On a rainy Wednesday night during Portland Dining Month, we were able to try the tasting menu at the new concept restaurant Willow. For those of us who aren’t lucky enough to have chefs as best friends, Doug Weiler and John Pickett wanted to serve farm-to-table cuisine in that intimate dinner party atmosphere.
From the moment you shake the raindrops off your hood and walk up the stairs to Willow, Pickett welcomes you like an old friend into his own apartment. Ten people were seated around the counter for the Portland Dining Month three-course dinner, and our names were on each menu awaiting us at our spot. As befits a dinner party invite, we even discovered that we knew the guest sitting next to us.
To cook, plate and serve ten multi-course meals three times a night could be bewildering, but Pickett and Weiler have the credentials to pull it off—Weiler worked at Bluehour and Glyph, and Pickett at Portland stalwarts Biwa, St. Jack and Ración. Although Willow was open for only two weeks before we went, the evening ran smoothly, with Pickett, Weiler and sous-chef Tiffany Emmett skipping back and forth between the next-door kitchen to prepare, plate and serve everything in front of us.
The first course was a soup of cream of celery root, with roasted celery and celery leaf, poured over a salad of celery leaf and hazelnuts, tossed in an unusual dressing. “Someone gave us a bale of timothy hay,” said Pickett, so they did what any creative chef would do and toasted it to make hay oil. It was served with a 2014 Franchere Gruner Veltliner, a white that smelled of apples to complement the grassiness of the soup.
The next course was a tender cut of short rib steak, with sauce bordelaise and glazed vegetables over a savory potato puree. Although Willow intends to feature food and farmers from the Willamette Valley and the Pacific Northwest, it’s sometimes difficult to find meat in specific cuts from Northwest producers. These particular steaks came from California’s Niman Ranch, served with a 2013 Santa Cristo Grenache.
A tart, crisp palate cleanser of whipped yogurt and cilantro ice cream preceded the chocolate macaroon cake, topped with a graham custard, an oat praline and brulee meringue—inspired by a s’more. The dessert was served with a small glass of Burmester 10 Year Tawny Port.
The evening was a back-and-forth between conventional, comforting recipes, made new and intriguing with the occasional novel ingredient. Unexpected, economical use of timothy hay and cilantro piqued this diner’s interest, while the atmosphere was quiet and familiar. Even the bathroom was decorated to look like a friend’s candlelit powder room, and the hall hung with framed photos.
After dinner, Pickett invited guests into the living room for coffee and candy. People lounged on couches, chatting with cups of coffee in their hand. We didn’t stay long enough to see how Willow would handle the incoming customers for the next seating, but we’d seen enough to know that it would be comfortable, delicious and convivial.
