Champagne Taste,

Beer Budget

How to eat for less at a few of Portland's more expensive restaurants

Greg Higgins’ eponymous restaurant is world-class, and he was an early proponent of the local, seasonal, and sustainable approach to food that’s become routine in the best kitchens across the country. People who grow, gather, or catch know that Higgins wants top-quality goods and is willing to pay a good price for them. The kitchen staff knows that the best food is made from the best ingredients, and you only have to eat here once to become a convert.

If you don’t have the scratch for dinner in the dining room, head for the back. Higgins’ bistro menu, only available at the handful of tables of in the cozy little bar, offers the same culinary philosophy at a substantial discount. Soup and salad, along with the free bread, make an adequate meal for all but the most ravenous, and Higgins’ vegan black bean chili tastes good enough to convert most carnivores. The basic house salad combines tender winter greens with toasted hazelnuts and an ephemeral herb vinaigrette, and with the soup the bill’s only $11. Or combine a bowl of clams — steamed with White Oak hard cider from Yamhill County, lemongrass, and a mound of shredded pink Hawaiian ginger so mild you can eat it like a vegetable — with a plate of roasted fingerling potatoes and red pepper rouille for dipping, and you’re up to $16.

Most of these items are on the dinner menu, too, either as appetizers or served in smaller portions as an entree. But some of the best low-cost items are only served in the bar. The burger at Higgins is one of the best in town, a thick patty of Oregon-grown ground chuck on a crusty bun from Grand Central bakery, served with house-made condiments and a substantial salad. Greg Higgins’ loves charcuterie, so look for specials like the recent pastrami, cured in the kitchen and served open-face with grilled onions and sharp cheddar. With either you can still have a pint of beer and walk away full for less than $15, including tip.

You can also get a great burger in Wildwood’s bar, but for the same price the fried Pacific oysters, wrapped in a crunchy cornmeal coating, provide a more direct connection to Cory Schrieber’s fish-monger heritage (the Wildwood chef-owner grew up in the oyster trade, and his family still runs the Oyster Bar). The fish and chips (like the burger and oysters, just under $10) is a great deal. The same cornmeal batter coats four pieces of fish, a substantial mound of fries covers the big oval platter, and there’s a nice scoop of fennel and cabbage slaw tucked in under everything else.

For the same price you could get a meal-sized salad of Romaine with a creamy, Caesar-ish garlic dressing. It’s topped with grilled chicken breast and shaved Parmigiano, and shot through with bits of red onion, capers, and cornichons. I had an incredible bowl of soup recently, portobello mushrooms and sweet onions flavored with sherry and thyme, and followed it with a single crab cake. The plump, crispy little croquette comes with a nice little salad of shredded apple and celery root with toasted almonds, and with the soup my dinner only cost about $15.

Cafe Castagna offers a similar lower-cost alternative to Castagna proper, but it’s more than just the restaurant’s bar. Still connected to the mother ship, but with a separate kitchen and it’s own entrance, the spin-off stands on its own, like the scion of a well-known family who wants to go it alone, but doesn’t mind if Daddy’s name opens a door now and then.

The Cafe does a lot more than just trade on family ties, though. It’s offerings, more extensive than the typical upscale bar menu, establish this progeny as a serious player. If you’re out with your sweetie and want a special meal, start by splitting a half-dozen oysters served with mignonette, in this context a simple but elegant sauce of Champagne vinegar, shallots, and pepper. You could also split a Caesar salad, but I think the better choice is a blend of endive and apples tossed with walnuts and blue cheese. One of you might have the roast chicken, a whole poussin rubbed with walnut butter and served with fingerling potatoes and brussels sprouts, and the other the grilled salmon. That’s a great dinner, and the tab is just under $50.

You can eat even cheaper. Maybe you each have a salad and split a pizza. You’re under $25, and you get one of the best pizzas in town, the classic Neapolitan-style pie, with a thin, cracker-crisp crust and just enough topping. A combination of thinly sliced proscuitto with pecorino romano comes mounded with fresh arugula, the peppery greens a perfect counterpoint to the salty ham and cheese. Or combine several of the starters for an eclectic meal. I would include the crepinette if it’s on the menu, a little puck of veal and sweetbreads, tangy with fresh marjoram and crunched up with chopped pistachios; it comes with a frisee salad. Low-cost sides of polenta, sauteed spinach, or Castagna’s great French fries at only $4 a pop provide low-cost bulk with lots of flavor. And the kitchen turns out a mean burger.

Walk the talk.

Grown-to-order organic produce, antibiotic-free beef raised by ranchers who fence off streams to protect salmon, and wild mushrooms foraged by renegade mycologists from deep in the coastal rain forest don’t come cheap. Americans spend a smaller proportion of our income on food than most other developed countries. If you really value sustainable agriculture and small family farms, pony up.

Higgins

1239 SW Broadway

503-222-9070

Wildwood

1221 NW 21st

503-248-9663

Cafe Castagna

1752 SE Hawthorne

503-231-7373