Happy Friday everyone!
Here in Portland, people take brunch pretty seriously. There are so many
great places to check out, however, certain restaurants that are known for
being really good are also known for having notoriously long waits. Screen Door is definitely one of Portland’s most famous brunch spots,
but we’ve driven past it on E. Burnside many times on a Saturday or Sunday
where the line has literally been wrapped around the block and so we’ve always
avoided it. However, I had heard so many great things that I figured it
was time to just suck it up, wait in line and check it out.
great places to check out, however, certain restaurants that are known for
being really good are also known for having notoriously long waits. Screen Door is definitely one of Portland’s most famous brunch spots,
but we’ve driven past it on E. Burnside many times on a Saturday or Sunday
where the line has literally been wrapped around the block and so we’ve always
avoided it. However, I had heard so many great things that I figured it
was time to just suck it up, wait in line and check it out.
This past Saturday, we got up early and decided to head over to Screen Door for brunch with my friend Alyssa who was visiting from out of town. It opens at 9am and we had heard that in order to get in the first seating, you need to get there as early as possible. We showed up around 8:40am and there was already a pretty significant line at that point, but we figured that we should be ok. We waited for 20 minutes and the line grew significantly behind us during that time. Finally though, they opened the doors and people started heading inside, woo!
I snapped a photo of their regular menu hanging in the window as we were walking in, but once we got inside I was instantly intrigued by the specials on the chalkboard – everything sounded awesome!
We were easily seated in the initial seating when they opened the restaurant, and it seemed like there were still quite a few parties behind us that made it in that first group. Once we sat down, we all had a really hard time deciding what to order because it all looked so good (slash we were starving)!
The menu at Screen Door is very Southern-inspired and includes staples like fried chicken, biscuits, and pimento cheese. We decided to start off with one of one of our favorite food discoveries from our time living in South Carolina – hush puppies!
These were actually glazed hush puppies that we’re served with a side of syrup, but they also had quite a bit of heat to them as well and tasted more like cornbread!
My friend Alyssa decided to order one of the regular menu’s popular items – the praline bacon waffle! It looked delicious and she said it was really good.
Cam ordered one of the specials, the Smoked Cascade Natural Brisket Hash – it was really hearty and full of flavor! (I know because I ate some of it, ha!)
I decided to get one of the specials as well – the Chocolate Hazelnut Pancakes…I couldn’t resist! They were really fluffy but very filling!
And of course I had to sneakily snap a picture of Screen Door’s most famous brunch entrée – their Fried Chicken & Waffle! This thing is GIANT! People kept ordering it all over the restaurant and it’s obviously a really popular dish, but it’s the type of thing that would be impossible to eat in one sitting. But if you want to have leftovers for dinner, I guess it’s a good option? Ha!
Overall, I really enjoyed our brunch at Screen Door! The service was good, the food was excellent, the portions are huge, and we enjoyed the endless refills of Stumptown coffee. It’s a fairly large restaurant and they seem to be efficient at getting people in and and out on weekends; however, there just isn’t really a ton of room to wait inside, which is why you often people see people lined up down the street. My conclusion is this – Screen Door is definitely worth trying but get there early. I would say shoot to be there no later than 8:45am if you want to get seated with the first group!
I’m so glad we finally tried it, but I don’t anticipate this being a regular brunch spot for us just because the delicious Southern food is pretty heavy and it is a little bit of a hassle to have to get there early to wait in line. But it was really good, so it’s definitely a place we’d go for a special treat when we have out of town guests.
(I’d also love to try their dinner sometime because that looks great as well!)
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
