Chef
oregon June 2215 E. Burnside St., Portland, OR 503-477-4655 www.junepdx.com
ne of Portland’s most compelling new restaurants is located on upper East Burnside Street along the burgeoning restaurant row, also home to Luce, Ate Oh Ate, Heart Coffee Roasters, Screen Door, and now June. Partners Matthew Peterson, who oversees the front of the house, and chef Greg Perrault, formerly of the well-regarded DOC, worked together in New York City at the now-defunct Tasting Room, renowned for obsessively sourced seasonal ingredients, and have now brought that same sensibility back to Portland. Perrault gets his ingredients from a handful of local farms and searches the markets for each day’s freshest goods. As such, there is no point in recommending a favorite menu item, because dishes are certain to be different on subsequent visits. This is both exhilarating and frustrating. How I long to repeat the plate of baby heirloom carrots and freekeh (an Arabic grain) with panna cotta crème that so turned my head, but instead I’ll just have to hope he makes it once more when carrots are again in their prime. Ditto the exquisite harmony of julienned Comice pears, wild rice, and raw shavings of matsutake mushrooms tossed in a lemony vinaigrette. With such flavorful vegetarian dishes, you won’t miss the meat—that is, until you see a server walk by with a plate of Chinook salmon perched atop diced beets in crème fraîche sauce, or luscious leg of lamb lounging on a bed of eggplant and chanterelles. Perrault prepares
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Photo by Allison Jones
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Perrault prepares each ingredient to its fullest expression, yet also plays so well with other components of the dish that the totality of the tastes seems greater than the combination of its elements
Northwest Palate | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010
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