Steve’s Cheese Bar Review

Hooray!! Steve’s Cheese Bar is open!! As soon as we heard that Steve got his server’s license (Monday morning) and had received his first shipment of beer and wine (Monday afternoon) we made plans to go over there. So we did (Tuesday night). The short review: yum. Go there. For the longer review, read on….

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The cheese bar is the latest venture from Steve Jones who has been running his exceptional cheese counter inside Square Deal Wines in Northwest Portland since 2005. He specializes in small batch, handcrafted cheeses that are often hard to find. Steve has an incredible ear for a good story and is always ready and willing to share his cheese knowledge. Steve is also a lover of beer so this next step isn’t really such a leap. The idea behind the cheese bar is to serve small plates, beer and wine and still maintain his superb stock of cheese. He’s added more meats and you can either stop in and stay for awhile, lingering over a glass of wine or a pint or pick up your cheese to go along with a bottle or two.

The interior is modern yet warm with small tables and bar seating. The staff was bustling around when we were there and plenty of people were coming and going. I think this is going to be a really neat addition to the neighborhood and will be on a lot of people’s short list of favorite eateries. The Cheese Bar will be open for lunch, dinner and late night.

Thom and I ordered beers, Upright Brewing’s Dry-hopped Four for me and Daily Bread Common Ale from Everybody’s Brewing for him. Thom then ordered their stinky cheese/pickles/chorizo sandwich and I decided to go with a hunk of cheese and a cup of their moroccan carrot soup. The soup was quite a knockout and the lightly toasted hazelnuts that floated on a small bed of cream really added something special. I mean, soup is soup, right? This was really great soup! Thom’s sandwich was grilled and had a lovely piquant flavor — perfect comfort food to combat the drizzly cold weather we are having. We also ordered a side of their root gratin with a toasted breadcrumb crust that was incredibly creamy and satisfying. The secret ingredient was celery root — fantastic!

For my hunka cheese, I wanted something mild and aged and was looking for a sheep or goat. I ended up choosing the Majorero Pimentón aged goat cheese. It is rubbed with spicy pepper (pimentón) which results in a bright orange rind and imparts a slight smokey flavor to the cheese. The scent of the cheese was mild, like wet wood, and the taste was smooth, very salty with a light linger. It worked pretty well with the Upright Four which was a rich golden color and very lightly hopped. The dry-hop process creates a lighter beer and I think this might be just enough hops to pair with a few different cheeses. Heavily hopped beers are difficult pairs, I find.

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Suffice it to say, we had a great time. The prices are good and the menu has just enough variety to put together a memorable meal. They have beers both on tap and by the bottle. (We also tried Dogfish Head’s Festina Pêche, a Berliner Weisse style beer — light, zingy and unique.) You can get wine by the glass or bottle and you can, of course, have a cheese and meat plate to eat there or to go. If you go, drop me a line and tell me what you think! amanda [at] beerpluscheese [dot] com.

See more photos of the Cheese Bar on my Flickr pages.