Northeast Portland Cocktail Bar Cereus Is Now Serving Colombian Weekend Brunch

Northeast Portland cocktail bar Cereus has started serving brunch on Saturdays and Sundays, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., complete with handmade empanadas and arepas with blackberry wine reduction. The menu includes many Colombian dishes hard to find in Portland restaurants. Caldo de costilla sopa, a classic hangover cure, is hearty with short ribs. Canoas, or plantain boats, arrive filled with shredded beef, peppers, and cheese. Another plantain dish, cayeye, starts with smashed green plantains, topped with queso costeño, peppers, and either chicharron or fried tofu. For egg dishes, the bar will serve a good number of options: the rice-and-bean dish calentado, which comes topped with two sunny eggs, and an egg scramble with tomatoes and corn.

Cereus opened last year on Northeast Prescott, built on a desire to capture escapism without the fraught tropes of appropriative cocktail bars. The kitchen staff moved from Colombia to help open the restaurant, a nod to co-founder Phil Chung’s wife, Alejandra, who is from Bogotá. Chung founded Cereus with Bradley Stephens, who handles the bar’s drinks; for the brunch menu, he serves mimosas, Irish coffee, his take on a Harvey Wallbanger with Colombian aguardiente. Brunch runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Grand Fir Brewing Begins Weekday Lunch Service Next Week

Starting Tuesday, March 16, wife-husband duo Whitney Burnside (a long-celebrated brewer) and Doug Adams (a Top Chef finalist) will begin serving lunch at their brewery, Grand Fir. The menu will include things like blue cheese wedge salads, burgers, smoked wings, and pimento cheese, alongside sides like fries and beer nuts. Lunch runs from noon to 3 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday.

Workshop Will Bring Back Chef Aaron Adams’ Tasting Menu

Starting May 19, Workshop — the cocktail bar next to popular vegan deli Fermenter — will transition away from cocktail snacks and lean into a tasting menu-style experience similar to Adams’ legendary, now-closed restaurant Farm Spirit. The menu will include around five courses, changing often, exploring Adams’ culinary family history and produce from the Pacific Northwest. Vegan caviar service and koji-fermented vegetable charcuterie, two early standouts from Workshop’s menu, will continue to be available as supplemental courses. Tastings start at $75 per person, with a $100 chef’s counter tasting.