I'm one of those annoying picky eaters (I'm like a vegan, except I eat seafood, and I'll eat eggs if they're from chickens raised by my friends, and while I don't eat dairy, I'll eat butter every once in a while, but only if there's marijuana in it, etc.), but I like a good glass of wine and scene-ing around Portland's various culinary hot spots, so I was quite thrilled to hear that a new, talked-about French restaurant was opening in my 'hood: St Jack, at the northwest corner of SE 21st and Clinton, has already gotten some excited murmurs from the Portland food gossipers, since collectively its founders' resumes include involvement in boldface destinations like Ping, Grüner, 23Hoyt, Foster Burger, Teardrop Lounge, and Bluehour. Kurt Huffman of ChefStable (St Jack is his company's fifth restaurant venture) took a moment to answer some questions from a friendly neighbor about what he and Chef Aaron Barnett have up their sleeves.
MERCURY: What is the projected date of your opening?
KURT HUFFMAN: We are opening the restaurant on December 27th. We start taking reservations online at stjackpdx.com beginning this Monday the 20th.
My impression is that the space will be able to transition over the course of the day, as a brasserie/coffee shop in the morning, then a restaurant, then a later-night bar. Is that about right? Will you be serving lunch in addition to dinner? How extensive will the bar menu be, and do you plan on being a full-on bar, open to 2:30?
That's exactly right. We'll have both lunch and dinner. The bar menu is being overseen by Kyle Webster (House Spirits) and Tommy Klus (Teardrop). We've given these guys full reign to put together a bar menu that fits the concept and Aaron and I are super excited with the results. We will have a full bar, however we're only planning to stay open until 11 pm unless there's important demand to stay open longer. (We want to be loved by our neighbors—you know.)
The menu was described to me as "rustic French country," particularly influenced by the regional cuisine of Lyon. What characterizes this type of food? Can you give me a few exemplary dishes you are considering for the St. Jack menu?
Bouchons are super old-school Lyon restaurants—typically very casual, rustic, and cramped. Because Lyon was the railway hub for all of France, it became the center of French slaughter-houses, and these local restaurants ended up building most of their menu from the less popular cuts of meat and offal. You'll find fried pork skin, blood sausages, and tons of charcuterie along with more accessible cuts of beef like bavette and onglet. Three of the omnipresent dishes in Lyon are the Lyonnais Salad (frisee, poached egg, lardons, bacon fat fried croutons, and vinaigrette), the Tarte Tatin, which is an upside down apple tart, and a Bavette Frites, which is good ol' steak and fries. We'll have all of these and many others on our menu.
