Stray Bird’s family-style dinner is centered around a platter of crunchy, Korean-fried chicken in two varieties: spicy gochjuang and tamarind glaze or fermented black bean, ginger and garlic glaze—good enough to give Pok Pok’s wings a run for their money. Photo courtesy Carly Diaz.
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Stray Bird’s family-style dinner is centered around a platter of crunchy, Korean-fried chicken in two varieties: spicy gochjuang and tamarind glaze or fermented black bean, ginger and garlic glaze—good enough to give Pok Pok’s wings a run for their money. Photo courtesy Carly Diaz.
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Once you reserve a seat at Stray Birds, they provide directions to their big, grassy courtyard and dining area, which opens up through a wide garage door. Photo courtesy Carly Diaz.
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Once you reserve a seat at Stray Birds, they provide directions to their big, grassy courtyard and dining area, which opens up through a wide garage door. Photo courtesy Carly Diaz.
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Cold buckwheat soba noodles, soaking in a dashi broth of clam and pineapple, along with pickled kholarabi, cucumbers, and daikon. Photo courtesy Carly Diaz.
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Cold buckwheat soba noodles, soaking in a dashi broth of clam and pineapple, along with pickled kholarabi, cucumbers, and daikon. Photo courtesy Carly Diaz.
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Eating in the Stray Birds dining room feels more like having dinner at a friend’s house: four long communal tables, and a big, open kitchen, raised up like an alter. Photo courtesy Carly Diaz.
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Eating in the Stray Birds dining room feels more like having dinner at a friend’s house: four long communal tables, and a big, open kitchen, raised up like an alter. Photo courtesy Carly Diaz.
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A wedge of black sesame cornbread, topped with a medallion of charred scallion butter and soaked through with honey. Photo courtesy Carly Diaz.
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A wedge of black sesame cornbread, topped with a medallion of charred scallion butter and soaked through with honey. Photo courtesy Carly Diaz.
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Dessert: Vietnamese coffee shaved ice topped with bubbling condensed milk, and gooey fried sesame balls, gushing with piping hot Mexican chocolate. Photo courtesy Carly Diaz.
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Dessert: Vietnamese coffee shaved ice topped with bubbling condensed milk, and gooey fried sesame balls, gushing with piping hot Mexican chocolate. Photo courtesy Carly Diaz.
Portland’s “stray chefs,” Peter Cho and Johnny Leach, don’t like to be tied down.
In May, their pop-up restaurant switched from hot dogs (they were originally ‘Stray Dogs’) to Korean fried chicken, despite a strong reception and growing interest in the trendy ballpark format. Their take on Korean comfort looks like cold buckwheat soba noodles in a clam and pineapple dashi, crunchy fried chicken coated in spicy gochujang or fermented black bean, and black sesame corn bread, crowned with a melting medallion of charred scallion butter. It’s very good, but don’t get used to it.
Cho tells Eat Beat that Korean fried chicken won’t be the main concept when they officially open their brick-and-mortar inside the Ocean micro-restaurant complex at NE 24th Ave between Sandy and Glisan, the current staging ground for their private dinners. While they work out their modus operandi for a tentative November opening (right now, it’s simply: “Peter and Johnny Cook Dinner”), the duo plans another month of Stray Bird dinners through September. Reserve your spot while you still can.
Click the slideshow above for a taste of their Stray Birds menu, and for a sneak peek of their upcoming space.
Stray Birds Upcoming Dinners: 9/5 and 9/6; 9/17 and 9/18 Seatings every 30 minutes from 5:30-8:30pm Reservations: straydogspdx@gmail.com
