Duality Brewing & Astral

"Portland’s food scene has always been defined by its scrappiness — chefs creating destination restaurants out of trailers, stalls, and neglected dive bar kitchens — so it’s no shock to find that the city’s best new restaurant is not a restaurant at all. Rather, it’s a couple cooking with little more than a flattop and a sink in a brewery. Not quite a pop-up and not quite a restaurant, Astral is an unexpectedly polished new brick-and-mortar entrant in the city’s burgeoning Mexican dining scene. Chefs John Boisse and Lauren Breneman share the space with Duality Brewing, serving gorgeous, oft-rotating, intricate Mexican plates alongside pints from the nearby taps. Boisse carefully melds Pacific Northwest flavors and ingredients with Mexican dishes and techniques. The sweetness of ground cherries, inescapable here in late summer, becomes electric when paired with habaneros in a sunset-hued carrot tostada. The sorrel that blankets Oregon’s forest floors adds verdant acidity to apple-mezcal aguachile. On top of her savory work, Breneman runs the pastry program, turning out familiar favorites like craggy-edged and gooey-cored brown butter chocolate chip cookies, as well as innovative spruce tip-infused coconut tres leches cakes. Her crackly, impossibly light maple sugar concha sums up the project perfectly — it’s a Mexican staple used in an inventive and unfussy way as a bun for an egg sandwich with house chorizo verde, morita mayo, and a buttery, soft omelet, plus a thick slab of melty quesillo. Not only is it the city’s best new breakfast sandwich, it’s another compelling argument for the laid-back ingenuity of the restaurant-less restaurant."