Going Out No. 13: Luce & Navarre
Take your out-of-town guests here this Thanksgiving.
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. Don’t forget to check out pdxrecs.com for even more recommendations and follow RR on Instagram at @rileysrecs. Enjoy!
You’re probably getting served a lot of stuffing and pumpkin pie content right now. But I’m not here to sell you on another pie crust recipe. You already know what you’re cooking next week. Instead, I’m here to tell you to go out to dinner.
There’s going to come a time when you’re sick of washing dishes or going stir crazy with out-of-town guests and can’t fathom doing any more cooking. This is when you should get everybody in the car and go to Luce or Navarre, two of my favorite restaurants in Portland that happen to be located within a few blocks of each other.
Both are part of John Taboada and Giovanna Parolari’s ownership group, along with the cocktail bar Angel Face and women’s clothing and jewelry store, Una. What do they all have in common? Impeccable taste and SE Portland zip codes.
I recommend Navarre and Luce, specifically, because both offer a simple promise: order whatever you want, in any order you want, and in any portion size you want.
You can’t go wrong.
(Unless you’re a large party and don’t make reservations. Any group greater than six should call ahead!)
Meal: Dinner
Price for two including tip: $75
To eat: marinated carrots, arancini, salt focaccia, half portion fennel w/ celery and dill, half portion of corzetti with walnut ricotta pesto, and baked stuffed trout.
To drink: house red (x2)
With its checkered floors and exposed pantry, Luce is impossibly charming. Passersby can’t help but glance through the large street-facing windows to see couples and friends sitting around candlelit tables and servers weaving their way through the tight dining room carrying plates of pasta.
The space feels authentically inauthentic to Portland: genuine in its aesthetic and goals but also unlike anywhere else in this city. Like its sister restaurant Navarre, at Luce you feel like you’ve been transported to Europe, where wine is cheap, plates are small, and dinner lingers.
It’s a food writing cliche to compare restaurants here to European ones. But whatever, I’m going to! What makes the food so exquisitely delicious in Parisian bistros or Italian cafes is the emphasis on fresh, local ingredients and simple preparation. And that’s exactly the goal at Luce. Both Luce and Navarre source most of their food from a CSA (47th Avenue Farms) and rotate dishes seasonally based on availability.
There are pickles and marinated beans and seared steaks and semifreddos with dollops of whipped cream. It’s how I wish I could cook at home. Chefs keep trying to tell us that the best cooking is balanced and simple. Luce shows it.
When you go, I would begin with a few small dishes like the marinated carrots, crostini with salt cod, or eggplant polpette (all $2 each). This little antipasti menu is the closest thing I’ve seen to actual tapas in this city. Or maybe I just love it because it’s like the thrill of going to Claire’s — pick five pieces for just $10!
Next, if I were dining alone, I would get the cappelleti in brodo. Circular pasta in broth. It feels like my Ratatouille dish. The meal that transports you to your childhood kitchen table where you slurped on chicken noodle soup feeling comforted by food without the burden of overthinking it.
Before getting to the mains, don’t forget about salad. At Luce, they are dressed lightly, letting fresh, vibrant vegetables and greens do the heavy lifting. A recent menu included cantaloupe with cucumber and mint and mixed greens with herbs. Constructing the perfect order is easy with dishes like these.
Then, the entrees. There is steak—a buttery fleshy mainstay—along with fish and a host of toothsome pastas like corzetti with walnut ricotta pesto and pappardelle with rabbit. To pair, order a glass of wine. Or a whole bottle. It will be poured into bistro glasses (my favorite) and priced competitively. It’ll feel like you’re paying for off-the-shelf wine, which you are, since Luce is also a small store with wine, tinned fish, tomatoes, and other imported goods.
If you still have room, consider the panna cotta with pine bud syrup. Is there a better way to end a meal?
Meal: Dinner
Price for two including tip: $108
To eat: Ken’s Artisan Bread and French butter, leeks with fennel pollen, squash with honey and oregano, lamb and winter green crepinettes, cheese plate, and apple tarte tatin (half portions of all except tart)
To drink: 2/3 bottle Rhone Valley red
Last summer my family and I traveled to my mom’s hometown on the Finger Lakes in upstate New York. It’s a place that truly contains multitudes—there are NASCAR tracks, organic wineries, and old-timey cannoli shops all surrounding Seneca Lake. Now that I’m an adult and not just interested in inner tubing, I wanted to do some wine tasting. I remembered that earlier that year a server at Navarre had recommended a wine from a Finger Lakes winemaker, Osmote. So I looked it up: 27 Google Reviews, a few picnic tables, and farm pigs? A teeny tiny operation.
If that’s a not a testament to the quality and precision of Navarre’s wine program, I don’t know what is.
Beyond wine—which can delightfully be ordered by the 1/3 or 2/3 bottle—you’ll find a large, seasonal menu. It’s written in pen on the window (love) and printed on clipboards at your table, which you’ll use to place your orders throughout the evening. I’m into this approach. Like the sushi train, being able to order as you go is playful and breaks the monotony of a typical dinner service.
Seasonality is king. Right now, you’ll find vegetables like leeks with fennel pollen, celery root with olive oil and sea salt, and squash with honey and oregano. And greens like chicories with quince vinaigrette, kale with lemon and grana padano, or herb and beet salad.
For those with CSAs, you might not be able to stomach another turnip or rutabaga. But I’m here to tell you that you can and you will. You’ll pair it with salt cod and potatoes or lamb and winter green crepinettes. A glass of wine. A plate of cheese. Maybe the sticky honey apple tarte tatin.
It’s a pleasurable dining experience at Navarre. Sure, the lighting needs perfecting. The fact that the bathroom is too close to the back tables is a drag. But maybe I’m just fresh off the dining experience or simply too in love with Portland food itself, but GOD DOES NAVARRE HIT. It’s comfort, warmth, hospitality.
Other Places to Take Guests
Angel Face: Located next door to Navarre, this bespoke cocktail bar has no menu. Simply tell the bartender your preferred liquor and tasting notes, and they’ll take it from there.
The Miracle Bar at Deadshot: One of Portland’s only Christmas bars also happens to be one of Portland’s best bars. Head to Deadshot for top-tier cocktails made in Santa mugs. Reservations required and fill up fast.
Bridgeport Village: Oregon doesn’t have sales tax. So let’s go to the mall. Take your out-of-town relatives to the ‘burbs.
Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge: This is a bird sanctuary in the middle of Portland. There’s a 2.5-mile loop that goes around the small wetland. Dogs allowed but must be leashed. Afterwards, get coffee and pastries at Grand Central Bakery in Sellwood.
Hollywood Theater: running out of things to talk about? Everyone on each other’s nerves? Go see a movie. Ideally at a historic theater like Hollywood.
Portland Art Museum & Higgins: Paul McCartney’s photographs are currently on display. Get tickets and then chill out with a martini at Higgins down the street.