Where to Eat This Week

• Get your fill at Gruner, the Alsatian wonderland from celebrated chef Chris Israel, before it closes for good at the end of the year.

MUST TRY: Beet-pickled deviled eggs, Alsatian “pizza” with sweet onions, bacon, and fromage blanc, bier-braised chicken with rye spatzle, and the cult-worthy Gruner burger (bar only). 

• Go for brunch at Muscadine, the one-year-old Southern brunch and lunch spot, where lines are still rare and the deep-fryer is working miracles. 

MUST TRY: Buttermilk fried chicken with dark, crackling skin and the devilish, “Nashville Hot” fried catfish, with a craggy cornmeal crust and flaky flesh.

• Oldie but a goodie: Cozy up with a ramekin of gooey, bubbling macaroni and cheese spiked with Dijon and breadcrumbs at Noble Rot, as rainy Portland unfolds from your fourth floor perch.

• Flooding be damned, hoof it over to Tábor, longtime Czech cart king of the winter-weather eats for rib-stickin’ lunch fare, from goulash to the epic Schnitzelwich, a perfect fried chicken breast or pork loin layered with spicy pepper-paprika spread, horseradish cream, soft onions, and a salad bowl’s worth of crisp romaine on ciabatta.

MUST TRY:  The Presidential Schnitzelwich, which loads a melty slab of Munster atop of the O.G. monster. “Next year, we will rename it the “Hillary-wich!” says Tabor’s Democratically-minded owner. 

• Sip drinking chocolate at Xico, one of Portland’s Best Hot Chocolates.

MUST TRY: Habanero caramel drinking chocolate, which blends three dark chocolates, pureed hot peppers, and caramel sauce carefully cooked to the edge of darkness.