FOOD & DRINK Bartender’s Handshake

4422 SE Woodstock Blvd., 971-430-0171, vikingsoulfood.com. 11 am-7 pm

Sunday-Thursday, 11 am-8 pm Friday-Saturday.

Viking Soul Food, a long-standing member of The Bite on Belmont food pod, recently opened its first brick-and-mortar, where many items on the menu come surrounded by a lefse, a delicate wrap made with potatoes, butter and flour. The versatility of the lefse works wonders, adding lightness to savory wraps, like the smoked steelhead, enhancing the crunch of the greens and tartness of the pickled shallots. Looking for something sweet? Try the lingonberry lefse, filled with a tart jam and cream cheese. It’s intensely comforting and ideal for littler Vikings.

2. KI’IKIBÁA

3244 NE 82nd Ave., 971-429-1452. 11 am-9 pm Tuesday-Sunday.

With a menu full of panuchos, salbutes, relleno negro and menudo, it feels sacrilegious to start with an ode to Manuel “Manny” Lopez’s burritos, but we’re gonna do it. We love these burritos passionately. Go for the asada, which is seasoned and grilled, layered with black beans made with lard and spices, and given the usual sour cream, cheese and guac treatment. But the true God-tier move is the layer of crispy griddled cheese, which adds salt and crunch, resulting in deep satisfaction.

3. PHO OREGON BEAVERTON

12870 SW Canyon Road, Beaverton, 503-747-0814, phooregon.net. 10 am-9 pm Monday-Saturday, 10 am-8 pm Sunday.

Pho Oregon, Portland’s 20-year-old Vietnamese beef noodle soup standard bearer, has opened its second outlet after nearly two years of planning. If an early visit was any indication, it was worth the wait. The must-have pho order, the No. 1, is a quart-sized cauldron of aromatic awesomeness with thin rice noodles as well as bits of beef tendon, tripe, quartered meatballs and more. When the urge for hot soup wanes, the menu seems to ramble endlessly with choices, from rice plates to grilled meats to stews.

4. SALT & STRAW

Various locations, saltandstraw.com. 11 am-11 pm daily.

More than a decade ago, cousins Tyler and Kim Malek began changing people’s taste for ice cream—daring them to go beyond Baskin-Robbins’ 31 flavors—by opening Salt & Straw and working with unique ingredients. The company, which has expanded considerably since then, is marking its 12th anniversary this month by unlocking its flavor vault and bringing back dormant varieties. That means for a limited time you can get old favorites, like black olive brittle and goat cheese, honey marshmallow rocky road and mango habanero IPA sorbet as a scoop, or in pints and milkshakes.

5. MAKULÍT

1015 SE Stark St., @makulitpdx. Noon-7 pm Wednesday-Thursday, 4-9 pm Friday-Saturday.

Makulít, one of the new food carts in the Lil’ American pod, is a master at melding the familiar with the unfamiliar—in this case, Filipino ingredients and flavors with American fast food classics. Best of all: Everything on the menu is fun. The most playful dish is the Big Bunso, a cheeseburger with a spicy longanisa sausage patty and atsara, a mix of pickled papaya, carrot, daikon and bell pepper. The resulting flavor combo lands somewhere between burger, meatloaf sandwich, and banh mi.

BY ANTHONY EFFINGER aeffinger@wweek.com

The Shaku Bar proves that great things come in small packages.

The year-old spot on Northeast Sandy Boulevard has a long bar and just a few tables (but the dog-friendly patio is vast). It has a neighborhood-bar vibe, thanks mostly to the infectious good cheer of Mark Tucker, one of the three owners, who smiles and chats while whipping up elegant cocktails with ingredients like hand-squeezed tamarind juice (for his spicy margarita).

Friendship is in the name. Pronounced “SHAY-koo,” the business’s moniker is a shortened form of the Japanese word for handshake, handoshēku. Growing up in San Jose,

Calif., Tucker and fellow owner (and chef) Matt Odama shared a secret handshake. Tucker taught it to Trent Brown, the third owner, after they developed a friendship while managing Trader Joe’s stores in the Portland area. “ We opened just as the world was coming out of COVID, and we wanted a symbol of something that brings people together after being isolated,” Tucker says.

The cocktails alone are worth a visit. Close your eyes and sip just about any of them, and you’d swear you’ve been transported to a 1920s Hemingway bar in Montparnasse, Paris, or a sleek spot in Tokyo’s Ginza district, circa now.

The Princess Peach ($13) is a mix of local Aria gin, Aperol, St-Germain and lemon juice topped with a half-centimeter of creamy-white Fee Foam (Google it!). The Lychee

Fizz ($14) features a puree of its namesake fruit, ginger syrup (housemade), muddled mint, Roku Gin and soda water.

We’re definitely coming back for a Kvothe the Bloodless ($12)—pickle juice, hot sauce, lime and a secret sauce. Shaku calls it a bloody mary “without the blood.” (The founders are all proud nerds who’ve played Dungeons & Dragons for years and, as the drink names attest, love fantasy and sci-fi. For those who haven’t reached their level of geekdom, Kvothe is the wizard hero of Patrick Rothfuss’ Kingkiller Chronicle).

Come for the cocktails but stay for the food. Start with the sesame chile garlic edamame ($6) and then move on to the battered tofu bites ($9). Both are crisp with little hint of the oil that made them so. And for God’s sake, don’t miss the tempura kimchi ($9). It sounds sort of impossible, but Shaku proves it’s not, and it comes with a chipotle aioli dipping sauce that would be good on anything.

And here’s a bonus: Every Saturday, Shaku opens a Starfleet Bottle—an expensive whiskey, say—and offers shots at cost (one per customer per day), until the bottle is gone, usually later in the week. A $50 shot can be had for $10. The name, Tucker explains, is a riff on Star Trek’s utopian society, which eschews money.

Live long and prosper!

DRINK: The Shaku Bar, 3448 NE Sandy Blvd., 971-3462063, theshakubar.com. 4 pm-midnight Tuesday-Thursday, 4 pm-1 am Friday-Saturday, 3-10 pm every other Sunday.

Buzz List

WHERE TO DRINK THIS WEEK.

1. GRAPE APE

77 SE Yamhill St., 503-261-3467, grapeape.wine. 11 am-bedtime Tuesday-Sunday.

Sorry to break it to fans of the ’70s Hanna-Barbera cartoon of the same name, but you won’t find a 40-foot purple primate at this new Central Eastside bar. However, much of the décor is from that era, and the lineup of fine natural wines should soften the blow. The curated list highlights selections from low-intervention labels, including Oregon’s Hooray for You chardonnay, California producer Populis’ sauvignon blanc and a Pierre-Olivier Bonhomme gamay from France. Pair one with marinated white beans and mayo on toast or a jamon baguette and pretend you’ve made an escape to Paris for the afternoon.

2. DIRTY PRETTY

638 E Burnside St., dirtyprettypdx.com. 4 pm-1 am Sunday-Thursday, 4 pm-2 am Friday-Saturday.

This is the third venue in industry veteran Collin Nicholas’ quickly growing bar portfolio, which also includes Pink Rabbit and Fools and Horses. As with its sister locations, you can expect a fusion of Asian and Hawaiian ingredients in Dirty Pretty’s food menu (pork-shrimp shumai, fried saimin, furikake jojos), and the lengthy cocktail list is filled with tropical flavors. Drinks with names like Jungle Juice, Charliebird and Guava Wars should brighten what’s been a pretty gray Portland spring.

3. KNUDSEN VINEYARDS 9419 NE Worden Hill Road, Dundee, 503-580-1596, knudsenvineyards.com. Dates and times vary. $55 or $95 per person.

If you’ve ever wished you could transport yourself into the scene depicted on that Oregon Wine Country license plate the DMV rolled out about a decade ago, then you need to head to Knudsen during Oregon Wine Month. The painting it’s based on is of this winery, which invites you to tromp around the grapes all year round, not just during wine month in May. There are two informative hikes to choose from—both include tastings, but one has the added bonus of a picnic lunch.

4. LOLO PASS ROOFTOP BAR

1616 E Burnside St., 503-908-3074, lolopass.com. 4-10 pm daily.

Beyond giving guests a place to rest their heads at the end of the day, Lolo Pass is home to one of Portland’s newer rooftop bars where locals and visitors alike can sip drinks and take in the view of the Central Eastside. The fifth-story perch reopens May 4 following its winter hibernation with a new and seasonally changing cocktail menu. The debut Snap Pea martini sounds like the perfect vibrant drink to toast the warming spring afternoons.

5. FRACTURE BREWING

1015 SE Stark St., fracturebrewingpdx.com. 4-10 pm Wednesday-Thursday, noon-11 pm Friday-Saturday, noon-8 pm Sunday.

This month, the Lil’ America food cart pod welcomed its final tenant, and if you haven’t checked out the eclectic mix of vendors—Guyanese bakes are sold feet from crab boils, vegan corn dogs and Hainanese chicken rice—the recent opening is a good excuse to get out there. Be sure to order a beer (but, really, you should get several) made by Fracture’s Darren Provenzano. During our last visit, the medallionlike West Coast IPA and the canary-colored Hazy were both standouts, but the Pilsner trio (classic, West Coast, New Zealand) is what really stole our hearts. Yes, they all taste different.