With several bottles of wine from the depths of our basement in tow, five of us piled into the car of our very kind-hearted, pregnant designated driver for the trip out to Farm to Fork in Dundee. The restaurant is located in the Red Hills Inn, a Pottery Barn-inspired boutique hotel at the far end of downtown Dundee.
For the dinner the restaurant created two long tables for a family style meal - excellent idea. We plunked ourselves down at the first table, and for some reason all the other guests sat at the second table and the folks who were supposed to fill out the rest of the seats at our table never arrived. Sigh. I'll remember to wear deoderant next time...
But all community was not lost! After a thoroughly enjoyable meal, a kind man from the other table came over to offer a glass of one of the wines they were drinking, and we reciprocated the offer. Being a bit of a wine novice I had been too self conscious about our wines to make the first move. As always, a completely silly notion - it's not like I brought a bottle of Two-Buck-Chuck. Our neighboring table appreciated our wines and we theirs. The exchange was exactly the ice breaker we needed to join their conversation and share great wines and great stories for the rest of the evening. I pray that I may remember this lesson in community building: be brave enough to make the first move. It's often exactly what people are waiting for.
The meal was quite a step up from our other community meals. The chef introduced himself and spent several minutes describing the many courses that were to emerge from the kitchen. According to the omnivores I came with, the non-goat-cheese-eating vegetarians (that's me) wound up with the tastiest dishes. I have trouble imagining that anything could beat the flavor of the truffle-spiked rissoto that was my main dish. The most decadant course was a lavender ice cream with fresh honeycomb - W O W.
Thanks to our brave friends at the other table, we wound up having an excellent evening of outstanding food capped off with very nice conversation and a lesson in community building for the community dinner club.
As we Portlanders voyage en masse to our food carts and brewpubs, maybe it's time to take look at another uber-local dining option - the community meal. Maybe it's time for the hipsters to rub elbows with Altar Society ladies. Maybe it's time try some classic foods from the communities that first brought them to our fair city. In the spirit of localism, let us unite to support and report on Portland's community meals.
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