FEED
THE SENSES
Solve Eugene’s brunch problem
at Lion and Owl BY WILLIAM KENNEDY
S
tep into Lion and Owl Brunch, a new food truck
located on 5th and Washington, and immediately
smile. Lion and Owl is in a converted sleek,
silver 1977 Airstream that owner Kristen
Hansen calls a “land shark.” The truck began its
life in Portland, as Lebaneser Scrooge, a food truck open daily
from 4:20 to 4:20 (Why? — Because Portland!)
“Maybe it was the 4:20 thing,” Hansen says, but
Lebaneser Scrooge didn’t work out and the Airstream fell
into disuse. Eventually Hansen and her wife, business
partner and head chef Crystal Platt, rescued the beached
shark, bringing it to Eugene.
Hansen says she and Platt met at Marché, where they
spent 10 years. Hansen’s passion is for wine and champagne
— what would a brunch place be without mimosas? And
Platt’s passion is for food.
The couple honeymooned in Europe, exploring a whole
new world of breakfast and brunch options. “We’re so
stuck here,” Hansen says, recalling that when she and Platt
spoke of planning a brunch place, everyone asked: “So,
biscuits and gravy?
“No,” was Hansen’s reply. And Platt doesn’t understand
why so many consider breakfast and brunch a chore of a
meal. “There’s so much to showcase,” she adds, referring to
her menu of small but satisfying plates, featuring everything
from fiddlehead ferns to morel mushrooms to crayfish.
While already retrofitted for food service, Hansen
and Platt added their own impossibly charming touches
to the interior of the Airstream — creating the look and
feel of a retro diner with an edge of Northwest earthiness.
Succulents hang in jars, suspended from the ceiling, and
vintage tunes play on the sound system.
Lion and Owl offers both indoor and covered outdoor
seating. Hansen supplies guests seated outdoors with blankets
for the unpredictable Oregon weather. The cozy interior is
instantly intimate. You find yourself in conversation with
Hansen, Platt and other patrons.
FENNEL LEEK BREAD PUDDING
One guest is visiting from Napa. Someone else brings
up bitter Northwest coffee and IPAs. “Why are we so
bitter?” is asked. The response? “It’s the weather!”
Begin with the miso banana bread with farmer’s cheese
and rhubarb angelica jam. Light and airy, the bread floats
on tart sweetness, remaining tethered to the ground by the
cheese’s savory and heavenly fluff. Next try the potato in
the style of ham hock with peas, spring onion, mint porcini
tea and sour hazelnut cream. Marvel how the potato,
deceivingly braised in the style of ham, is a cunningly
delicious substitute for the real thing.
Then, for something on the savory side, move on to
sausage-stuffed morels with boudin blanc, green garlic
sabayon and miner’s lettuce. Sabayon is a light dessert or
sweet sauce believed to be of Italian origin and made by
whisking egg folks, sugar and wine.
For beverages, Lion and Owl offers espresso, juices
and a broad wine selection sold by glass or bottle and 16
ounce cans of Rainier — not the champagne of beers but
the Northwest equivalent.
“It looks like champagne,” someone points out. “And it
tastes like Miller!” I add.
And, of course, for the requisite brunch mimosa, choose
from a wide selection of champagnes, blood orange juice
as a mixer adding to Lion and Owl’s color palette perfectly.
Next off the menu, go with the open-faced omelet with
asparagus, fiddlehead ferns, violet leaves and lardo — a
cured fatback. The net effect for the taste buds, as well as
sight and smell, is something like spending a warm spring
morning in an Oregon garden — pleasantly face-first in
flowers and greenery.
Lastly, there’s the fennel leek bread pudding with crayfish,
steelhead roe (with a delightful texture. They pop in your
mouth!), lemon verbena and brown-butter bisque. Hansen
says the dish is inspired by a summer on the Rogue River, and
the dish is sumptuous and delicious, a brilliant mix of water,
land and air—transporting you directly to the riverside, filling
you with memories of lazy summer days in water.
Which is perhaps what’s most remarkable about the
food at Lion and Owl: the use of unlikely, locally sourced
ingredients with posh, exotic twists as well as Platt’s deft
hand with creams and sauces and Hansen’s welcoming
service, creating a truly Northwest experience for all five
senses.
“See you tomorrow!” a fellow diner says while paying
her bill. “Will you come here every day?” I ask.
“Yes,” she says. But that could’ve been the champagne
talking.
Lion and Owl Brunch is open 10 am - 4 pm Thursday to Monday at 501
Washington Street. For more information see lionandowlbrunch.com.
P HOTO S BY TO DD C O O P ER
WARM RABBIT TERRINE
EUGENEWEEKLY.COM/CHOW
SAUSAGE STUFFED MORELS
CHOW SUMMER 2017
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