Portlandia Meets Old Portland, Medium Rare

Monday evening I came by Red's place just after she got off her clinic shift. When I got out of my car, the first thing I said to her was "How 'bout steaks?"

She thought it was a great idea.

"Ever been to Sayler's?" I asked her. It was only a few miles from her place. She hadn't heard of it.

"Excellent," I said. "Then that's where we're going tonight."

I added, "It's old Portland."

We got in her car and I guided us there---east down Burnside until it forks off to become Washington,  then across the freeway past 105th Avenue and loop back around on Stark.

We pulled in the parking lot a little before eight. It was almost full. As we walked towards the side entrance, Red took delight in the restaurant's towering outdoor sign---a rotating polygon showing a cooked steak on both sides.

Inside the place was humming. Most of the tables were occupied, but the hostess at the front door, upon hearing our request for a table for two, immediately picked up a pair of the steak-shaped menus and led us to a free booth.

Red ordered a rib-eye, and I, a New York strip. We both got the salad (over soup) and a baked potato (over other starchy sides). All was delicious and served just as one would want.

I love these kinds of steakhouses, especially the ones like this one that all seem to date from right after World War II. Sayler's Old Country Kitchen, as it is properly called, was founded in 1946.

Red loved it too. She said was it like the places she knew back in Ohio where her grandparents lived.

"People think of Portland as being full of hipsters," I said. "But when I think of Portland, this is the kind of place I think of."

Of course we were the hipsters that night. "If only they offered mixed vegetables as a side dish," I lamented. "Then it would be truly perfect."