In general, I love an open kitchen - a device that seems to be more and more commonly used in the contemporary restaurant. I like sitting at a bar, watching the action, seeing humble and exotic ingredients alike transformed. My favorite place to go out to eat in Portland is Evoe, where Kevin makes simple yet delicious food for lunch. Unlike other open kitchens, however, his is not much more than a hot plate and butcher block to watch. This tension, making something with virtually nothing, and the unclear relationship between the customer and the staff, indeed the spectator and performer, which is more like walking into someone's house and asking for a sandwich than being in a restaurant, makes Evoe a very special place.
One such meal, a late February lunch with Jacqueline and I welcoming Pete to Portland and trying to woo Virginia back, over a meal of cheese, charcuterie, oyster stew, a warm razor clam salad, braised leeks with local black truffles and a bottle of Granbazan Albarino.
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