Wednesday, August 28, 2019

The Star (Portland)

The Star is located on NW Hoyt Street in Portland, Oregon.


The same company that brought the Bay Area (Oakland area) some deep-dish pizza finally made its way to the Pacific NW a few months ago. My friend, who is from Oakland, went here and gave it the thumbs up. Thus, I had to get here for science.

A bit busy at 5:30 PM on a Saturday, but I thought it would be much more packed. It's a very spacious spot; a bunch of empty tables still remained. There's also bar seating with full bar, of course.

I met a friend for dinner and we sat outside. Through mid-July, it remained a very mild summer, with temperatures barely hitting 80 F and usually staying in the high 70s.

The Star has specialty cocktails, each $12. Proper science required tasting of a couple drinks.



Old Mexico contains Peleton mezcal, grapefruit, mango habanero syrup, and lime. Definitely smoky due to the mezcal, but I got a bit of the mango and lime. Habanero was tamed almost too much; I expected more of a spice kick. But hey, it came with a big ice cube.




El Cubano included El Dorado 3-year rum, bitters, mint, lime, and sparking wine. Mint and lime were well-represented. Another lovely beverage.



Otherwise, it was beer thirty for me, and I defaulted to a Fort George Vortex IPA.



For food, we started with a small order of meatballs. Three meatballs in their house marinara. Slightly crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Meatballs were probably the size of a ping-pong ball.




The Star does thin-crust and deep-dish pizzas, but apparently the oven for the thin-crust pizzas was not working on our visit. No problem, as I had my eyes set on the deep-dish anyway.

Deep-dish pies come in two sizes. The smaller size is six slices and comfortably feeds 1-2 people, while the large is eight slices and can feed 2-4.




We asked for a large Mediterranean pizza ($31) but got a small instead. We told the server, and she only charged us for the small ($23). The Mediterranean has roasted chicken, artichoke hearts, red bell peppers, green onions, onions, and feta. Since my friend doesn't like onions, we 86'd those.




It was a great pizza, more of a cornmeal-type of crust on a deep-dish. It's different from the buttery dough crust that I had in Chicago.

For me, the feta seemed to get lost in the sea of ingredients, and I would have liked a bit more of that. After all, it is one of my favorite cheeses.

I plan to come back to The Star with more friends and enjoy more pizza science! 8/10

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