So last Saturday our Breakfast Run plans never materialized.  We ended up doing our Evergreen Cemetary 6 mile route because our daughters had to participate in morning practices for an upcoming Irish Step Dance competition. So instead we decided that we’d get  a run in, drop the girls off, and treat our younger son, Frank, to a lunch date.  Not sure that 14 year olds ever are excited for a lunch date with their parents, but even Frank would have to admit that this was an AMAZING dining experience.

The Honey Paw bills itself as a non-denominational noodle bar (are noodles a religion?).  I was thinking it was just a fancy Chinese restaurant.  Speaking of Chinese cuisine, is anyone out there still mourning the demise of Wok Inn in Portland?  I was a regular, always ordering six dumplings and a pint of pork fried rice with extra helpings of their Duck Sauce spiked with apple sauce. It was Chinese fast food: Fresh, cheap, and greasy fast.  I loved it!

The Honey Paw is NOTHING like Wok Inn.  Just a trip to the bathroom before eating will tell you that.

Does that count as a sink?  I don’t know, but it is cool.

Even better, as I walked out of the bathroom, I noticed the source of the musical background:

Rocking some vinyl!

So, we started out with some adult libations (excluding the Root Beer ordered by our son Frank).  I went with the Strong Paw and was not disappointed.  I’m a whiskey fan, but the tequila with sweet and sour flavors was a delight.  BTW, here is the menu we had for the day:

After the drinks, our fabulous server (sorry did not catch her name) offered us some appetizer selections.   I gotta say that if you come to The Honey Paw and only have appetizers and drinks you will leave a satisfied customer.  We had duck skewers (on special that day…we had two orders they were soooo good!!!) and the brussel sprouts (amazing nutty flavor!).

It was hard to beat the appetizers, but the entrees were amazing too!  I had a noodle bowl with seafood treats and Frank had a fried crepe concoction that I can only describe as sexually arousing  AMAZING!

We were going to sample the great looking desserts, but in the end, we decided a walk for some local gelato was in order.

BOTTOM LINE: The Honey Paw is an amazing dining experience and I can wait to make another run there!!!!

Once again, our daughters’ dance practice conflicted with our breakfast run desires, so we had to adapt.  Years ago, I had investigated places to eat lunch in Portland on the weekend and came up kind of short.  Flatbreads, which I like, was available and that seemed to be about it.  Fast forward 10 or so years later, and the options were happily plentiful.  For many of Portland’s hip restaurants, lunch is a great option.  It’s usually a bit less expensive and definitely less crowded than the dinner scene.

We got up later than we had planned (again, up with the sun did not happen) but managed to squeeze in a run before having to drop the girls off at dance.  We were then left with each other, one son, one cat, and one dog.  Having burned some calories and not eaten breakfast, we, very uncooly, searched for a place that opened at 11:00, the earliest honorable time to eat lunch (and/or have a non-breakfast-related breakfast adult beverage).  Luckily, most places we looked into did open at 11:00.  We’d been wanting to try The Honey Paw for awhile, so we decided on that.  Not wanting to leave our son out, we invited him to come along, and he was game (although I’m still harassing him, with little success, to write a guest blog post on his thoughts of the restaurant).

We ended up having a GREAT time being tourists in our home town.  The Honey Paw was awesome.  Although, I must say, I’m a little worried about writing this review, since I’m DEFINITELY not a professional, and there was some controversy about that fairly recently.  We were the first ones to arrive at the restaurant, so, obviously, we had our choice of seating which is actually quite interesting at The Honey Paw.  You have your choice of the bar,

something like a bar along the window facing Middle Street,

and a ginormous table in the middle of the restaurant, so definitely a family-style dining experience provided you’re not the only family there.

Of course, we ordered a drink right away.  I was impressed that the cool, hip-looking (probably world-reknowned) bartender started mixing our drinks before the waitress even finished taking our orders.  (We were the only ones in there, and I know he overheard, but still, cool.)  I ordered something called the “Lapsang Fizz”.  (Have I mentioned that I like my bubbles?)  It had bourbon, lemon, lapsang souchong (which I assume is some kind of tea), egg white, and soda.  I’ve been hearing about egg whites in cocktails for a while.  I was intrigued and wanted to try it.  It was delicious, but the fizzy cocktails are never as fizzy as I would like.  Mike ordered a Strong Paw as I predicted he would, but I’ll let him blog about that, and Frank ordered a fancy root beer.

Once we had the drinks figured out, lunch was a bit more challenging.  I had read other reviews that recommended the brussels sprouts, so that was a no-brainer.  They were delicious.

I loved the shredded potato-chip like topping, but I have to say Miyake still has the best brussels sprouts I’ve ever had.  We ordered a few other appetizers; the duck skewers which were so amazing, we had to order another plate of them, and the fry bread which was actually my favorite and brought me back to our decades-ago visit to The Four Corners, but gourmet-ized.

We were getting a bit full by then but still wanted to try some of the entrees.  Mike and I struggled to decide between the Wok Fried Rice Noodle and the Vietnamese Pork Meatball Soup to share.  Frank struggled, in general, with the unusual-ness of the menu.  He’s an adventuresome eater (he loved the duck), but this was a bit extreme for him.  I tried to sell him on the Banh Mi special, but he was hesitant about its Chicken Liver Mousse condiment.  He settled on the Vietnamese Masa Corn Crepe.

I loved our Wok Fried Rice Noodle.  I’m not usually a big shellfish fan, but the mussels in it were delicious and reminded me more of nice, tender calamari.  Oh shoot, now I’m reminded that there was squid as well, maybe it was actually squid I was eating, no I’m sure it was a mussel.  The squid was good, too.  Honestly, I wish I remembered the sausage part better, but the noodles themselves were AMAZING, nice and broad with such a wonderful, savory flavor.

Frank’s crepe, though, was the high point of the meal for me.  The crispy, crunchy, melt-in-your-mouth crepe was an orgasmic experience.  That would have been enough in itself, but the melty, farm butter put it over the edge.  The crepe itself was so good that I really didn’t even care about what was inside it.  That said, the smoked chicken and piccalilli filling would have been delicious as a dish on its own.  When we go back, this will be what I order, without hesitation.  It was a special, so I hope it’s available.

We don’t usually order dessert.  I mean, it really doesn’t make sense for breakfast, but I saw the dessert menu first, and since, Mike and I were splitting a meal, I though we might actually have room.  I’m not such a big ice cream fan.  I know, I’m weird.  The walnut cake, however, was calling me.  Anything that has an ingredient called “white chocolate butter cream” is not to be missed.  And believe me, that was not a misnomer.  I was impressed that they didn’t even bother to call it frosting.  I mean is frosting really anything but butter and sugar?  This was more butter than sugar, and I liked that they didn’t bother to try to hide that.  You might think that would be way too rich in a cake, but the blueberry, pear jam cut the richness perfectly.  So, so good!  I would go back and just get that because after the delicious meal and splitting it three ways, we still couldn’t eat the whole thing.  Why, oh why, didn’t I bring the leftovers home?

The food was so good, that it could have been in a mobile home, and it wouldn’t have mattered, but the atmosphere of the restaurant was really great, too.  The sink in the bathroom was the coolest the boys had ever seen.  The interior of the restaurant was bright and cheerful.  It did begin to fill up as we ate, but being stoic, shy New Englanders, no-one opted to sit close to one another.  I could see it getting friendlier later in the evening, later in the drinking.  A very cool feature is that they had this cool D.J.-type booth, so the background music was all vinyl.  I’ve since learned that they have some events where that is featured.

We had a super fun time at the restaurant.  It just had such a nice, relaxed aura that we just really enjoyed ourselves.  Mike and Frank did some kind of Star Wars trivia game that was, of course, above me.

Part of our plan of the day was to visit a local shop called Nomad’s.  I had run by there recently and noticed that they had Icebreaker, Ibex, and Smartwool in their window.  As it gets colder here, we’re wanting to wrap ourselves in more and more wool, so I was curious to see what this place had.  They really had a great selection including our favorite wool socks, Darn Tough, but it was a bit pricier than I’ve seen on-line.  Mike did buy a cool Ibex hat and some Outdoor Research gloves.  I had the same version last year in mittens which I heartbreakingly lost at a comedy show.  They didn’t have any Icebreaker base layer shirts in my size, so the saleslady steered me toward Ibex which did look great but were surprisingly a lot more expensive.  I opted to buy one on E-bay instead.

After that, we swung buy LeRoux Kitchen (which I remember being Whip & Spoon, do you?) because I had seen on Facebook that they were doing a Thanksgiving meal tasting.  It was beyond our expectations.  We could have skipped lunch and had this one for free.  The was a generous taste of tender turkey, mashed potatoes (that weren’t as good as Mike’s), stuffing, a nice Kale salad, and an interesting tomato thing.  To top that off, there was a wine tasting.  They had a bubbly rose which I loved and bought to have on our Thanksgiving.

Finally, we topped off the day with a stop to Gorgeous Gelato.  We normally hit up Gelato Fiasco but wanted to try out their across-the-street competitor.  As I said, I’m not a big ice-cream fan, so I’m not sure I can make a fair comparison, but I do think Fiasco has more variety.  In any case, Gorgeous was delicious, and it was warm and cozy in their home while Mike and Frank polished off some scoops.

We finished up our Portland adventure just in time to pick the girls up for dance.

Thanks for reading.  Happy running and dancing.

Last Sunday called for a 10 mile run with a stop for breakfast.  The run was great!  We ran a new route through the Stroudwater section of Portland and then into Westbrook. As we were running, I was surprised that this was the first time I ran over the line into the neighboring town of Westbrook.   In the past year I have ran from Portland into South Portland (first time crossing the city line), Falmouth, Cape Elizabeth, Cumberland, and Yarmouth (during the Maine Marathon).  Westbrook is closer than some of those destinations, but the routes to there are on busy industrial-type roads.  In the early hours of this crisp morning, the roads were quiet and we enjoyed a pleasant paced run towards a fantastic breakfast at The Sinful Kitchen.

First things first.  Check this out:

Can anyone out there explain to us what a “Pharmaceutical Dinner” is?

Anyway, I thought I’d lead off this review with a new list of Bloody Mary rankings.  I’m a bit new to the appreciating Bloody Marys, so I have a bit of a rooking palate.  In any case here’s my list from our Breakfast Runs so far:

1. SINFUL KITCHEN “Sinful Bloody Mary” (3 and a half Mary Magdelenes): This was not a full 4 Blessed Mothers (am I getting blasphemous here?), but this drink had a nice touch of heat, a healthy portion of vodka, and, best of all, it’s garnish included a healthy chunk of Ghost Pepper Sausage!

Look at the beautiful hunk of meat!

2. ABLILENE (2 1/2 Mary Queen of Scots): Abilene had a great traditional (at least what I think is “traditional”) Bloody Mary.  Light heat and tasty olives.

3. UNION (2 Mary Harts):  I’m sure Union had great quality vodka and other ingredients, but the chipotle flavor really did not work for me.  Maybe if you’re a smoky flavor person this concoction achieves the Blessed Mother status.

Onto the main course.  Sinful Kitchen has a very tempting menu that certainly would prevent any mortal from fasting for 40 days in the wilderness…

This week, my plan was to go with a savory dish.  You know, I’m actually a little embarrassed to say that I’ve only recently learned the meaning of “savory” which in my mind essentially is a non-sweet meal (chicken pot pie was my eye opener).  Immediately, my eye went to the Huevos Rancheros.  Katie had them at Abilene and I had been jealous ever since.

The Huevos Rancheros were delicious!!!

Again, I am a Huevos Rancheros rookie, but the grilled tortilla (flour or corn is available…I went with the flour), salsa picante, eggs to order (I went with over-easy…done to perfection!) provided a medley of flavor that would convert any non-believer.  Additionally, the home-fries were perfectly spiced and fried that ketchup was not even needed for me to devour them.

We finished a great meal in a packed room with many satisfied patrons.  The waitstaff worked hard to make us feel like valued customers and we left as satisfied customers.  The last 2.25 miles of our run were weighed down by full bellies, but the good eats and libations at THE SINFUL KITCHEN made the struggle worth it!

So even if you have to purchase an indulgence…

Make your way to THE SINFUL KITCHEN!

See you on the road!

Not my best photo – but keepin’ it real

We’ve been meaning to try out Sinful Kitchen for quite a while.  Our older son had been there and was impressed by the lamb bacon and raved about whatever else he had (wish I could remember).  We decided to follow up our neighborhood breakfast run to Abilene with another restaurant on our side of town (albeit on opposite side of the ‘hood from Abilene).

Mike wanted to do ten miles, so we mapped out a rough route through Westbrook for something different.  Being near the ocean, we have a lot of pretty gorgeous running routes.  This was not the most scenic in comparison, but it was pleasant running through parts of the historic Stroudwater neighborhood and seeing some big open fields and cows not far from the city limits.  Coming back along Brighton Ave (Route 25) was not so pretty, but the McDonald’s and its bathroom came in quite handy.

I like to complete about 80% of our run before breakfast so running home afterwards doesn’t seem so hard.  We ended up a little short when we were almost back at Sinful Kitchen, so we ran down and back some of the side streets and ended up with almost eight miles before Sinful Kitchen snuck up on us.

If you want a quaint old brick building with hip decor in the heart of Portland to show off to your out of town friends, this is NOT the place to go.  If you just want a great meal, then definitely read on . . .

Sinful Kitchen and its environs – cool sign

It’s in a perfectly fine section of Portland but on a busy street with very little curb appeal.  It’s on the way to places, not usually a destination.  Some restaurants seem to survive based more on their location (Dimillo’s comes to mind) than the quality or creativity of their food.  I like to assume that if a restaurant is doing well in a less desirable location, the food is probably pretty good.

We usually try (but actually rarely manage) to get to our breakfast destination right when it opens to avoid crowds and still have the bulk of the day left when we get home.  This time we were close, arriving at about 8:20.  We were only the second customers, so we had our choice of seats in the cozy, first floor of a house.  The place actually filled up quite quickly after that which I take as a good sign that we’re not the only ones who think the food is good and that the place will last.  By the time we left, there were people outside waiting for a table.

I love my breakfast mimosas, but it’s nice to have some variety every once in awhile, so I was excited to see that they had a relatively extensive drink menu – at least 8 different drinks plus some grown-up coffee options.  I didn’t stray too far from my classic mimosa and ordered the “Chambord Kir Royale” (I like my bubbles).  I’m sure it was no fault of the bartender’s, but I didn’t love it.  Mike thought it tasted like a Shirley Temple mimosa which seems like that would be good.  I like Shirley Temples, but to me it tasted kind of cough-medicine-y.  On the other hand, Mike’s Bloody Mary (I think it was called a Sinful Mary or something like that) was beautiful and delicious, but I’ll let him review that.

Food-wise, the menu had a lot of interesting options, so it was a real struggle to decide.  I kind of wanted to get the Monte Cristo – I’ve never had one – but I was worried that would be way too rich for a breakfast run.  I wasn’t really in the mood for something sweet (but check out the waffles oozing with chocolate syrup on their website photo – I’m getting those next time), so I decided on my old standby, Eggs Benedict.  I don’t always do this, but I kind of like to have the same thing each time I try a new restaurant, so I can make a more equal comparison.  They had all kinds of interesting different Benedicts.  I was very tempted by the one that came with crabmeat and avocado, but decided to go with the classic.

When it came out, I was excited to see that it came with bacon instead of the usual ham or Canadian bacon.  I like those just fine, but classic bacon is best!  It has to be well-done and crispy, and this was cooked to perfection.  (I don’t think it was lamb, though.)  I also liked that the English Muffin had a nice, crispy, buttery crunch.  The Hollandaise was more subtle than some I’ve had – it was flavorful but not overwhelming with a nice clean finish not that citrus-y bite at the end that I’ve experienced in other places.

I really fell for the potatoes though.  I’m a sucker for sides.  They were cut into nice little bite-sized pieces.  (I should not have to cut my home fries up with a knife and fork!) Some were crispy and some were tender.  They had a nice savory spice to them.  Mike commented that, flavor-wise, they were more like what Bayou Kitchen’s used to be.

All in all it was a good breakfast.  It’s nice to see another neighborhood place doing well.