ST. JACK
1610 N.W. 23rd St.
503-360-1281
stjackpdx.com
Dinner and late night (in the bar), daily.
$$$$
Three years after moving from its tumbledown Southeast Clinton Street digs to a more polished home in new construction on Northwest 23rd Avenue, St. Jack has somehow been able to retain its title as Portland's sexiest restaurant. Originally inspired by the wine-heavy snout-to-tail restaurants of Lyon, the restaurant has evolved to the point where chef Aaron Barnett feels just as comfortable surrounding crisp octopus with decorative radishes, new potatoes and a forest-green coriander aioli as he does whipping up a simple steak frites. You'll still find escargot, pork rinds, chicken liver mousse and tablier de sapeur, the thin pieces of golden-fried tripe. And you'll still want to start with a salad, maybe the heirloom tomatoes with bacon and bacon-fried croutons, or perhaps the simple butter lettuce and avocado, all the better to lay a base for the excesses to come. But there's also the jiggling slab of bone-in short rib slicked in a nectarine demi-glace and served with skinny french fries and pale green beans in a red onion mayo. Instagram beckons. If you have room, baked-to-order madeleines in a ceramic bowl are small, soft and still warm to the touch under a shower of powdered sugar. Let the food coma commence.
Don't miss: Those warm madeleines.
-- Michael Russell Follow @tdmrussell