Laurelhurst Market Editor’s Pick

Image: Stuart Mullenberg
When Laurelhurst Market opened in 2009, it veered as far from Morton’s as you could get: affordable cuts, next-level sides, and a butcher counter to rival any in the city. In 2015, the indie steak house received an infusion of fresh blood: veteran local chef Ben Bettinger (Imperial, Beaker & Flask), and lauded mixologist Kevin Ludwig behind the bar. Much of the food is still pure Laurelhurst comfort, with rotating à la carte steaks, classic wedge salad, and potato-chip topped mac and cheese. But Bettinger has added rich, land meets- ocean riffs, like creamy blood sausage tumbled with roasted beets in a tar-black swath of squid ink, as well as crunchy, craggy fried oysters perched over celery root and salty carpaccio. Bonus: the new radicchio salad, garlicky, creamy, and weighted down with strips of grilled lamb heart, gives Nostrana’s famed radicchio salad a run for its money.