Wildwood’s flatbread is one of the best croutons you’re ever likely to have on a salad.
Best evidence shows that the Caesar salad was invented in Tijuana in 1924 and is named in honor of its creator, Caesar Cardini. Julia Childs had an often quoted story about seeing the salad prepared by His hand, marvelling at the soft eggs being cracked into the bowl and mixed in to form the dressing. Purists and hardcore traditionalists still emulate Senor Cardini’s method: a large wooden bowl is rolled tableside. Two one-minute eggs are cracked in among whole romaine along with olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, and lemon juice. It’s tossed with garlic croutons and parmesan and served to the drooling diner immediately. It’s a classic of a bygone era — of tableside steak tartare and bananas foster — when good dining meant dinner and a show.
In my search for Portland’s best Caesars, I’ve had more than a couple fellow foodies insist that a real Caesar must have A, B, or C. Rarely does this “true” Caesar of theirs accurately describe Cardini’s invention. But what they describe is indeed a Caesar salad. For my own sake and hopefully yours, I’ve begun categorizing Caesar salads into three camps:
1) Classic Caesars: The classic Caesar, as described above, has romaine leaves, preferably whole, in a creamy dressing without anchovy or garlic, but with a little zing from Worcestershire sauce (which does have anchovy in it) and lemon juice. The garlic should be found on the croutons, instead. As with nearly all Caesars, parmesan is indispensible.
2) Modern Caesars: The modern Caesar is more assertive than the classic salad. Garlic is a major component of the dressing, hopefully balanced by both lemon and anchovy.
3) Gourmet Caesars: The primary elements remain — romaine lettuce, creamy dressing, garlic, croutons, parmesan, lemon — but with an upscale spin. Perhaps it’s just an impressive presentation or perhaps it’s the addition of a pricey or unusual ingredient. Nearly all, however, will be more expensive than your average Caesar.
There’s also a fourth set of salads that aren’t really Caesars at all, but are similar enough that they’re worth including in a Caesar survey when the restaurant doesn’t have something more traditional. These salads usually have another type of lettuce, such as butterhead or endive, perhaps an aged cheese other than parmesan, and a creamy dressing, but sometimes without the typical lemon, garlic, or anchovy.
All of these can be great on their own terms and rarely does an actual Caesar fit neatly into one of these categories. Personally, I lean towards the modern and gourmet Caesars, the traditional being a bit too subtle for me. I think the average customer does as well, because Cardini’s archetypal Caesar is a rarity.
In this first of several Caesar reports, I visited five restaurants: Apizza Scholls, Gino’s, Lovely Hula Hands, Roots, and Wildwood. They represent a range of styles and locations, as will those in future reports.
Photo Album
Apizza Scholls
Gino’s
Lovely Hula Hands
Roots
Wildwood
A very classic Caesar from Apizza Scholls with anchovies added.
Brian Spangler, pizzaiolo at Apizza Scholls, has been called the pizza Nazi for his unwillingness to cede his pizza standards — even if the customer begs. No more than three toppings per pizza. No take-out. No pineapple.
This same commitment extends to other parts of the menu: Scholls only serves glass-bottled sodas, fills their canolis to order, and makes a very nice Caesar salad.
Their version falls somewhere between a classic Caesar and a modern Caesar. They start with a hefty pile of high-quality, whole romaine leaves. The creamy dressing has a touch of garlic flavor, but is one of the more subtle versions in town, also lacking any anchovy flavor. A subtle tanginess balances the subtle garlic flavor. Scholls tops their salad with shavings of parmesan, which I greatly appreciate, but the croutons could be improved. They don’t have the light, easy-to-eat crunchiness of some. The salad could also be served by a final sprinkling of cracked black pepper.
At $7, Apizza Scholls’s Caesar is one of the better values in town, though the whole leaves make it look smaller than it actually is. For $2 extra they will add whole anchovy filets — some of the better quality anchovies you’re likely to find on a Caesar. They’re worth all two-hundred pennies.
4741 SE Hawthorne Blvd
Portland, OR
503.233.1286
This is Gino’s “small” Caesar.
One of the apocryphal stories about the origins of the Caesar salad claims it was invented in a Chicago Italian-American restaurant around the turn of the 20th century. Though false, the tale probably helped justify the salad’s inclusion on Italian menus and in Italian cookbooks throughout the United States.
Despite the owners being named Marc and Debby, the name “Gino’s” fits better with the retro Italian-American vibe of their restaurant — as does the red and white checkered tablecloths, the Grandma’s-house smell, and the over-sized Caesar.
Gino’s Caesar comes in two portions: small ($10.50) and large ($17.50). Really, though, they should be described as XL and 2XL. Despite being quite big, at nearly eleven bucks their salad isn’t an especially good value.
A large bowl of chopped romaine is tossed with coddled eggs and enough garlic to destroy the horny hopes of any desperate teen. The raw garlic flavor is so overwhelming that even though I could see specks of anchovy, I could not taste them. The powdery parmesan only adds texture at this point and gives the appearance of being from a can. (And if it were, it wouldn’t matter because the flavor of the garlic is so intense.) The small croutons are few and far between, unfortunately.
8051 SE 13th Ave
Portland, OR
503.233.4613
Lovely Hula Hands adds fried capers to their salad.
The neighborhood is as eclectic as the menu at Lovely Hula Hands. A block one way and you’re in residential Portland. A block another and you’re in industrial Portland. Across the street is a structure that I swear is a reproduction of Frida Kahlo’s house in San Angel, Mexico. That might be startling if the restaurant you were about to step into wasn’t shockingly pink.
“Lovely Hula Hands” is the name of a song from the ’40s and from the vintage interior you might expect the tune to start playing over the Philco at any moment. “Funky”, “quaint”, “retro”, “eclectic” — all words that describe the restaurant and its menu, but also should be considered danger words for any diner.
They describe their salad as a “stacked Caesar”. The whole leaves of romaine are uniformly heaped like a cord of wood. A few stray leaves are set upright, perpendicular to the main pile. The dressing could be creamier and has a lemony flavor, but not much else. There are no croutons. Instead, breadcrumbs and finely grated parmesan dust the entire salad, adding little flavor and an arguably unpleasant texture. Fried capers provide a little crunch and saltiness, though most of the tang has been cooked out of them.
The salad is funky or quaint and fits into the eclectic style, but ultimately it’s misconceived, as is often the case with such things. Further, the flavors aren’t balanced (a problem with other menu items at Hula Hands). They charge a modest $8 (calamari is $4 extra), but it’s not so large as to make up for its other failings.
938 Cook St.
Portland, OR
503.445.9910
Cheap, but a bit blah, salad from Roots.
Roots is Vancouver’s most Portland-like restaurant. Huh? Yeah, well, it’s true. Roots would fit in along NW 21st, a SE neighborhood, or maybe even The Pearl. The restaurant itself is elegant, but not stuffy. The menu tells you where your beef, chicken, and pork came from. Foreign terms gussy up the description of an item, but rustic preparations make them more familiar.
Roots’s Caesar doesn’t go by that name. It’s listed as “romaine hearts with creamy garlic vinaigrette, parmesan, and croutons”. But a Caesar by any other name (or even without one)… You know the rest.
Big, crunchy croutons sit atop chopped lettuce along with a generous portion of grated parmesan. The dressing could be better balanced. The garlic is assertive, but it wouldn’t be overly so if it were balanced by tangy notes from lemon or Worcestershire. Minced herb is scattered throughout the salad, but doesn’t add much.
Overall the salad isn’t especially good, but it’s an excellent value at only $6.25. For $3 extra you can add chicken or salmon. During Happy Hour (4-6pm daily and Friday and Saturday from 9-11pm), the salad drops nearly in half, to $3.50.
A rather un-traditional Caesar that is also un-effing-believably good.
There are restaurants that perform as expected. There are restaurants that never live up to expections. And then there are restaurants that exceed expectations. Wildwood exceeds expections. As I said in my first bistro burger survey, “The menu is the most mouth-watering in town, always making use of local ingredients in interesting ways, and yet the food often out-performs the description of the dishes.” Wildwood’s Caesar does just that.
“Chicken romaine salad with capers, balsamic red onions, and creamy garlic dressing,” does not capture the distinction of their salad. It is the least classic, most expensive, most gourmet, most unique, and also the best salad in this first tasting. Whereas the originality of Lovely Hula Hands’s salad worked against it, Wildwood’s improves it.
Their Caesar is built with the darker romaine greens, rather than the hearts that I usually prefer used by most restaurants. But the zip from fresh capers and sliced cornichons balances the heartier lettuce. Moist, nicely poached and shredded chicken breast is distributed throughout. Long strands of grated parmesan top the lettuce. The dressing was creamy and garlicky, as described, but balanced by the tangy flavors in the salad.
The moment this went from good to great, however, was the moment someone placed a large slab of Wildwood’s herbed clay-oven bread on top — one massive and tasty crouton. The bread is crisp with a mottled-charred surface for texture and taste, somewhere between focaccia and naan. Fennel seed adds both flavor and aroma.
At $11.50 it is spendy for a salad. But that includes the chicken making it a meal, not just an appetizer.
1221 NW 21st Ave
Portland, OR
503.248.9663
