Ned Ludd, Portland, OR

Lately there seems to be nothing better than meeting our friend Sam in Portland, OR, for a meal before heading to the coast to see family. Sam is a native to Portland and has become quite restaurant savvy as of late. He knows the best place to get a coffee, best place for Lebanese, best food cart, best dessert, best pizza… you name it and he has an idea. So, we couldn’t wait to see what Ned Ludd had to offer.

While walking up to Ned Ludd it became clear that Sam had chosen a winner. The landscape of edible plants let us know right away that we were going to experience farm-to-table, local, seasonal fare. The re-purposed interior decor kept us quite entertained while waiting for Sam.

And then came the food. Our first plate of pickles was quite inspirational. I love that “pickles” is a word we associate now with a pickled cucumber, but it is actually a preserving method for many things. Here we enjoyed a plate of tomatoes, mushrooms, yellow squash, chard, cucumbers, beets, and onions. I plan to reproduce this… or something like it.

Next, I had a perfect cup of gazpacho. I could have eaten a huge bowl of this, but, one must show restraint while out in public. This gazpacho with heirloom tomatoes was without a doubt some of the best gazpacho I’ve ever had. (Let’s also note here that I used to live in Spain… land of gazpacho).

The late summer vegetable plate was my main dish. Potatoes fried in butter(…need I say more?), roasted eggplant, and a breaded and fried yellow heirloom tomato topped with an aioli. I was in heaven.

Ned Ludd’s menu reads a bit like The Jabberwocky, but that’s part of the fun. They play with turn-of-the-century English in their forebits, kaltbit, plats, and rearbits, but they don’t play with food. They’re seriously plating some of the best food we could have eaten one hundred years ago. Two thumbs up to Ned Ludd. I wish we had something like this place here in Boulder.