydn serves up one of the prettiest poutines in town.

The menu on the website is a sample menu; it changes up a lot. As you can see the poutine we were served was topped with parmesan cheese, not cheese curds. And the chicken gravy contained spinach. These are unorthodox changes, and we were tempted to relegate this poutine to the poutinesque category. However, upon further deliberation we decided that if the three required ingredients were in play, we would call it poutine. Fries, cheese, gravy. Yup.

And damn, if this wasn’t one of the best unorthodox poutines I’ve tried in a while.

I have no idea what Kennebeck fries are, but I like them. Look at that beautiful golden brown! The gravy, though it could have handled a bit more seasoning, had the right viscosity – it clung nicely to the fries. It also contained chunks of perfectly moist pulled chicken. The spinach was an odd addition, but not off putting. And the zip of parmesan made up for the slightly drab gravy. All in all a delicious, though unorthodox, Portland Poutine.

Papa Haydn (Eastside)
5829 SE Milwaukie Ave
Portland, OR 97202
Phone: 503.232.9440
Web: http://www.papahaydn.com/