TIO Northwest: Le Bar & Inn at The 5th

09 Nov TIO Northwest: Le Bar & Inn at The 5th

An outer ring of a pale hue graduating to the increasingly darker hues in shades of burgundy with flashes of red, the shape of an undiscovered galaxy formed in an instant when our well-schooled waiter Danny tilted the elegant crystal glass of fine 1996 Colhetta port. Danny, (who looked like he stepped straight out of ad for Balmain at H & M and is studying finance at the local university), described the phenomenon as the port’s “eye” or “ring” or “hue.” The abstraction, he said, reminded him of a cobblestone.

So we begin at the end: port topped off a very special dinner we did not want to end at Le Bar at Marché in Eugene, Oregon, a stop on our off-season road trip down the West Coast, a vacation which started with a family visit in Bellevue-Seattle, Washington and included a stop in Mosier, Oregon, to visit our friend Arlene Burns, former director of Telluride Mountainfilm.

The memorable meal, with ingredients (including the wines and meats to make sausages), was sourced from Provisions Market Hall, a super supermarket of local goodies. Dinner was a study in textures from light as air, to gritty and muscular, back to light as air: sugar sweet oysters harvested from Barron Point in the Hood Canal, a arm of Washington State’s Puget Sound; baby kale suffused with an assertive blue cheese dressing, (Rogue River), with added crunch from toasted hazelnuts, crispy red onions, and golden raisins; our shared entree was a perfect cassoulet of duck leg confit, rabbit sausage, flageolet beans, topped off with bread crumbs, again, all ingredients sourced in the region; dessert was a creme brûlée, the perfect compliment to the aforementioned port.

The ambiance at Le Bar is straight out of the 1920s watering holes, such as those uber chic places featured in Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris,” black-and-white tiles, heavy wood, burgundy leather. Throwaway chic.

According to the website, Marche & Le Bar “is a celebration of life and the bountiful Pacific Northwest’s locally grown and gathered foods. Named for the French word for ‘market,’ Marché describes both its location in the Fifth Street Public Market and a sincere dedication to careful preparation and farm-to-table cooking. While the menu changes with each passing season, guests will always find dishes featuring local, seasonal ingredients, prepared with care and served in a lively atmosphere.”

(Breakfast and dinner too.)

Bon Marché described the nationally renowned eatery as “a destination restaurant.”

Adjacent to Marché & Le Bar is The Inn at the 5th, a relatively new (opened in 2012) boutique hotel, our elegant, well-appointed digs for the night. (Comes complete with a fireplace and a riff on the theme of dumb waiter, for discrete delivery of your breakfast (from Le Marché bien sur). Service always with a smile.

But what was up with the artwork around the Inn, rustic sculptures of roosters and hens of various sizes and shapes, (chickens and scattered eggs) guarding the periphery and decorating water bottles in the rooms? (Our room was the Rooster Room, so an extra helping of birds.)

Turns out the restaurants, the hotel (and various boutiques) were built on the site of what was once a poultry plant dating back to 1929, remixed into the current-day vibrant market for artisans, foodies, and retailers in 1976, nowadays attracting well over 1 million visitors a year.

The story continues. Local lore has it that when the market was demolished for repurposing, one lone rooster remained to guard the turf. Swifty is The Inn’s mascot.

For us, Le Bar and The Inn were happy, hip revelations, a fitting end to a big sky day of ZZ Wei landscapes.

Swifty has reason to crow.