Carlyle

http://www.thegoodist.com/the_goodist/2009/08/review-carlyle---happy-hou...

We may have a winner. Although she looks a bit out of proportion, she lays down beautifully.

Carlyle is quickly becoming one of my favorite high-end options here in town. The cocktails are great, the food is excellent (I think we can wax rhapsodic about that burger all day), and the atmosphere is like a very elegant clubhouse. Dinner last night included a variety of appetizers, including a very very good charcuterie plate that had headcheese, chicken liver mousse, pate, duck rillette, salami and prosciutto. A butter lettuce salad also made its rounds as well as a tomato salad of some sort, but my two favorite apps were the salt roasted beets (featuring caramelized pecans and Roquefort cheese) as well as the fried calamari.

The beets, served underneath all that frisee, made for a great summer salad (outside weather notwithstanding), while the calamari, I'll admit, I'm a fan of because it's such a perfect vehicle for the harissa aioli.

The burgers others had for dinner looked amazing, and induced many toe-curling reactions. It's right up there among the top burgers in town. The pastas were all very delicious, like the pappardelle with rabbit, mushroom and parmesan. My entree was the rich and luxurious Maine lobster risotto, featuring goat cheese butter. Great stuff.

The cocktails were all excellent -- I started off with a Krogstad aquavit old fashioned (which is my go-to drink of choice these days) before moving onto "the bartenders whim", which resulted in a cachaca cocktail with strawberry and a balsamic syrup. We passed on dessert, but we did a chance to try out the Fernet ice cream that'll be used at an upcoming Carlyle event. A nice mint flavor combined with the texture made me really want a chocolate cookie.

I think the big hit of the night (not counting the burger or the cocktails) was the pappardelle with rabbit, topped with parmesan. Great pasta dish, elegant yet simple.

I've been playing with the double exposure settings of my camera lately, basically overlapping two photos at once. Here are some shots taken at Carlyle.

The Fernet dinner will be happening two Mondays from now; I'll post again as the date nears.

Looking forward to that Fernet dinner. Not quite at the jonesin stage but I am sure I will get their before the two weeks are out.

Fernet night looked like it was quite the hit, as it was a surprisingly busy Monday at Carlyle. My favorite cocktail of the night was a PDT cocktail, taking rye, fernet, and maraschino along with everyone's favorite vermouth, Carpano Antica.

I'm on record as saying that the burger in Carlyle is the best in town, but the mussels can't be missed either. A dozen deliciously plump mussels are served up with toast, and the broth is flavored with some great aromatics like lemon peel and garlic. A fine brunoise of vegetables is accompanied by flecks of ham, and when you combine the butter with the veg and the pork and the flavor of the mussels, it's clear that Chef Jake Martin is serving one of the best seafood dishes in town. Hell, I'll ask for extra toast just to sop all the broth up.

There was also a special tonight, featuring Gene Thiel beets. A small quenelle of caviar and strands of dill were served with nicely diced beets, giving it a nice "deconstructed borscht" effect.

The new cocktail menu has been cut in half, introducing a couple of new cocktails like the Curiosity Cocktail (featuring bourbon, cynar and Fentiman's Curiosity Cola) as well as El Dude (essentially a White Russian with tequila).

Everyone by now knows about the burger, but it should be noted that there's quite a few hits on the rest of the menu, such as the delicious beef tartare.

The Drambuie Den series returned to Carlyle tonight. The first go-round proved so successful that a Drambuie cocktail appeared on the menu (The Curse of Scotland, featuring Ardbeg, Drambuie, maraschino and lemon). While standard Drambuie cocktails such as a Rusty Nail are often served at these kinds of events, the wonderful thing about Carlyle is that they can actually go beyond the standards, with the Curse of Scotland being a prominent example.

But for me, it's another Drambuie cocktail that's been doing a great job of adding new fans: a cocktail called The Duke. It's essentially a Drambuie flip, featuring lemon juice, orange juice, Drambuie and a whole egg. I'm sure I'm missing other ingredients, but the combination of the whole egg and the Drambuie has proven to be quite the siren song and piqued the curiosity of many drinkers. And truly, that curiosity is rewarded: The Duke has the frothy, velvety texture of a flip, and while it trends slightly sweet, it's still well balanced.

Dinner at Carlyle was stellar. The oyster this evening is one of my favorites, the Shigoku. Unlike the tiny nibble of sweetness of the more famous (and played out, in my mind) Kumomoto, Shigoku oysters are big, meaty and briny affairs, and fairly difficult to find I might add.

A half-order of the mushroom and rabbit ragu served with pappardelle served as my main, and at the moment it's my go-to order when I'm not in a burger mood. The meat in the sauce is exceptional, and the pasta is toothsome and flavorful which is surprising given that the ribbons were almost paper-thin. I kinda wished I had gone for the full-order.

In fact, that's probably why I closed out, not with dessert, but with a bowl of soup. Hey, it's cold and rainy out, I can have soup and not have to explain it, right? The soup tonight was a delicious puree of celery root. Great texture, and truly hit the spot, especially to help soak up the liquor (honestly, primarily from the night before). There was a small quenelle of eggplant, I believe, that I wasn't much a fan of, but it was a tiny bit compared to the copious volume of pureed celery root. There was also a similarly sized piece of beef (short rib, I think) that, on the other hand, was a really nice touch, giving the dish just that extra bit of umami to really put it over the top, as well as providing a textural contrast to the puree.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/food/sc-food-0108-drink-amaro-201...

A lot of the ingredients we use are just so simple, which makes the basic flavors feel weak on the palate. Adding just a little amari can awaken the drink and add depth and complexity that give you a lot more to explore in the drink.

http://www.portlandfoodanddrink.com/2010/01/30/carlyle-says-farewell/

Next month is Carlyle’s seventh anniversary. February also marks the end of our current lease. Both milestones are significant in that they factor into my decision to announce that Carlyle will serve it’s last meal on Sunday, February 14th.

Yeah this kinda just bites. I wish I had more to say about it but, well, that sums it up really!

Spectacular food(#1 PDX burger, and I am not alone in that assessment. pretty great Charcuterie as well!), top-flight cocktails from a top tier 'tender, all in a pretty nice space. I plan on getting in there at least once if not more before the curtain call.

http://pdx.eater.com/archives/2010/02/02/carlyle-owner-bruce-goldberg-on...

My greatest lesson? As many other owners will attest, Portland's dining scene is chef-driven. Without a chef-ownership stake, there is always a vulnerability.

The chef-ownership problem is real, but I gotta say that as I step further away from the Portland dining scene and reflect on the closure of a restaurant I enjoyed, I'm inclined to read "chef-driven" as a pejorative regarding the dining public.

Swung by happy hour tonight with a couple friends to finally try out the burger before Sunday's closure. Masterful. Juicy, full of flavor, salted perfectly...just an outstanding burger on all accounts. Great fries, too. I'm not a big fan of pairing aioli with fries, but theirs was fine and didn't detract from the great salty crunch of the potatoes. If you're a burger aficionado and haven't been to Carlyle, get there quick. Our server/bartender informed us that they're rapidly running out of various items, so they were down to one beer (the Pilsner) and had removed the charcuterie plate from the menu. Go now!

Went in with my wife last night because I did not think we were going to be able to make it back in the next two days. Burger was out by then but we were more interested in getting some drinks and did our part to kill a few bottles.

I am sad to see Carlyle go but some pretty fun experiences that I think could only happen as it was winding down. Four memorable events from last night

1) Witness the taking of the mayorship of Carlye from Sauce (who I thought was going to be mayor for life).

2) Getting the honorable Jacob Grier to make me a Hennessy Separator which actually turned out to be a decent drink.

3) Forcing the unveiling of Caryle's cubby of shame which included Blue Curacao, ultra cheap sloe gin, and Apple Pucker as well as many other spirits you don't expect to find at a high end cocktail bar. I hesitate to call what happened "make" with these ingredients but something was thrown together.

4) Those who have been to Caryle know that to reach the top shelf requires a free climb. After previously claiming that no one has ever danced on the bar, Jake climbed the wall to grab a bottle of Grappa and proceeded to do some pelvic thrusts. Perhaps a preview of his next career move?

So wait!? no more bugers, ever? or they were just out last night? please god tell me it's the latter!

I've been intending to register for a while and this post has finally forced my hand. Magpie's comments border on the libelous. Any pelvic thrusts were simply a function of me keeping my balance. However there may have been some lip syncing to Hall and Oates.

@ConcreteOatmeal: We may have some burgers back in today, but I'm not sure. Saturday and Sunday we're doing prix fixe dinners so I don't know what the bar food options are going to be, but I'm guessing they won't include the burger.

Note also that bar seating is going to be limited to just the actual bar Saturday and Sunday, as the tables will be reserved for the prix fixe dinner. As much as I'd like to see friends at the bar it could be tough getting seats.