EaT: an oyster bar or Another touch of Southern Hospitality in the PNW

Reggie Houston's Box of Chocolates

Went to meet friends to celebrate a birthday in one of my favorite little bastions of Southern Hospitality in the Great Pacific Northwest.  Actually, here in Portland, there are several strongholds of delicious fare with southern flare.  Country Cat, Screen Door, My Brothers Crawfish, Tapalaya...but today found us at the NOLA Jazz Brunch at EaT: an oyster bar.

Now we all know I'm in continual quest of a great Bloody Mary most every Sunday well, whenever possible, so when Sue asked K and I to meet her at EaT for brunch I became giddy.  Celebrating birthdays is one of my favorite things to do besides eating and drinking and I always celebrate them by eating and drinking something fabulous.

Even though the drink menu sounds and looks like something I may need to revisit often, I did order the Build Your Own Bloody.  Of course I did. Who can resist the chance to make a Bloody exactly to your own specs, picking from a veritable vegetable garden of garnishment?  The pickled asparagus was still crisp but not thick and so it had that fresh picked tender quality that you find in a first year Spring crop.  Little crunchy baby carrots, trimmed just so.  At first I thought they may have been pickled too, but if they were it was such a brief pickling process it left the sweet carrot crunch.  Drunken green beans and cocktail onions and olives.

Seriously, it's a salad bar for your booze. 

Not sure what I was going to order.  I had been hungering for Hoppin' John lately due to a friend showing me an insanely delicious sounding recipe for it but I also was leaning towards Shrimp and Grits.  No one else in our house is really that big on grits and so buying and preparing them just for myself seems a little wasteful.  Then our waitress leaned in and whispered "I forgot to mention our special today: Smoked Chicken Hash with a poached egg and Cajun style Hollandaise"  Sold.  The smoked chunks of chicken were moist and had a bacony flavor that was mellowed nicely by the perfectly cooked, diced potatoes and just slightly caramelized sweet onion.  That poached egg with the warm, sweet hot Hollandaise was like an amazing delicious cherry atop the proverbial cake.

The music from Reggie Houston's Box of Chocolates was a fabulous, upbeat addition to our lively brunch conversations. The man could charm the socks off of a fox and his banter with patrons moving in and out of the restaurant was proof enough that people enjoyed coming here again and again and again.  Definitely homey, made you feel like you belonged here every weekend.  Considering the dishes I ended up not getting to order and the dishes that K and Sue ordered that had me doing food happy dance, we'll return, soon.

Jambalaya

Soft-shelled Crab Po' Boy