12/19/2023 0 Comments Bijou cafe hours![]() ![]() Fodor's described the cafe as a "spacious, sunny" space with high ceilings and live music. The restaurant closed in 2020.īijou Cafe was a French-inspired restaurant serving American cuisine in downtown Portland's Old Town Chinatown. ![]() You can read more of his writing on his website PaulGerald.45☃1′18″N 122☄0′25″W / 45.5217°N 122.6735°W / 45.5217 -122.6735īijou Cafe was a restaurant in Portland, Oregon's Old Town Chinatown, in the United States. He’s not a “foodie” so much as an observer of people and places, and a spinner of yarns - and really, that’s what breakfast is all about, right? He eagerly welcomes feedback on his writing and the places he visits. He aims to self-publish Breakfast in Bridgetown in 2007 (with perhaps 100 restaurants in it), and along the way will be sharing his finds. And since Portland is the most breakfast-crazed town he’s ever been in, he has begun a quest to write the definitive guide to Portland’s breakfast places. In his 10 years a travel writer, Paul has developed a theory that you can get to know a place from its breakfast tables. Health options: Tofu, brown rice, granola.Īddress: 132 SW 3rd Ave., Portland OR. Other drinks: Illy espresso, Dagoba hot chocolate, Tao of Tea, Genesis Juice.įeel-goods: Heavy emphasis on organic and local ingredients. Changes/Substitutions: Within reason.Ĭoffee: Cafe Femenino (organic). ![]() Portion Size: Big (and they’d better be!). Large groups: Could be a seriously long wait. Wait: Long on weekends sometimes a wait during the week. Frommer’s calls the Bijou “comfortably old-fashioned, yet thoroughly modern.” Tough to add to that. The whole Frommer’s thing feels like a stamp of approval from a parent. And maybe the “New Portland” is doing the same. Brioche, French, or whole-wheat toast cornmeal, buckwheat, or buttermilk pancakes, all with real maple syrup. Vegetarian-fed beef in the ($10.95) hash. It’s like, I don’t know, a grown-up restaurant – but a relaxed, Portland breakfast restaurant. It’s not a slacker, stumble-in hungover and surf the Web for two hours kind of place. And grilled orange-anise bread baked for us by Pearl Bakery and called gibassier? Please. It’s also true that a lot of folks in town think this is all very uppity and just an excuse to charge $9.25 for Neuske’s bacon and eggs or $10.25 for a cheese-and-mushroom omelet (ah, but they’re crimini mushrooms!). It’s like what was once a radical idea – using artisan and (presumably) local ingredients raised in a healthy way – now doesn’t even need an explanation. Your waitress might be wearing rainbow stockings, though.Īnother telling tidbit: They serve Neuske’s bacon, Grafton Village sharp Cheddar cheese, Nancy’s yogurt, Mountain Madness granola, Greener Pastures chicken, and Dagoba hot chocolate, and they don’t offer a word of explanation regarding what these ingredients are. It’s not necessarily the best, and it’s certainly not the cheapest, but it’s perhaps the one place you’d take your parents or other visitors who want a nice, safe dose of Portland’s organic, progressive, friendly, homey culture without the tattoos, hairy armpits, and all-out vegan fare. ![]() The Bijou is darn near the prototypical Portland breakfast place. You’ll see businesspeople going over charts, friends planning a wedding, tourists poring over maps, conventioneers reuniting, and regulars chatting with the staff. The old brick walls and exposed wood beams say history the modern art on the walls say style the coat racks on each booth actually host coats and say utility the blue-and-white checkered tablecloths, old-timey sugar pourers, and muffins in a basket say down-home. But it sure does look, feel, and act like the granddaddy of the New Portland restaurants, and both the crowds and the prices seem to back up that assertion. And it hasn’t been around as long as some of the old-line places. The Bijou might not have been the first place in town to stress locally raised and organic ingredients. It’s also $12.25, with no toast or other sides. Sorting through all this for variations on the perfect bite might be the highlight of your day. Four or five cornmeal-dredged grilled oysters sit on thin strips of onion and potatoes, with parsley and what seems like a dash of curry. The best way to sum up the Bijou Cafe’s standing in Portland’s breakfast scene is this: Out of 36 restaurants listed in Frommer’s Portland guide, only three serve breakfast: the Heathman, Peanut Butter & Ellies (which made it as a kiddie/novelty place), and the Bijou.Īnd the best way to explain how that happened is to have a bite of the Willapa Bay Fresh Oyster Hash. You can be healthy/progressive and be a “real” restaurant! Reader Survey: Best Coffeehouses in Portland 2017.A Map of our favorite Portland coffeehouses.Interviews: Honest dialog with people in the Portland food industry.Reader Survey: Best of Portland Food 2017. ![]()
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