Belly Timber

Awww shiesh! How and why did Belly Timber close???
They had an amazing salmon and chard. I am biased against victorian houses turned restuarants, especially with outdoor seating on the porch that surrounds the front and side of the house. Just like home, yeah right I wish I had an old victorian house to enjoy my dinner and drank while the sun sets. Oh well, not happening anymore, hope Belly TImber finds a new home soon!

Closed? Says the sign on the door dated ⁵⁄₁₉?
Oh no!

What a disappointment Belly Timber was last Saturday night (4÷18÷10). We should have been warned by the fact that the place had lots of space at the prime Saturday night dinner hour. We started at the bar where I wanted to buy my two dinner companions drinks. The bartender was frantically trying to make the creative drinks Belly Timber offers but had to keep checking recipes which slowed down the process. We finally got the drinks but had to put them on our dinner tab because it was too much for him to take money too. I’d hate to see that bar when the place was really full.
(Word of warning: don’t order the drinks with the apple wood smoked bourbon unless you enjoy a salty drink.)
For dinner we ordered three small plates and two entrees. The first thing to go wrong was that all the dishes were served cold. My assumption is that they sat for quite some time before our waitress finally delivered them. From there it went downhill. The much lauded french fries with bone marrow aioli came, as said, cold with what was quite obviously plain old mayonnaise with a tiny bit of garlic. No bone marrow was used in that aioli except maybe waved over it as it passed through the kitchen. The filling of the lamb ravioli was tasty but the pasta was tough and the cold broth they were served in was bland. The pork chop was also tough and the sauce rather tasteless
We asked three times for a wine list from our waitress. When she finally remembered we were already having our entrees and decided to just pass on it.
Most of the dishes needed more flavor. I would expect to get decent salt to use rather than regular old salt in a tiny shaker which is what was grudgingly delivered to our table upon request.
In a restaurant town like Portland you can’t get away wtih bland, poorly presented food. The building is beautiful.

Maybe it was the 4 stars on Unilocal or that I had held high expectations after reading some reviews, but this place had really disappointed me. I started my visit with a cup of hot chocolate and ordered the sausage scramble and may I say there was nothing unique about it. Personally I found the sausage scramble from Screen Door was much better, appearance and taste wise. In addition, Screen Door’s hot chocolate with home made vanilla whip cream was WAY better than Belly Timber’s water down version. I had drenched my meal with hot sauce because I found that there wasn’t much flavor that excited my taste bugs (that is besides the saltness from the over salted potatoes). Maybe the cook had unintentionally added too little seasoning and too much salt that day, but I will not be giving this place another try to redeem themselves.

Maybe it was because the restaurant had the name ‘Belly’ in it. Maybe it was the hype I built up in my own head about weekend brunch in Portland that I had gone without for several weeks. Maybe it was the 4.5 star rating on Unilocal.
But this place was such a disappointment. It did not live up to it’s name. It did not live up to the hype. And sadly, it did not live up to it’s Unilocal reviews.
The food wasn’t bad by any means. It was merely just ok. And that just doesn’t do it for Sunday Brunch in Portland, the Brunchie capital of the nation.
With a ½ empty restaurant it took longer than normal for our food to arrive– after we were seated it took over 40 minutes. When the food arrived we asked «where’s the rest?» the portions are small for the price for Portland standards. My salmon BLT was pretty good, but ordered it with a bone marrow aioli which just didn’t wow like the name suggested it would. My friend’s pork belly was dry and a bit bland. I really wanted to love this place. The catchy name, the friendly staff, the cool redone victorian house, but the food just didn’t measure up.

I am so glad I ran into an old friend on my trip to Portland a couple months back and she recommended this fabulous place to me!
We got there fairly early in the day, so there was no wait.
They were offering a Unilocal 3 course meal, but we decided to try some other things off the menu.
I can’t remember my entrée, but I do remember that the bone marrow aioli french fries were to die for! And their drink menu was extensive and tasty!
This was a great place to just spend a couple hours eating good food, enjoying excellent service, and relaxing in a beautiful, Victorian décor!

I have a weird mental hangup. No, not that. Sorry, not THAT either. Stop guessing! GOD. Anyway, I am always a little hesitant about trying new places because I have a tiny anxiety about what the ordering/​seating procedure will be. It’s dumb and easily quelled but it is present enough at restaurant-​decision-​making-​time (aka 5:30 Friday nights) that I will often opt for a tried and true rather than somewhere new. Well, logic and bravery prevailed this past Friday. I actually made a reservation at a place I had not been before. Yes, it was Belly Timber. Small victories made for personal dining triumph this night.
Firstly, the space itself is terrific and inviting. There’s a lot of dark wood and elegant lighting fixtures. Perhaps it is because the building is Victorian that it FEELS Victorian, although my wife thought the fixtures were more Georgian. She’d know, I wouldn’t.
The wine she ordered escapes me but I was told it was excellent. I ordered a Fat Straw which had tequila and pomegranate in it. WOW, was this a tasty and well-​balanced drink. Because it was happy hour, it was $ 5. Best drink for a sawbuck I’ve had in ages. Our waiter brought us some bread, butter and house-​blended salts to get us started. We were peckish so it was devoured in moments. The salts were interesting and one of those finishing touches that aren’t necessary to enjoy but shows the attention to detail you get when in a fine restaurant.
I was prejudiced by looking at the menu before arriving so I ordered what I was craving… a burger. Don’t start. I chalk it up to my own quest for discovering Portland’s best burger. BT’s burger puts ‘em on the glass along side Slow Bar, Castagne and Country Cat as far as the best that I’ve tried. The meat was very good and the bun it come on was solid, like Mark Wahlberg, in whatever sense you want to take that, whether it be acting chops, buffness, or musical skillz. It was all that but with a side of housecut fries instead of a bag of chips.
My wife was the more adventurous of us this evening. She ordered the rye dumpling dish and I talked her into getting a side of the creamy collards. She about did backflips. It was one of those meals that comes out of left field to not only expand the consciousness of one’s palate but instantly becomes something one craves. I’m not a fan of rye anything but I had a taste and, yes, it was rye in your face alright. She would definitely order this again on our next visit. I snuck a few bites of the collards and wowwy wow wow, were they good. I’m positive they are in no way vegan so steer clear if you are of that inclination. They had so much flavor of both the stock they were cooked in as well as the collards themselves. Neither flavor overwhelmed the other. They danced hand in hand down the tastebud rainbow.
I could not and would not, leave until I tried the candied bacon I’ve heard so much about. For $ 2, you get two 2 inch pieces of sugared bacon that has been cooked, dusted and then dehydrated. I can’t say that it was the best thing ever but it was good and I’m glad I tried it. I asked our very helpful and attentive waiter if there were any other flavors in it as I thought I tasted some spices that I could not place. He said the only ingredients were sugar and bacon. I was probably projecting flavors onto it but the taste was more complex than the ingredients would indicate.
Everything we had was top notch and we never lacked anything we needed. The waitstaff was MONEY. We asked what kind of cuisine they would characterize it as because, while Unilocal says French, it’s more of a mongrel (in a good way) than that. It’s a bit French, some Southern US, and some others but none dominating the rest.
Now that Belly Timber has gotten all up in my guts, I’ll never be scurred again.

Looking for a nice place to eat while visiting Portland, I stumbled upon this place in a restaurant guide for best places to eat from 2009. The first thing that caught my attention was the name. «What does that mean?» I thought. It was Victorian slang for food of all sorts. That’s appropriate since the restaurant is housed in a Victorian-​style home. The ambiance is really nice and cozy, but it was a little bit creepy that we were the only customers there for dinner service at around 7:30.
A quick look at the menu suggests that they love their pork here. Right off the bat, there is a series of pork appetizers done several ways to appease those pig-​loving customers. We tried the pork butt (er) & house pickles. The spread was a little on the salty side, but when eaten with the bread and pickles, there’s a nice balance between sweet, salty, and savory. The pork butt (er) had a foie gras-​like texture, but a meatier taste. We also tried a complimentary small plate of fried chickpeas, which were pretty addictive. It was like munching on popcorn.
For entrees, you have your choice of a small or full portion, which gives you the flexibility of trying a couple smaller dishes. I opted to go for the full size portion of the pork shoulder chop, with lentils, broccoli rabe, and smoked sausage. I had my doubts when the waitress told me the pork was cooked sous-​vide overnight. I’ve heard of cooking fish and chicken, but not red meat with plenty of fat. The chop itself had little flavor and the texture was very spam-​like. I did enjoy the smoked sausages, which were full of flavor, but most of the dish (pork chop and sausage) was very salty and there was no contrast to that in the dish. The lentils and broccoli were fine.
I was also curious of their bone marrow aioli, so how could I not try a side of fries. I loved bone marrow when I tried it in osso buco, but the bone marrow aioli was not my cup of tea. It literally tasted like blood (the metallic, iron taste), so I left that alone for the most part.
For dessert, we had the crème fraîche panna cotta with spiced banana & maple syrup. This was actually pretty good and according to the waitress they are taking it off the menu soon so it would be a good time to try it. Overall, this place gets more of a 3.5 stars, but I’ll be generous because of their playoff pork menu and the nice ambiance of dining set in an old Victorian house.

I have never… ever…ever …finished a whole steak and all its goodies in one sitting… but I literally could not stop eating at Belly Timber…
First off. I was worried with the idea of being «french» that I would feel out of place or… well…just uncomfortable. Pulling into the tiny parkinglot off Hawthorne. I felt that feeling grow as I looked up at the beautiful victorian house that would be having me in for dinner…
The hostess was average… not overly friendly and not cold… she promptly sat us. I stared at the menu for a good while as I saw food come out from the kitchen and fill the tables around me…
The waitress was enthusiastic about the drinks so I left it up to her. She came back with this ginger thing that almost scared me… I took a sip and my brain said. «why are you licking an incent??» Like the one you buy at your local ethic food shop… seriously. my taste buds kept telling my brain. SHE IS LICKING AN INCENT!!! (or however you spell it)
But as I sipped on the cocktail I found that no matter how loud my brain shouted at me. that I was not disgusted. I rather enjoyed the crazy cocktail… and found myself finishing it and asking for another one. not the same one of course but something else to give my brain and mouth more room to argue…
After ordering I was overjoyed at the look of my food. It was a thinly sliced steak with fries… sprinkled with truffles and truffle oil…
Maybe I have never had the right kind of truffles but wow… a slap in the face. cocktail thrown to the side… I threw myself face first into one of the best meals I have ever had…
Sadly. I never got the chance to return… but I still share the story of my crazy cocktail with every bartender I get the chance to speak to… it blew me away…
When I visit Portland. I will be totally visiting Belly Timber =)

I’ve been here twice now, and both times I’ve come away unimpressed. It’s not that Belly Timber is bad, but I can’t think of a single thing that sets it apart from the multitude of other expensive-​ish PacNW restaurants in the city. Granted, what Belly Timber seems to specialize in is meat products, and I don’t eat those, so perhaps I’m missing out on the best items on the menu. There’s an entire section dedicated to pork (you can even order a tail), vegetable dishes hide anchovies and ham, and even the fries come with bone marrow aioli. Consequently, I was not expecting greatness from any of the vegetarian dishes, but everything I’ve ordered has been bland and uninspiring, something I could have easily made and improved upon at home. Restaurants of the world, if I have to pay $ 14 for another stupid plate of roasted squash, I will hit you right in the teeth.
You know what, though? The fried chickpeas are really great, and so are the flavored salts they give you with your bread and butter. (I also like those garlic breadsticks they give you at Olive Garden, but that doesn’t mean I’m ever going back.) The service is good, and there ARE some pretty great combinations on the cocktail menu; even the old standards have some new, exciting twists (an Old Fashioned with cinnamon cayenne bitters!). However, I was nearly thrown into a rage when my Sazerac showed up in a martini glass. OH, HEAVENS. I’m no snob, but I want my bourbon in a manly tumbler, not «absinthe scented» stemware. This also begs the question: if you can make your glassware smell like something else, why can’t you make your vegetables taste like anything? I’m just sayin’.

Belly Timber serves good food and fancy drinks in a goregous old home. It definitely gets +1 star for the beautifully restored Victorian (including the bathroom!). We enjoyed our shared meal of small plates, although not quite as much as Observatory and Navarre, which we enjoyed earlier on our trip. Belly Timber only wins the atmosphere category.
Favorites: pork rillette (spreadable pork fat for your break… delicious!), orzo with corn, and quail with creamy polenta
Less than favorite: trout (blah even with cucumbers, which are my favorite food) and fried chickpeas which were too salty for most of our party
I would definitely go back to Belly Timber for the winning service and surroundings. I would probably order the larger portions of the things we liked, or maybe try something new. The prices were reasonable as well.

We came here for brunch after we’ve tried their amazing dinner and the amazing cocktails from Bradley. Sadly, for me, the brunch wasn’t up «there» compared to the dinner.
I ordered the Pork Belly Benedict and it was just ok. The pork belly was a little bit underdone and the Hollandaise sauce was more on the thick side.
The service was good, but the amazing bartender, Bradley is no longer there. My DL got the Bloody Mary and it was weak with more Tomato juice than the vodka. We will still come back here for dinner, but surely Belly Timber is not a «must» destination for amazing cocktails any longer. Maybe if they hired another super amazing and talented bartender. Then we can have more merry drinks there.

Belly Timber has A/​C. Yes!
I’m lovin’ on French-​inspired cuisine, just like what they have here. And I think prices are amazingly cheap.
The escargot starter is incredible. It’s off the charts on the delicious index!
The complimentary bread is excellent. It’s served on a plate with butter, carrot-​cumin salt and a nice blend of powdered green olive and oregano. Absolutely divine flavors. They are eager to bring you more bread if you want more, and we sure did!
Choosing between our two entrees, I say, get the quail. It is perfect in every way (crispiness, freshness and seasoning). It comes with great vegetables. The white sauce for the quail has a nice smooth texture but actually, no flavor. The sauce is like a stage prop, though it looks good and everything, it must be for appearance’s sake only.
The pork steak is excellent. We speculated on how they got the pork to be so tender, guessing perhaps with a marinade. It was seasoned very well. The pork came with grilled peach sections and a wedge of pungent grilled ratatouille. Perfectly prepared.
I loved our waitress’s enthusiasm about the dishes when I asked her questions about them.
Of course, we wanted dessert. The Ruby port with dessert was great. Very smooth. I might would have liked it to be more musky, but still it was really good.
The goat cheese dessert is interesting. There is a definite goat flavor. Our waitress asked us if there was a more correct word in English for «goaty». Goaty may not be a real word, but it conveys the dessert flavor a lot better than «goatlike» or «goatish.» Underneath an overwhelming amount of a crumbled pecan topping, a nicely textured custard lies in wait. Beneath the custard are pleasing cold wedges of fruit (peach, apple, pear?). All in all, a beautifully crafted dish. But it’s fair to note that if you are not a big cheesecake fan, pick something else.
Remember, the fine dishes here do take a while to prepare. But it will be very well worth your wait!
Just an observation, voices magnify in the cozy dining rooms. Three old guys were drinking beer, reminiscing and philosophizing in the corner loudly, pretty much drowning out everyone else. Just be mindful of your conversation volume here.

Yep, this is true Portland foodie nirvana [see pics]. Half-​size orders and cheap starters ideal for OCD gourmands (i.e., my friends & me) who must try every frackin’ thing on the menu.
FAVORITE DISHES in descending order of guilty pleasure: roast quail, smoky good crab cakes, flatiron steak (yep, it’s delicious rare) red cabbage gazpacho, house rillette (a ham hock pâté), the small-​batched vegetable pickles, fries with bone marrow aioli.
FAVORITE DRINKS: the Rosalita (a subtle St. Germain elder flower concoction), the BT Collins with gangsta-​smoked vodka.
STAFF: Excellent. Our server was the much Unilocaled about mixologist Bradley, who happily answered our onslaught of Coloradan culinary queries with unbreakable enthusiasm.

I am an «escargot virgin» no more. BT’s version was a delectable, buttery presentation. So glad they served them de-​shelled, although my companion– who had also never had escargot before– said that she would’ve appreciated the experience of digging them out of the shells. We both didn’t care after our first bites.
Try BT’s «delicate meats» plate as well. The liver mousse is splendid, and the three different types of mustard served on the plate offered multifaceted layers of taste with every bite.
Man, I love this place!
p. s. Tried their Sazerac last night and I’m afraid I’m hooked. Darn you, Bradley…

Mr. Timber,
While your level of innovation and passion are laudable, we regret to inform you that we do not feel that you are the right candidate for this position. As a progressive group we strive for not only someone who is pushing the envelope in a gastronomic sense, we’re ultimately looking for execution. It is true that we take in things as a whole and the quaint Victorian architecture lends a nostalgic ambiance that is not lost on us. It’s merely a backdrop for the food and as we all know, all aspects are not weighted equally. Service though genial can be brittle, because while your reputation may precede you, it’s not something you can bank on for the future. We expect to be impressed by your singular endeavors here in the now.
Your amuse bouche while playful was an unsuccessful combination of disparate flavors; the candied olive tapenade on toasted baguette slices tasted like sweetened loam. The beets with endive, walnuts and bleu cheese had a good mixture of bitter, sweet, and creamy but was otherwise a staid classic. Although the chestnut gnocchi were perfectly cooked with a light and fluffy texture, the lamb ragout it came with didn’t appear to have any lamb and was rather oily and bland. The roasted pork loin with brussels sprouts, prunes, and trotters also seemed lacking in depth. Once again there was the interplay between sweet and bitter but no spice, no deeper layer beyond the veneer.
Your commitment to quality ingredients and the road untraveled is also evident in your libations. The beet margarita despite piquing our curiosity was an abject disappointment to the palate. The beet juice imparted the drink an earthy flavor akin to, well, dirt. It’s hard to taste the Cointreau or lime juice after that. We did not see any undead after partaking of the Corpse Reviver #2, perhaps that’s associated with #1?
We wish you well in your future endeavors and remain yours,
PDX Epicures, LLC

Do I have a Unilocal sticker on my forehead?
As the first stop on the ‘special occasion’ express, my group went to Belly Timber for cocktails. When we started asking Bradley, Mixologist extraordinaire, about different drinks, he looked at me and said, «Well, that one is very popular on Unilocal.» Doh!
And the Yeeps were right… the Corpse Reviver # 2 is an excellent cocktail. For my second round, I asked him to make me whatever he felt like and he chose the Vesuvius. I probably wouldn’t have selected it on my own and it was fizzy and delicious. It was wonderful watching a master at his craft and someone who has thought out all the little details and made many of the ingredients in house. And major bonus points for exchanging The Good, The Bad and The Ugly quotes with my husband along the way.
I sampled the Beet Margarita (interesting and gotta love that extra vitamin c during cold-​and-​flu season), Lavendula and well, I kind of lost track at that point.
No food was consumed, so this is solely a review of the cocktails, which are served at a very small four-​stool bar in a gorgeous Victorian house on Hawthorne. Thanks again, Bradley, I know you’re reading!

Timmmmmmmber! Your belly will instantly fall for this unobtrusively sublime gem on Hawthorne.
Elegant without pretension, romantic without hauteur, I found myself amongst an almost whimsical crowd of people charmed by the atmosphere, the menu, and the service at Belly Timber.
Let’s first talk about Bradly behind the bar. Sure their cocktail list was created by the president of the Oregon Bartenders Guild, and sure it carried my absolute favorite cocktail (Corpse Reviver #2)…but Bradly could have served me a Popov and Tab cocktail, and I probably would have been just as enamored. Before I could even order, he set a complimentary cocktail in front of me, and I ended up drinking 2 more through dinner. (I’m an easy sell.) This guy memorized names, gave generous «samples,» and was absolutely passionate about his craft.
We were out celebrating the glorious news of a dear friend passing the bar exam, and our server generously treated us to an appetizer on the house. We loved the idea of half orders, and 5 us us ordered 10 dishes and essentially fought to get each of our forks around a full bite of each. (I was exceptionally stingy of the eggplant, mushroom and leek terrine — and I couldn’t manage to snag a bite of the grilled duroc pork chop with creamed corn before my friend Jason had literally inhaled it.
Let’s be honest — a free drink to soothe my Friday night wait and a free appetizer to start off my meal certainly whet my star-​giving whistle. But bite after bite affirmed that Belly Timber fully earns its stars.

Go here! Eat! Enjoy!
The only teeny-​tiny negative about this place was that they did not have a chocolate dessert option. EVERY restaurant should have one brown food — don’t you think?
Otherwise the 4 of us had a delectable, delightful, delicious meal in a lovely Victorian house, served by an amiable helpful waiter. The place also earns points for being calm and not noisy. (I am NOT a fan of the current clattery, hard-​surfaces, you have to TALK REALLY LOUDLY to be heard thing currently popular in restaurants.)
I love to order things that I do not make at home– like rabbit with papardelle pasta, olives and capers — yummmm.
Like pork belly pastrami and homemade mustard. hmmmm.
Like mini-​bruscetta with softened blue cheese and white peach. OOHH!
And they have small plate — large plate entrée options which means you can save room for dessert!

Quick, where do you go for a ClarkLewis. foodie style dinner on NE Hawthorne? Huh?
Not wings, not pasta, not pizza but a plate of charcuterie, a bit of grilled calamari (cuttle fish actually), some rabbit on papardelle, maybe a small steak on fingerlings with a couple of nice bottles of wine and a bit of fruit and cheese plate to help finish the last of the second bottle? Not a loud, hard-​surface foodie scene but someplace relatively quiet, good for conversation?
Thanks to the magic of Unilocal,we found ourselves at Belly Timber (not to be confused with the new Belly) at 33^rd and Hawthorne. A big old Victorian up above the street on the north side, there are a couple of different rooms and outdoor seating. The bar looked like it could handle some fairly sophisticated cocktail service and the wine list was quite reasonable. Does this mean that dreads or tatoos or bushie beards or sandals are on the way out on Hawthorne. Never! It’s Hawthorne. Wear what you want, sit down and enjoy. Absolutely worth a try.