Newport 14 August 2018

Short version of a big day

A long day – any day driving the Oregon Coast Highway is a long day. We started with a one way bridge, the highest (one-way) bridge in Oregon. Nobody working (guess they're 'fraid of the fog?) just parkin' their rigs on the bridge to waste travel time. A Marionberry scone o'the day at Rachel's in Gold Beach, part of one of the best indie bookstores anywhere, GBB (Gold Beach Books.) Even more than the Northern California Coast, these sweet little outposts are isolated from the mainstream by hours of twisty tourist-cluttered roads and horrendous winters. Sign on the wall: Cave ab homini unius libri. (I'll tell you later.)

Lunch in a dive along the boardwalk in Bandon, the town Caspar remembers because it burned down because it was surrounded by Gorse. Just enough to keep us from peckishness, because the focus for oday is dinner in Newport.

We thought we had more time than it turned out we did, so we walked the long trail at South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve. When I have time, I'll write more about this place: a little recovering paradisein the midst of Oregon's resource wasteland. (Owned and operated by Wall Street to extract maxiumally from the land without a care for its welfare or that of Oregonians ...and they're whole-heartedly, mindlessly in favor.)

One more time, and proving you CAN go back again: a third unbelievable meal at Local Ocean Seafood. We sat, as usual, at the chef's counter so we could watch Chef Enrique and his band of renown. More pictures to come, but here's our Main: Fishwife Stew, a sort of Newport Bouillabaisse, all locally fresh-caught.

Here's the whole dinner: Crab Garlic soup rumored to be made with lobster stock; Calamari served grilled and hot as a salad; Smoked Salmon salad with a heavy helping of shiitakes and filberts; and the Fishwife Stew with every kind of local ocean offerings possible in a tomato broth.

Three times here at the chef's counter, and three over-the-top meals. We ordered so much we had a delicious lunch ready for Wednesday.

The real story, of course, is the supply chain from the fishermen working out of this busy harbor right to the chefs in the kitchen. Food theater at its best. 

Our first visit in 2015 ... and in 2017 ... and again in 2019

Tonight we sleep in the Owner's Suite on the third floor of the Newport Belle, across Newport Bay from Local Ocean, with a wide view of the harbor and its soaring bridge.

Cave ab homine...: Beware a man with only one book.