According to Wikipedia, the world’s source for mostly, sometimes accurate information, there are nearly 730 cities in America that have named a street after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Portland’s offering, a boulevard to be exact, is a drive to some of the Northeast’s finest dining as well as token dive bars, including OX restaurant and its MLK bedfellow Billy Ray’s Tavern. Although Argentine in nature, with its central cooking wood-fire grill as the driving visual spectacle to the ambience, OX is also hugely influenced by its surroundings. This includes not just the Northwest and the historical diversity of MLK Boulevard but with Argentina’s “culinary heritage” of Spain, France and Italy as well.
Ran by husband and wife chefs Greg Denton and Gabrielle Quiñónez Denton, OX is also a marriage of Argentine flavors and Northwest products. The duo’s culinary backgrounds took them from California to Maui and most recently to Portland where they were the opening executive chef and chef de cuisine, respectively, at Metrovino. It’s from there that the two decided to make their marriage of culinary skills official and sprung the doors of their own restaurant, OX, in 2012.
The following year and for our current calendar, the duo were named as semifinalists for the prestigious James Beard Best Chef Pacific Northwest, along with a strew of glowing accolades from regional and national press. Essentially repackaging the steakhouse in Portland, OX has gone where many haven’t gone yet in the Northwest—full meat.
Yes, there are plenty of delectable “del huerto” (from the garden) items like the colorfully bright kale and radicchio salad with buttermilk blue cheese, green apple and crispy red onion rings, the rainbow chard and roasted beets with orange hollandaise or the roasted sunchoke and white bean gratin served piping hot with bagna cauda cream and toasty breadcrumbs. And “five chilled seafood preparations” are offered in the tiny, bottom corner of the menu, rotating with the seasons and concocted with perfection like garden-fresh shrimp ceviche and salmon gravalax tartare (market priced).
But the true Evita to this Argentine-inspired food orgy is the ox—the strapping beast that pulled the plough to till the land—and the meat it provides. This can be broken down into courses but there will be many. And it will not be quick. But you will enjoy it.
Start with the glorified puff pastry, the empanada, nearly bursting at the seams with beef, green olive and raisin. Back that up with some seafood—the spicy braised octopus tossed in a glossy mint aioli, alongside crispy sunchoke chunks and (what else) beef tripe. For a quick, early beef break, feast on the baked house ricotta served in a button mushroom confit and balsamic brown butter. Now, the “Fiambres” section is where you try beef tongue for the first time. But it’s smoked, in the gorgeous wood-fire grill that you can smell wafting over your shoulder. It’s also plated with unctuous sweetbread croutons and horseradish for tang power.
Then it’s time to really move to the meat and the options are aplenty. Sure, you could order the smolderingly handsome lamb shoulder chop that comes in two sizes depending on your appetite at this point or the maple-brined pork loin chop that weighs in at a mighty 16 ounces. But you’d be doing yourself an injustice.
If you’re dining with two or more, settle on the Asado Argentino for 2—this platter includes grilled short rib, house chorizo and morcilla sausages, skirt steak, sweetbreads, fried potato and a green salad for a slight $60. Alternatively, smoky, charred and black striped cuts of beef come in many shapes and sizes like the grass-fed Uruguayan beef ribeye, the beef skirt steak or the flanken-style beef short rib (the latter two coming in small and large sizes). All are served with a side of chimichurri that should be used frequently and fully.
The wine list is clean and tight, offering “culinary heritage” wines from France, Italy, Spain and Portugal as well as local love for the domestic provisions. Although it is a whole lotta Malbec, the South American section is one worth poking around in with wines that step outside the Mendoza box like Bodegas Noemia J. Alberto Malbec from Patagonia and Tannat from Uruguayan producer Bouza. Local gems are found in the whites with a Gruner from Chehalem Ridgecrest Vineyards in Ribbon Ridge and Leah Jorgensen’s Blanc de Cabernet Franc from Applegate Valley. Can’t decide? Many wines by the glass are also available in half-liter carafes to share juice around the table.
If you’re feeling spirited, try the La Paloma—a masterful house version of a classic paloma-margarita mixed up with tequila, grapefruit, St. Germain and grapefruit radler. For a darker alternative of booze, put your thirst in the Hand of Fate—a rye whiskey based sipper with Fernet Branca, dry curacao and mole bitters to sweeten the pot.
All drinks and sides aside, remember that you came here for one thing—beef. Then go play some pinball at Billy Ray’s to work off the meat sweats.
OX || 2225 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, Portland || oxpdx.com
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