PortlandPicks.com - May 12, 2006

Wild on Wildwood

When we told people we had dinner at Wildwood, everyone was like, “Ooh, that’s the place with the celebrity chef who started the whole local/seasonal/organic thing.” That’s true, but what they didn’t know is that chef Cory Schreiber also is a board vice president for the Sauvie Island Center, which teaches children and adults about “food, farming, and the land.”

So Cory is not only cooking with wonderful ingredients (which won him a James Beard Award in 1998 for Best Chef in the Pacific Northwest), but he’s also educating people about the importance of sustainable farming.

And the food is so good at Wildwood. The ingredients – not surprisingly – are stellar, and the bold flavors (a salad of ruby grapefruit and sorrel with crème fraiche and toasted pistachios, house-smoked Monterey Bay mackerel on smoky bacon with braised dandelion greens and sauce gribiche, pan-seared Alaskan halibut on a crushed potato-artichoke cake with pea vines and Manila clam vinaigrette) are not to be believed!

Wildwood is a gorgeous place, too, with fantastical rounded wood ceilings, modern art, white tablecloths and a just-loud-enough energy to balance intimate conversations with the feeling of being in a big city. It’s true! We are wild on Wildwood! Learn and enjoy!

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