Portland, Oregon – Pine State Biscuits

Restaurant: Pine State Biscuits
Cuisine: American/Diner/Breakfast/Brunch/Southern/Western
Last visited: August 19, 2011
Location: Portland, OR (Sunnyside or Alberta)
2 store locations in Portland & 1 stall at the Farmer’s Market
Sunnyside is first store front serving breakfast/brunch only, Alberta serves dinner
Address: 3640 SE Belmont Street (Sunnyside)
Price Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 6
Service: n/a (Pay at cashier/self-serve)
Ambiance: 3.5
Overall: 5.5
Additional comments:

• Started in 2006
• Locally owned
• Featured on Diner, Drive Ins & Dives
• Local & tourist favourite
• Famous for freshly baked biscuits
• Local ingredients
• Home style Southern grub
• Very popular/long lines
• Budget friendly/cheap eats
• Family friendly
• Limited seating
• Patio seating
• Stumphouse coffee
• Accepts Visa/MC
• Eat in/Take out
• Open 7 days a week, 7am – 2pm

**Recommendations: The Reggie Deluxe Biscuit Sandwich, The Chatfield Biscuit Sandwich, BBQ Biscuit Sandwich with an egg, Butternut Squash Bread

Target: Pine State Biscuits. It’s a proud Portland tradition famous for a Southern “delicacy”. Famous for their biscuit sandwiches, these buttery beauties have been replicated by others throughout the city, but there is no substitution for the real deal.

What started out as a stall at the local Farmer’s Market in 2006, and still is, has expanded to two store front locations just by the success of word of mouth advertising.

It was a must try and the first stop on my foodie itinerary for Portland. But little did I know that it closed at 2pm and had to resort to plan B, which was Pambiche. (The absence of a line-up should have been a dead giveaway it was closed though.)

I’m not sure if you know what it’s like to crave a crispy fried chicken, bacon and egg biscuit sandwich smothered in gravy, and then not get it… it f-ing licks. Almost in tears I put it at the top of the list for the next morning.

We got there at around 10am hoping to avoid line ups, and we waited only about half and hour which was much better than the anticipated one hour long line-ups we had heard about. Regardless thirty minutes or one hour, it was worth the wait and I hate line-ups.

There was nothing gourmet about this divey little breakfast joint and there was nothing like watching the boys behind the counter baby these tender buttery biscuits and attend to them at every cry, also known as the oven buzzer.

I didn’t even take my intended whiff of the air before I was hit with the wonderful aromas of a rich and hearty breakfast, which was also once featured on Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. I could smell the intense butter coming off these famous freshly baked biscuits, followed by the smell of fried chicken and sausage patties hot off the griddle. As indulgent as the food is and sounds, everything is made in house with fresh and local ingredients.

I was in heaven and a good old fashioned Southern brunch was about to be served by a team of modern day hippies… with a swag. (Come during clean up time and you’ll know what I mean)

If I could pluck a place and bring it back to Vancouver, this would be one of them. We’re not a biscuit culture, but I’ll gladly trade one of our salad bars for this. I estimate 80% of Follow Me Foodie readers would agree.

Pine State Biscuits is hands down a must try if you’re in Portland. It’s a true taste of Southern goodness without the accents, and it’s possibly the furthest South you’ll get without actually being in the South. It was everything I dreamed of, everything I wanted it to be and so much more. It was everything bad, and yet oh so good!

On the table: 

Plain Biscuit with Spread – 6/6

• Choose from: apple butter, whipped butter, local honey, local jam (marion berry or strawberry), or house made pimento cheese spread $3
• The plain biscuit is a must try if you want to really judge how good a biscuit place is.
• I was with a biscuit connoisseur and apparently these biscuits are 100% legit.
• They’re authentic and traditional and exactly how they make them in North Carolina.
• We ordered them with honey, which was very good quality honey bee farm honey, and I could taste that grainy raw sugar texture which was fantastic.

• These biscuits are made with buttermilk, but they’re noticeably more buttery and savoury before they are tangy.
• They’re fluffy and incredibly moist, soft and tender, more doughy than flaky, but not crisp, sweet or greasy, and just incredibly well layered with buttery flavour. Delicious!
• It was a very rich old fashioned biscuit, and not a fancy sweet scone that people sometimes pass off as a biscuit. They are different.
• I was actually very surprised they didn’t have a crispy top because I watched as they brushed them with melted butter and bake them for an extra few minutes before serving. Apparently authentic Northern Carolina style biscuits don’t have the crispy top though.
• Personally I actually enjoy the “modern” day gourmet biscuits with the crispy top like the ones from Urban Solace (see here), or the ones I had the night before at Tasty n Sons (see here).
• However when it comes to traditional, there’s no messing around. These are the real deal Southern style biscuits that are notorious in North Carolina.
• Tin Shed Cafe, another popular diner in Portland also offers biscuits, but those are more representable of the ones in Maine and they’re not as moist as these.

**The Reggie Deluxe Biscuit Sandwich – 6/6

• Fried chicken, bacon & cheese topped with gravy and an egg $8
• Holy sweet baby bejeezus, this was worth the wait! Don’t you just want to bite the screen? Or dip your fingers in that gravy?! If you don’t, I will!
• This is their most famous and popular biscuit sandwich that was featured on Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. It’s Triple D approved and Follow Me Foodie approved!
• Anyone that has a full one for breakfast, likely won’t be hungry until dinner. This was delicious “heart attack waiting to happen” food!
• Having it smothered with sausage gravy is definitely one of the winning factors and added bonuses to all the other ingredients already making it amazing!

• Your teeth sink straight through the tender and soft buttery layers of the fluffy biscuit and then you’re hit with crispy thick cut strips of salty bacon and a crunch of fried chicken topped with melted cheddar cheese.
• The fried chicken was perfectly fried and crisp and likely pre-brined as it retained so much moisture and flavour.
• It was a thick piece of good quality chicken breast and the batter was a solid old fashioned traditional flour batter well seasoned with salt and black pepper.
• The batter wasn’t too thick, soggy, floury or bready, and it stayed in tact with the chicken, as it always should be.
• The meat was incredibly moist and juicy and nothing about this sandwich was dry. I didn’t even sip my glass of water through it.
• The sausage gravy gave it that saucy factor that makes everything taste better.
• It was a creamy rich gravy that was peppery in flavour with juicy crumbles of fatty pork sausage and some sauteed onions.
• It’s the type of gravy you want to pour over mashed potatoes, or anything for that matter.
• It’s not really a meaty gravy and it was almost like a bechamel sauce.
• The only thing is that the egg got very lost.
• I wish the yolk was still runny so that it would drip down and absorb into my biscuit like a sponge and accompany the gravy as a natural sauce.
• A runny yolk is the only thing I wanted that would have blew my mind and made it even better. It would make it messier, but who the heck cares?

**The Chatfield Biscuit Sandwich ‐ 5/6

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