Markets

[October 17th, 2007] There are grocers and then there are food-epiphany pushers. And locally, a growing number of people passionately, crazily devoted to specific foodstuffs have carved out their own delicious niches. Last year we ditched our usual “Restaurant of the Year” designation to honor five local food artisans; this year, we’re highlighting a handful more tasty operations.

What better place to stash Steve’s Cheese (2321 NW Thurman St., 222-6014) than in the back of the cavernous Square Deal Wine Company? Owner Steve Jones, whose dad worked as a herdsman for Maytag Dairy in the 1940s, has built a cheese case that looks like a genial U.N. meeting, with Italian Robiolas rubbing shoulders with Wynoochee River Blue from the small Estrella Family Creamery in Washington state. In fact, one-third of his case is often devoted to small American cheese producers—you may leave with a head full of facts about the curdheads who make these rounds.

Boutique craft operations used to be about microbrews and coffee. Get a jump on the future of specialization at Jesse Manis and Aubrey Lindley’s stylish chocolate mecca,Cacao (414 SW 13th Ave., 241-0656) , where heavy bars of the good stuff line the walls like gold at Fort Knox. The styles and flavors range as far as their countries of origin, from French chocolatier Pralus’ refined morsels to Italian wild man Claudio Corallo’s coarse, complex São Tomé bean bars, which taste of tar and tobacco. Do not leave without a shot of drinking chocolate, the dark, thick, mysterious cousin of American hot cocoa.

They’re just your friendly neighborhood meat gods: The unassuming butcher’s counterViande (735 NW 21st Ave., 221-3012) , inside City Market hides housemade pancetta, salami, chunky pâté, and country sausages. Hell, this outfit even does all its own curing in the kitchen in the back of City Market. The whole shebang is headed by Ben Dyer and company, who pull double duty as the owners of Simpatica. Yep, that’s where you’ve tasted those sausages before.

Milwaukie is home of the city’s best spice rack: Penzeys Spices (11322 SE 82nd Ave., 653-7779) . The Wisconsin-based importer’s suburban storefront, crammed next to a Jenny Craig outlet, boasts a nose-wooing assortment of herbs, oils, salts, spices and blends, from Pakistani Dundicut peppers to Vietnamese Cassia cinnamon. Just want salt? “Selmelier” Mark Bitterman’s The Meadow (3731 N Mississippi Ave., 288-4633) is devoted to the stuff—more than 50 types of finishing salts so far. Don’t miss taste-testing a bit of Red Alder, a smoky crimson salt made in Washington.

The story of Ken Forkish, former high-techer turned breadmaker, is well known, but one crunchy, tangy bite of Ken’s baguette makes it all taste new again. For five years now, the self-professed “bread freak” and his crew have been turning out some of the most complex-tasting rustic loaves in town. The secret? Maybe his devotion to local butter and eggs and organic flour. Get the goods at Ken’s Artisan Bakery (338 NW 21st Ave., 248-2202) , or moan over the crust at Ken’s Artisan Pizza.