Screen Door Restaurant

As far as all meals go, Portlanders seem to take breakfast/brunch the most serious. This town is not known for its night life because there isn't much of it. Most business closes around 9pm. People get up early on weekends to catch breakfast or brunch.

There are quite a few popular brunch places in town. Almost all of them have the characteristic long line coming out their door after 9am. Screen Door is no exception. In fact at Screen Door the line starts forming around 8:30am, while the restaurant doesn't open till 9am.

We were meeting our friends Lenka and Chris for brunch on a Saturday at 9am, wanting to check out this popular southern eatery. We got there a few minutes before 9am. There was already a 60-person line by the door. We missed the first seating and had to wait more, first outside in the cold for 30-40 min, then inside for another 30-40 min. They do have free coffee while you wait. By the time we were seated, everyone at the table was sufficiently starved to appreciate anything. But wait, you guessed, we had to wait another half an hour for our food to arrive.

Okay, so far it doesn't sound like a good experience, you'd say. We knew what we were getting into. Screen door's wait is well published on most review sites. But this was beyond what we had imagined. However when the food did arrive, most of the negative thoughts are out of the window. Every single dish was delicious.

Praline bacon - heaven that comes in strips

My veggie dish with eggs and biscuit; very delicious

I was good and ordered a veggie scramble topped with two eggs and a buttermilk biscuit on the side. I couldn't pass up the famous praline bacon that everyone was raving about. So I got one of those on the side as well. Jose got a chicken waffle dish, even though just the day before he swore to loose 15 pounds in four months. He's probably thinking about starting that after this meal. Lenka had the friend oyster benedict, while Chris got something like biscuit and gravy with friend chicken. The food tasted as good as it looked. My veggie scramble - not sure about the exact name as it's a special that day - was lightly coated with fresh basil pesto and very well cooked. The biscuit was nice and fluffy and had a good buttermilk tang. The eggs were cooked just right. When you break it with a fork, the yolk oozes out and coats whatever is underneath it.

Jose's chicken waffle

Chris' fried chicken biscuit and gravy

Lenka got the fried oyster benedict

The praline bacon was heavenly. It's very hard to stop eating it. It's bacon coated in syrup and chopped pecan. I was formulating plans on how to work off these calorie bombs afterwards, as I took another bite of the salty sweet treat.

So you'd ask whether it's worth the almost 2-hr wait, I'd say no. However I would try to get here at 8:30am to get in the first seating next time.