12 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
Coast Weekend’s local
restaurant review
McMenamins makes good on chain’s promise
Review and photos by MOUTH
OF THE COLUMBIA
MCMENAMINS
SAND TRAP PUB
MOUTH@COASTWEEKEND.COM
GEARHART — As many with many
Oregonians, my relationship with
McMenamins goes way back —
nearly two decades.
Besides maybe a burger at the
East 19th St. Cafe in Eugene, ad-
jacent to the University of Oregon
campus, my formative memories of
McMenamins came around turn of
the century, at the Crystal Ballroom
in Portland. I went for concerts and
caught regional bands on their way
to becoming national stars.
There were weddings (and more
concerts) at Edgefield Winery, too,
and regular trips to the sprawling
Kennedy School, which was just
a few blocks away from my old
home. The former elementary
school campus offered numerous
bars, gardens, a movie theater, cigar
bar, and my favorite: the soaking
pool.
All these jewels of the Mc-
Menamins empire bear enticing
similarities in design and layout, al-
most as if they were created by the
same architect. These historically
repurposed complexes are massive,
heavy and near labyrinthian, string
together individual, intimate spaces.
The impressive property holdings
are almost like an alternative,
private register of Oregon’s historic
buildings.
The Sand Trap in Gearhart is no
different. Though the hotel, with
its creaky, dark, heavy woodwork,
feels a hundred-odd years old, it’s
not. A fire destroyed the original
structure. It was rebuilt in 1998
and acquired by MeMenamins in
2008. It fits seamlessly within the
company’s aesthetic. There are
rooms upon rooms, spaces upon
spaces. In dark bars, lights twinkle
off glassware. The effect is surreal,
time-warping. Every hall, door and
stairway offers possibility: sure,
perhaps it dead ends in a storage
closet, but maybe there’s a pocket
bar, music venue or who-knows-
Pot Bunker Macaroni and Cheese.
SUBMITTED PHOTOS
Expedition Elk Burger.
Rating:
1157 N Marion Ave, Gearhart
PHONE: 503-717-8150
HOURS: 11 a.m.-8 p.m.
Monday-Saturday
PRICE: $$ — Entrees be-
tween mid-teens and mid-
20s
SERVICE: Personable,
knowledgeable, on point.
VEGETARIAN/VEGAN
OPTIONS: A few.
DRINKS: Full bar, soda,
coffee, tea
Steak and Kale Caesar.
KEY TO STAR RATING SYSTEM
what to be discovered.
These grand environments
almost always take first billing at
McMenamins — their food and
beer rarely the hook, are secondary.
Setting reigns supreme.
In 2017, the Sand Trap menu
underwent some renovation, though
I can’t speak to what it was like
before. I can say that, in the long
run, the company’s food and drink
have certainly evolved.
At the Sand Trap, it’s mostly
fancy pub food: burgers, sandwich-
es, a few requisite seafood standbys,
pizza, salads and dinner entrees,
like salmon and steak.
It’s largely familiar, comfortable
fare that’s been refined, punched
up in hopes of keeping pace with
Portland’s ever-growing food-for-
ward culture. A good portion of the
dishes are made their own by the
inclusion of McMenamins products,
such as wine sauces, beer battering,
marinades and other condiments.
(In particular their sharp, spicy,
wine-laced Dijon is a sinus-clearing
delight.)
While on the whole I struggled
on how to sample a cross section
that would be representative of the
wide menu, one item jumped off the
page: The Expedition Elk Burger
($18). With all respect and cogni-
tive dissonance to Gearhart’s local
herd, I’m in rapturous love with
lean red meats like elk or bison.
The inch-thick elk patty came
out truly medium rare — right on
the nose. But relatively rare game is
just the beginning. The stout burger
is slathered with a grainy, salty,
gooey, sweet bacon jam; a pun-
gent, smooth black garlic aioli that
silences the white cheddar and the
requisite roughage. Even with the
sultry, fatty accoutrements, the elk
burger is a lean puncher.
Just like the flavor is a tack from
the regular beef hamburger, so is
the effect. Where a beef burger is
something you eat at the end of
a long day to unwind, one could
have an elk burger as fuel to begin.
Afterward you stand up straight,
full-chested, ready to chop then
carry a cord of wood.
I was similarly enlivened
by the Kale and Steak Salad
($16.25), from a specials menu
that’s refreshed every two weeks.
Described as a “very green-tasting
salad” the creamy and acidic Cae-
sar dressing, along with a generous
sprinkling of Parmesan, proved
a terrific kale-delivery vehicle.
Along for the ride, too, were some
equally earthy Brussels sprouts,
cucumbers, radicchio, cherry
tomatoes and croutons. The steak,
though, was a letdown. First, there
wasn’t much of it. Second, it was
chewy like rubber and full of con-
nective tissue. A mix of odd cook-
ing — pink inside, yet still tough
as a car tire — and improper cuts.
Almost a quarter of the already
small portion was inedible gristle.
The rest wasn’t much better.
There are other enticing menu
items — such as the Hogshead
Salmon Sandwich or Baked Wild
Alaskan Cod — that would seem to
meld eating healthy with delectable
joy, but the more gluttonous end
deserved exploration, too. And none
seemed more decadent than the
Pot Bunker Crab Mac and Cheese,
replete with Dungeness crab. At
the same time I wondered: could
mac and cheese really justify at $22
price tag?
The answer is yes and no.
Obviously, crab is expensive. And
there was a reasonable amount of
it mixed in, sinewy fibers coated
in viscous cheese, mingling with
heavy cream, tracing the contours
Below average
Average
Good
Excellent
Best in region
of large macaroni elbows. The
bowl, with a layer of breadcrumbs
to approximate a crunchy, burnt top,
wasn’t much hotter than luke-
warm. And that was a shame — it
should’ve been scalding hot. The
top should’ve really been cooked
to a true, singed crisp. The crab did
provide a salty, oceanic erudition,
though together it never transcend-
ed the sums of its parts. It was nice,
not quite irresistible; enjoyable but
pricey.
For a group to dine the most
economical option is probably piz-
za, which is still spendy (larges run
from $26.25 to $32.75, 8-inch per-
sonal pies from $11.50-14.25). The
marinara is sweet and the mozzarel-
la stretchy, but it’s the medium-thin
crust that’s the star, both crisp and
pillowy soft.
Again, fine food — but with
more than a pretty penny tacked on
to pay for such ambiance.