Going Out No. 11: Tabor Bread
For breakfast, lunch, and now dinner!
Welcome! This is the “Going Out” edition of Riley’s Recs, where I review a restaurant, bar, or activity here in Portland. Every Sunday, I also share “Staying In” recipe recommendations for your week. Check out pdxrecs.com for even more recommendations and follow RR on Instagram at @rileysrecs. Enjoy!
Behind the glass display case at Tabor Bread, pastries pose on ceramic plates and cake stands, each daring to be picked. As one tray empties, another is filled, relieving the anxiety of the hungry customers who wait in a line that snakes out the door and onto the sidewalk of SE Belmont.
Tabor Bread knows good things take time. As a bakery (and now restaurant) they’ve taken on the task of sourdough—eschewing commercial yeast and processed flours in favor of naturally leavened yeast and whole grains. Naturally occurring yeast, which lives everywhere from the skins of fruit to the surface of grains, inspires the dough to rise. It’s how bread was made for thousands of years.
Sourdough at home, with time and attention, is conquerable. Sourdough, at the commercial level, is a science. To achieve your desired flavor and texture, you must manipulate dozens of little details. The water temperature used to autolyse the dough can’t be too hot or too cold. The rise has to occur at the right temperature, for the right amount of time. And, on top of all this, you have to know how to multiply everything for high-volume bakes while also dealing with price and inventory fluctuations. Stressful. But the delicious complexity of naturally leavened bread puts dry, dense grocery-store loaves to shame.
This commitment to process and quality is what’s earned Tabor Bread a loyal following. First, at their original location on SE Hawthorne, and now a few blocks away on Belmont. With the new location came new ownership, expanded seating, and a new weekend-only dinner service. But artisanal, leavened bread remains the through-line no matter the meal.
Breakfast & Lunch
Price for two including tip: $29
To eat: seasonal danish, chocolate banana muffin, and strawberry sourdough brioche
To drink: drip coffee
Tabor Bread delivers on the traditional expectations of a cafe. There are baked goods, coffee, sandwiches, and quiche; white oak tables and chairs line the back wall. It’s cozy and comfortable, and a popular choice for parents with kids at nearby Glencoe Elementary.
What is untraditional about Tabor Bread is the pastries themselves, most of which are sourdough-based. It’s good for you to know that prior to your visit. Not everybody enjoys the characteristic tang of sourdough when they bite into a croissant. This is not to say that the pastries are adventurous—they are, after all, a combination of wheat, butter, salt, and sugar—but it will explain why some of the baked goods can feel hit or miss depending on your preference and palate. What I’m trying to say is: their donut will not taste like other donuts.
If you’re unsure of what to order, the chocolate babka is my fail-safe. The naturally leavened babka, which is braided into a muffin shape to reveal alternating ribbons of dark chocolate and glossy dough, is always an excellent choice.
There’s also the seasonal danish. The beautiful, beautiful seasonal danish. It’s a square-shaped croissant that frames a delicate custard center topped with whatever fruit is—you guessed it—in season. At $8, you might think to skip. But it’s one of the best items in the case.
If you’re ready for lunch or feeling something more substantial, there’s a limited menu of sandwiches to choose from in addition to things like bagels and quiche. But go for the sandwich! It’s hard for me to imagine a more appetizing sandwich description than their Capicola, which reads “thinly sliced capicola ham, farm greens, cornichons, whole-grain mustard and salted butter on a freshly baked sourdough baguette.” These can be ordered to stay or wrapped up in butcher paper to go.
As you may have guessed, Tabor Bread is conveniently located near Mt. Tabor, so grabbing sandwiches along with a few cookies for a mid-day picnic wouldn’t be a terrible idea.
Dinner
Price for two including tip: $85
To eat: radicchio salad, confit potatoes, and autumn pie
To drink: Monument Pinot Noir/Syrah x2
I generally try to avoid dining at, let alone reviewing, a new restaurant. Not to overstate my restaurant experience, but if running a pop-up taught me anything, it’s just how much can go wrong when you’re first getting started. I get second-hand anxiety if the timing between dishes takes too long or the team is clearly scrambling to get everyone seated.
But I was pleasantly surprised by the dining experience at Tabor Bread’s new weekend-only dinner service. I have notes (dimmer lighting would go such a long way, and I’d love to sit near the beautiful front windows!), but they have a tight menu, lovely servers, and a superior wine list.
The best way I can think to describe the cuisine is Euro-comfort food that’s meant to pair well with bread. There are smaller, spreadable dishes like the burrata with apple butter and fennel or the liver pate with tomato chutney and chives. And larger dishes like the cavatelli with chanterelles and the autumn chicken pot pie.
Everything, although inherently rich and heavy, was presented delicately with precision and care. The chef, José Sabas, who comes to Tabor Bread via G-Love and Grape Ape, is giving it 100. He peeped into the dining room a few times to check on us diners, clearly unable to resist the validation of seeing people enjoy the food you’ve put your life into. He should be proud to have, along with his team, pulled off such a seamless opening.
While I found the confit potatoes to be a little too heavy-handed on the anchovy, everything we ate was delicious. The pot pie’s glistening brown crust made my jaw drop, and the bread and butter that’s placed on every table was a nice touch (I’ll let you visit and see that presentation for yourself!).
We paired our meal with a glass of Monument’s Pinot Noir/Syrah. If you haven’t tried Monument, it’s a teeny organic winery that’s putting out delicious small-batch wine, and I recommend! But if you’re looking for an orange or something lighter, you’ll find that, too. The wine list impressed for a little bakery on a residential street corner.
With its big windows and small menu, dining at Tabor Bread felt like dining in France. A three-course $35 set menu would do well here. But as a neighbor and regular visitor, I’m grateful to be able to mix and match as I return again and again.
You can make a reservation for dinner this weekend here.
*Editor’s Note: Tabor Bread has paused dinner service as of 11/01/24.