Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan

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June 24, 2011 By cheryl

Thistle (McMinnville, Oregon): The Best of Oregon

There have been many questions since the return to New York following a short book tour and road trip, idyllic and beautiful, along the lush green coast of the Pacific Northwest.

The burning question hasn’t been, “How did your readings go?” Mind you. Rather, the first question that slips out as soon as politely possible is: “OK, where did you eat?”

This being a somewhat book-centric trip — thank you Seattle and Portland for organizing such lovely A Tiger in the Kitchen soirees! — the time for restaurant-hopping wasn’t plenty. Among the several restaurants I did sample, though, one firmly sunk its chompers in me and hasn’t let go: Thistle, a deliciously charming little spot in McMinnville, Oregon, that manages to out-Brooklyn the wave of recent trendy Brooklyn restaurants branding themselves as farm-to-table havens.

After raving like a lunatic about this Oregon restaurant that that serves up amazing hyper-locavore Americana — all made with ingredients from neighboring farms (and a co-owner’s mom’s garden sometimes) — that could put many of its big-city counterparts to shame, I felt a little vindicated yesterday when I learned that The Oregonian had named Thistle its 2011 Restaurant of the Year (in the entire state of Oregon) this week. As soon as the smug joy subsided, however, I needed a Thistle fix.

So, out came the photos and the reverie began…

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Filed Under: Locavore, Oregon, Restaurants, Tales From the Road Tagged With: Bacon, Chinook, Emily Howard, Eric Bechard, Fried Egg, Gnocchi, Iowa, Lance Armstrong, Locavore, McMinnville, Mustard, New York City, Oregon, Parsnip Cake, Pickles, Pig, Pork, Portland, Potato, Salmon, Stinging Nettles, Terrine, The Oregonian, Thistle, Willamette Valley, Wine Country

November 21, 2010 By cheryl

The Shop at Andaz Fifth Avenue: Style, With Some Substance


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As hotel restaurants go, the shop at Andaz Fifth Avenue tries pretty hard.

Determined to cast itself as a New York restaurant, it likes to broadcast just how local it is. Its Web site rattles off a litany of New York purveyors — eggs hail from Feather Ridge Farm in the Hudson Valley; lox comes from Russ & Daughters on Manhattan's Lower East Side, which has been providing New Yorkers with smoked fish since 1914. And there's even a self-conscious little area that sells snacks made by small, lesser-known brands in New York.

This is all in line with the in-the-know feel that the hotel, part of Hyatt Hotels & Resorts' chain of boutique properties, tries to give off. It's a pretentiousness you can already sense from the fact that it is the shop — spelled all lowercase, the hotel insists — and not, well, The Shop. (You'll have to check out my review of the hotel in the New York Times Travel section for more on this Andaz.)

How would the food stack up against all this posing? We decided to find out …

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Filed Under: Breakfast, Brunch, Hotels, Locavore, New York, Restaurants Tagged With: Anchovies, Andaz Fifth Avenue, Apple, Berkshire pork, Bloody Mary, Bolognese, Bone-in Virginia Ham, Books, Breadcrumbs, Breakfast, Brioche, Brunch, Cafe Des Artistes, Capers, Chicken Schnitzel, Cinnamon, Coffee, Compote, Crema, Eggs, English peas, Feather Ridge Farm, Fish, French toast, Greens, Griddle bread, Hotel, Hudson Valley, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, Manhattan, Meatballs, Mimosa, Mint, New York, New York Times, Orange marmalade, Pastries, Raison, Restaurant, Roberto Alicea, Russ & Daughters, Sam Sifton, Schaller & Weber, Tarragon, The Shop, Thyme, Tomato, Travel, Wall on Water

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