Best Restaurants 2017: One-Stop Shop

4 Reasons Providore Fine Foods Is Portland’s Best Grocery Feast

Shopping? Might as well slurp oysters and drink txakoli while you’re there.

By Benjamin Tepler October 12, 2017 Published in the November 2017 issue of Portland Monthly

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Image: Michael Novak

1. Rubinette has the prettiest produce displays in the land, period: mounds of oblong Moon Drops grapes, fiery peak-season persimmons, and candy-sweet Hermiston melons. Try a sample courtesy of scruffy produce preacher Josh Alsberg, whose infectious veg enthusiasm and deep fruit knowledge will have you hauling pounds of the stuff back home.

2. Arrosto’s rotisserie chicken could anchor a last supper. The plump birds are slowly basted in rosemary oil and lemon, served with creamy fried Yukon golds and an electric-orange Calabrian chile sauce. Two can share a heaping half-bird with salad and focaccia for only $18, or devour it all by yourself under the screaming yellow umbrellas in Providore’s back lot.

3. Flying Fish hawks the freshest fillets in town. Bring home überlocal steelhead trout and coho, or belly up to the oyster bar for a dozen briny gems or tuck into a bowl of primo Oregon albacore poke with coconut jasmine rice.

4. Pastaworks is an upscale paradise for slaking the Euro-munchies, from fancy little Italian pretzels called taralli to a selection of extravagant Spanish vinegars. Too hungry to shop? Grab a Calabrian chile-and-pancetta focaccia, or gnaw on a spicy landjäger from the charcuterie counter. Oh, and you can sample wine and beer from the Europhile cellar while you peruse the aisles: txakoli in one hand, an oyster in the other.

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