Editor of Eater Portland on 2023′s best restaurants, food carts and more

If you’re looking to check out some great new places the next time you go out for a meal, look no further than Eater Portland. It’s set the table with 2023 awards for the best new restaurant, bar, pop-up and food cart. Editor Brooke Jackson-Glidden joins us in the studio to tell us about Xiao Ye, Astral at Duality Brewing, The Houston Blacklight, Frybaby and more.

Note: The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.

Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. Brooke Jackson-Glidden joins us now. She is the award-winning editor of Eater Portland, which just released its Eater Awards for 2023, including best new restaurant, bar, pop-up and food cart. Brooke, welcome.

Brooke Jackson-Glidden: Hi. So happy to be here.

Miller: Let’s start with Xiao Ye, your new restaurant of the year. There’s a sign out front that I just saw the other day saying “First Generation American Food.” What does that mean?

Jackson-Glidden: Yeah, I love this concept. The owners there,

Louis and Jolyn, growing up in California they’ve cooked or served around the country, and their experience as first generation Americans really dramatically impacts their perspective on food. And I think that they felt, as folks in the industry, that there wasn’t something that really represented a little bit of that concept of holding these Asian-American culinary traditions, but also growing up in suburban California and that cross-section of chain restaurants and family traditions…

I talk about how it’s not necessarily like a global pantry, which I think is a term that people use a lot where it’s just, “we’re going to pull from everywhere.” This is a little bit more intentional. There are traditional stories or personal relationships to specific dishes that inspire a lot of the combinations of flavors and dishes that they develop. So the idea is being eclectic with a real sense of story or context for each dish.

Miller: What are some of the standout dishes for you?

Jackson-Glidden: I love this place so much. Their menus change pretty frequently. There are a few things that they have yet to remove, hopefully that’s still true, I’ll be sad if they’re gone! They have these masa madeleines there, and they’re using a combination of mochiko flour and masa for those. So it has this really lovely springiness, but also sort of chew.

Miller: Corn and rice flour…

Jackson-Glidden: Corn and rice flour.

Miller: …instead of wheat.

Jackson-Glidden: That’s right. So, basically what that does, it’s sort of a play on jalapeno cornbread or the corn pudding you might get at Ruth’s Chris, and then also just a madeleine. And I think the flavor is really special. There’s a little jalapeno powder on the outside. It’s really nice.

And then there’s this other dish that’s called Jolyn’s Favorite Noodle. That is a play on a dish that Louis would make for Jolyn after service when they were both living in DC, basically using the condiments in their fridge. It has this combination of tamari and sesame paste. I believe Lao Gan Ma is in there, too. So it’s a little spicy and a little creamy. And they use this alkaline spaghetti which sort of lands between a traditional spaghetti and a springier noodle. It’s so good. I think of it all the time. I tried to make it at home and it was just awful. So I just have to go back for it.

Miller: Is there something about this restaurant that you think says something broader about Portland’s food scene right now?

Jackson-Glidden: Yeah, absolutely. I think something that I really love, beyond this broader story - and this is a story we’ve talked about in my time at Eater - just sort of emerging in a lot of different restaurants is this broader understanding of what we think of as “Asian-American food,” which is such a broad concept.

Miller: You put that in quotes just now, but folks couldn’t see.

Jackson-Glidden: Yeah, I did, because you have so many different food cultures within broader Asia as a continent. And then you put that into a specific diaspora or community in the United States, and there’s just going to be so many different influences and shifts in that. And a lot of Asian-American chefs in the Portland area have communicated that there is this desire to open, say a Vietnamese restaurant, and this discomfort with the fact that what folks ate growing up isn’t necessarily congruent with the dishes you would serve in a Vietnamese restaurant.

So what does it mean for me to cook my food when there’s this expectation, this completely unfair expectation, of what “authenticity” is, right? I think that Louis and Jolyn are furthering that conversation to a certain extent where they’re saying, why should I necessarily be expected to cook within this broader category when there are so many different influences that come into my daily experience eating and cooking? So, they walk this interesting line between, again, talking about context, talking about personal story, as it relates to food, but also letting themselves use the full spectrum of who they are as chefs and restaurant workers to make food that feels really fun and true to them. Really, really special place.

Miller: Let’s turn to your bar of the year. What’s the vibe at Houston Blacklight?

Jackson-Glidden: Again, this is a place I just adore. The Houston Blacklight is the third project from Tom and Mariah Pisha-Duffly, who are people I’ve been following since I lived on the East Coast. We both moved here, oddly at the same time. I think that the first two restaurants there are Gado Gado and Oma’s Hideaway, again, have the same spirit that you’ll find at The Houston Blacklight, which is very goofy, really relaxed, fun, just sort of boisterous in a special way.

But I think that what is special to me about The Houston Blacklight is, it feels like it’s really more Mariah’s place. Everything is both of them, as a couple - every restaurant that they own. But this bar really speaks to her. It’s got like this sort of blacklight vibe. It’s a reference to the Houston Blacklight posters. So it has that kind of element. There are scantily clad combination animal-humans on the walls. And it just has that real nonchalance but also sort of goofiness that I think is really true to Portland’s broader, I don’t know, aesthetic or atmosphere.

Miller: Do you have a “go to” order there?

Jackson-Glidden: Yes, I love a shrimp cocktail, I’m kind of old school in that way, I guess. And they make such a fun one. They use sambal terrassi in that, which just gives it a tiny, little fermented kind of funk to it in their cocktail sauce. It’s really special, the shrimp are great. And I love to go there and get that, and that place makes such wild and sort of fun drinks. They do this mapo-type wash, I believe, on a tequila drink. You know, you can go really fun there and wild there. I just love their martini. So I’ll get a shrimp cocktail and martini, which feels really simple. It feels almost odd for that particular couple’s work to get something that simple, but they really nail it and it’s just super comforting and fun.

Miller: One of the categories for Eaters Awards this year is “best chef residency or pop-up,” which I’m not sure that it would have been or was a category say, a decade ago. For people who aren’t familiar with pop-ups, how do they work? How do you find out about them? How long are they supposed to be?

Jackson-Glidden: There is not a clean answer to any of those questions. I think that the general idea here is that this is a chef that doesn’t have a standing permanent restaurant space, who is going to use someone else’s space to sell food typically,

or serve drinks. This has become a huge section of our food scene and it’s where a lot of chefs start out, and I think that it doesn’t feel complete to talk about Portland food without talking about pop-ups. I think that some are like one day, some are full residency, so they kind of move into a restaurant space and are there for a long time.

The reason we included Astral is because it kind of lands between the two. It’s actually on Eater’s National Best New Restaurant list this year, but it’s not quite a restaurant, it’s not quite a pop-up. They are serving the food within this brewery indefinitely, like it’s their space, but they’re popping up within it. They’ve had this pop-up going since about 2017, and it’s a really special place, but to call it their restaurant doesn’t feel quite right.

Miller: Is this about economic precarity? Is this about expediency? Is this about a chef’s desire? What’s behind this?

Jackson-Glidden: All of the above. I think when we talk about Portland food and what was interesting about it - even when we talk about the period when we got a lot of national attention for food, there was this talk...

Miller: Back when the New York Times loved us, right?

Jackson-Glidden: Right!

Miller: Seems like a very different time.

Jackson-Glidden: Eons ago. I think that came from this idea of a lower barrier of entry into serving food in Portland. We talked a lot about food carts then. Food carts are now pretty expensive to open and operate. It takes a lot less to operate a pop-up. You essentially just have to pay a few licensing fees, sometimes. I think it depends on what you’re doing, and some places ask for a percentage to use their space for a day.

Miller: But somebody has already paid for the build out. The kitchen’s there.

Jackson-Glidden: Right. And in many cases, that’s just one or two people. You’re not even paying a huge service staff. It’s kind of a chef doing their thing for a day. So the overhead is so low, you have food costs. At certain places like the Dame Collective, I think they primarily just take out beverage sales, and so the chefs get to keep that food sale. So it’s just such a low barrier of entry. It allows people to be a lot more creative and take more risks. So, it’s appealing for a lot of people, some people have left restaurants and pursued these full time because it just feels like it allows them to do what they really want to do without all of those financial constraints.

Miller: Who is Luna Contreras, and why is she Eater Portland’s Chef of the Year?

Jackson-Glidden: Luna is such a gem. Luna is a chef in the Portland area. She is known for Chelo, which is her pop-up within that same Dame Collective. She has worked in many different restaurants along the West Coast, but her work recently has garnered a lot of attention in Portland, not only because she cooks spectacular food. Again, she’s pulling from her family history. Her grandmother, I believe, had a restaurant in Guadalajara. Her professional culinary experience is really produce-heavy Mexican dishes that have a lot of different components, really, really hyper-seasonal.

She’s also a trans chef and she is an incredibly vocal advocate, talking about issues that specifically face trans restaurant workers and the trans community at large. So she has this really interesting political voice. She’s a really talented chef and she’s also just so authentically goofy. I think she has such a fun personality, she’s so entirely herself. She was on a Netflix show that is escaping me, I believe it’s called “Snack vs Chef.” And it’s such a great portrait of her because she just is dancing around and has this sort of silliness to her that is so special to encounter.

Miller: All right, I’m gonna try a lightning round for the last minute and a half. What’s a trend you’re tired of, you’re ready to say goodbye to in 2023?

Jackson-Glidden: Please stop opening pizza places.

Miller: OK, no more pizza for Brooke. What’s something you’re excited about for 2024?

Jackson-Glidden: I want to say La Leñadora. It’s a restaurant from Adán Fausto that’s going to be opening. Again, that large format stuff. And The Love Shack is a bar opening from the G-Love team. Looks really, really fun.

Miller: Did you have a personal runner-up for new restaurant of the year?

Jackson-Glidden:  I really love L’Orange. It’s from Joel Stocks and the folks behind Les Caves. Great, really, really great place to take family or friends.

Miller: All right, what about outside of Portland? You’re the editor of Eater Portland, but what’s one of the tastiest things you ate outside of Portland in 2023?

Jackson-Glidden: I went to Thai Diner in New York when I was there last, and they did these cabbage rolls that I believe were sitting in Tom Khaa, that were super good and a Scallop Crudo with passion fruit.

Miller: What about in Oregon?

Jackson-Glidden: In Oregon? Best meal I had. Ooh, I think I have to say, my first meal at Xiao Ye.

Miller: Brooke Jackson-Glidden, thanks very much.

Jackson-Glidden: Thank you.

Miller: That’s Brooke Jackson-Glidden, editor of Eater Portland.

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