Castagna, Portland/ by Shelley Lance, Blog editor
For our fanciest dinner in Portland, I had reserved a table at Castagna, so we cabbed it across the river to the Hawthorne neighborhood on a rainy Saturday night. Castagna’s chef, Mathew Lightner, has been winning accolades, including cooking a recent dinner at James Beard House and being named one of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs, 2010. Also Castagna was chosen as the Oregonian’s 2010 Restaurant of the Year. There’s a Cafe Castagna as well, but we went for the fancy joint.
I think there must be a city law that every Portland restaurant have a hip and exciting cocktail menu and Castagna is no exception. (There’s another law that every Portland line cook must have one arm tatooed from wrist to shoulder- or is that a nationwide law?) I enjoyed a “Choked Manny,” Castagna’s take on the Manhattan made with the artichoke based Italian liqueur, Rye whisky, and orange bitters.
My first course, described on the menu as “Bison: fresh currants, malt, melon rind, hazelnuts, and shaved 
tenderloin,” was basically a fabulous carpaccio, the rosy, tender, slices of meat studded with herbs, currants, and nuts. Frank chose the pickles and bay scallops- gorgeously plated if a little light tasting for Frank’s palate. The bread service consisted of two housemade rye rolls and a ramekin of pork butter. I also loved Frank’s second course of a rectangle of corn custard plated in a pool of mushroom broth and blanketed with roasted chanterelles. Both of our entrees were also good- Frank’s smoked “pressa” (pork) with crispy scallions and my black cod with eggplant, yogurt, and honey.
But the peak experience of the meal, for me, was the dessert! I liked Frank’s poached peach dessert, especially for the almond ice cream that had been shaped in molds to look like stone fruit pits, but I loved my choice, described on the menu as “Red fruit: digestif herbs, roots, stems, gingerbread, fernet ice cream.” One of the things I admire about this dessert menu is the way it is set up exactly the same way as the savory side. For Castagna, this means the chef chooses an ingredient- which may or may not be the largest or main element of the dish- and riffs off the flavors and textures of that ingredient.
For my dessert, the red fruits- including raspberies and red currants- were set off with a lusciously smooth intriguingly flavored scoop of Fernet ice cream. The gingerbread was in the form of a broken bits of brittle, and herbs, seeds, and candied stems were scattered around, every bite revealing a new flavor and texture. Eating this dessert was an experience both mysterious and delightful, almost lyrical. Like eating a poem.
Next time you’re in Portland, give Castagna a try. Not every dish is a complete success (my second course of slow cooked potatoes in beer and potato consomme was a snoozer) , but when Lightner hits the ball out of the park, your culinary horizons expand, both mentally and sensually. In this recessionary time, when our best chefs are making burgers and fried chicken, I find it invigorating and exciting to find a chef pushing the boundaries.
(Photos: top left to right- pickles with scallops, rye rolls, red fruits. Thumbnail photo center upper left, bay scallop with a tiny seed pod. Thumbnail photo center lower left, peaches with almond ice cream. Thumbnail photo center right, bison carpaccio.)
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