Portland, OR – Nancy’s Kitchen

At dinner the other night at 23Hoyt, my companion was talking up the burgers at Nancy’s Kitchen, so he invited me to try one today. I’ve heard and read about the meat patties from a variety of online sources, so I was more than happy to accept his invitation.

Located in an upscale strip mall (is that an oxymoron?) in the Pearl District in NW Portland, Nancy’s offers French & American cuisine and gets huge raves from reviewers for their amply-sized portion breakfasts.

(Sidebar:) OK, I took the phrase “upscale strip mall” from something else I read. It’s not. It’s the cafe and a hardware store, with another slot vacant. When I first read “upscale strip mall”, I was thinking like a Cartier Boutique.

Anyway, the place wasn’t busy, I thought it would be for weekend breakfast, the menu of which looks very promising. I posted the breakfast menu at Urban Spoon.

We sat down, he’s a regular, the staff recognized him, and asked after his wife. Drink orders taken (me a chocolate malt, HE A DIET COKE), we perused a menu placed in front of us for no reason, we were there for burgers.

“Friend,” I asked, “what’s the special sauce?” He replied that he didn’t know, he used to order the patties without it, but now he doesn’t, for he said it was the sauce that made them stand above the mundane (I believe he cited Carl’s Jr as an example of mundane).

The server asked if we wanted tomato and onion, we both passed on the tomato, accepted the onions, he went with his burger au natural, I went with a slab o’ Tillamook Cheddar. Every day chips come as the side, you can substitute or tater salad or an additional sum. It would seem Nancy’s is sans a deep fryer.

After a very short wait, our burgers came, they were pretty, the buns soft and buttery, and the special sauce (methinks mayo and thousand) did add a nice touch. I’m not usually one for “special sauce,” but in this case, I went with it to judge the burger as the chef intended.

It’s a good burger. Spendy, but a worth addition to BDB’s rounds in PDX Burgerland.

Thanks, Bill.

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