Day 1 - Pine State Biscuits (NE Alberta)

Before I begin, here's something that KDB sent me through an email. I thought it was pretty funny and fitting before the onslaught of the Portland posts:

"I'm in a band..."
"Actually, it's pronounced Cooch"
"I don't really eat meat...unless it's finished on acorns"
"Where in the fk is the streetcar?"
"Look! Naked bike riders!"
"I have chickens too!"
"It's stirred with three puppy whiskers"
"I'm working part time as a barista"
"I totally went to school with Tonya Harding"
"I just moved here from..."

So fkg funny!

Let's get started now...

We touched down in PDX pretty early, like 9 am'ish. It was time for late breakfast at a place I was curious about...

This being Portland, a bike friendly city, it wasn't surprising to see these two wheelers parked outside the restaurant...

Time for some Southern food y'all!

It wasn't that big inside, bu this was the BIGGER location of Pine State Biscuits.

View their menu here

We wanted the Reggie!


You cannot get seated until you order. No bogarting of tables here folks. We were lucky to even get a table. See that lone guy? He left soon after I snapped this shot so I hovered near the trash to get the table.This place was packed by the time we finished.

Hot sauces 'n ketchup...

I thought the design on the back of this dude's hoodie was funny!

Here's our first meal in Portland...frieda$$ goodness (2/3 of it at least)!

Bert ordered the Reggie - Fried chicken with bacon, gravy and cheese sandwiched between a big fluffy buttermilk biscuit. The fried chicken was really moist and tasty but I would have liked the biscuit much much better if it wasn't soaked from the gravy. Actually I would have liked to eat this 'deconstructed' but what's the fun in that, right? That way, the fried chicken would have been crisp and the biscuit still flaky. But that's just picky me. But man, it does look very good. We did not even attempt to pick this up by hand and eat it. We tried to be 'civilized' and actually used our utensils for this monster. The verdict? Tasty but a total caloric timebomb!

TC wanted a corn dog but this was not the kind you get at Hot Dog on a Stick (which she probably would have liked more). No, this was the Andouille Corn dog, featuring Otto's ground sausage (maybe a local company?) with stone ground mustard. She ended up eating it with ketchup. TC also thought the sausage was a bit spicy, not realizing that's what Andouille is, but she liked it. She felt it was a bit 'too fancy' for her tastes.

Now, I channeled my inner Flo and ordered me some grits yo'. This isn't on the online menu (I just checked because I wanted to put in the description). This was my first taste of grits and I must say that I really enjoyed it. You could really taste the bacon. Nice and salty. There were six decent sized shrimp, bacons bits (lardons), mushrooms, and onions in here.

The grits weren't entirely smooth, which was good. There was a bit of texture to it which was really delicious with the pork bits and shrimp.

Drooling yet?

Who else ate at Pine State?
Leanne of Three Dog Kitchen went to the SE Belmont location during her recent Portland trip

Other mentions:
MiJune Pack of Vancouver, BC based foodblogFollow Me Foodie (original location)

I didn't realize this place was also on "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" but it was the Belmont location. I'm not going to post the video since it has Guy Fieri in it, but here's a Guy Fieri free video that was filmed at the NE Albert location. Plus you get to hear about the history of the place and see how they make their buttery biscuits:

Official Site of Pine State Biscuits

Up next...donuts