14 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
Coast Weekend’s local
restaurant review
SAN DUNE PUB
San Dune Pub a
solid stop for picky
burger-eaters
Rating:
127 Laneda Ave.,
Manzanita, Ore. 97130
503-368-5080
Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Monday through Saturday
Price: $$ – a bill can creep up
quickly
Service: Can be stretched
when it’s busy
Vegetarian / Vegan Options:
Reasonable, if uncompelling
Drinks: Full bar, 21+
Review and photos by
THE MOUTH OF THE COLUMBIA
MOUTH@COASTWEEKEND.COM
FACEBOOK.COM/MOUTHOFTHECOLUMBIA
A
riend of mine is a conscious
eater who shops mindfully
at co-ops for whole foods
and organic ingredients. During
the summer you’ll find him at most
every farmers market. On his own
farm he raises goats for milk.
My friend isn’t a vegetarian,
exactly, but when he eats meat he
does so selectively. And when the
craving for a burger comes on he
heads for Manzanita’s San Dune
Pub.
My friend chooses the Dune
because their Piedmontese beef
Chicken Cobb Wrap
is raised free of hormones and
cost extra. I imagine my friend
antibiotics. (Piedmontese cattle
prefers a stock model, sans pig.
also carry a genetic characteristic
To be sure: Dune burgers don’t
making them less fatty and lower
belong to the fancier, richer “bis-
in cholesterol.)
Ethical and health concerns
tro” family. No coffee-bacon jams,
aside, though, the Dune burger is
pork belly or black garlic aioli here
pretty darn good.
— just plain ol’, crave-satisfying
Though it
bar burgers.
stops short of
With hard-
ly any bold or
overwhelm-
THE
ing, the patty is
creative reaches
PIEDMONTESE
plump, well-sea-
to speak of,
BEEF HAS
soned and, while
the rest of the
lean, plenty
Dune menu
A DISTINCT
flavorful. It’s not
follows suit. This
CHARACTER: IT
too greasy, but
woodsy, dark,
TASTES
CLEAN.
occasionally it
cabin-like bar
is cooked longer
is comfortably
than it needs to
familiar, and it
be. Regardless, that Piedmontese
makes time and room for blue-col-
lar locals, which collide regularly
beef has a distinct character: It
with beach house-renting bache-
tastes clean.
With steak knives pinning them lorette parties and other similarly
together, Dune burgers come in a
overwhelming tourist stereotypes.
variety of models, from BBQ sauce More often, though, the groups
and an onion ring to slathered in
coexist in relative harmony. One to
chili. My favorite is the Bacon
party vicariously, my friend might
Blue: $13 with potato chips; fries
even buy them a drink.
KEY TO STAR RATING SYSTEM
Poor
Below average
Worth returning
Very good
Excellent, best in region
Bacon Blue Cheeseburger
Prawn Po’Boy
Certainly my friend would
slurp up the Prawn Po’Boy ($16).
On a toasted hoagie roll cradling
grilled prawns and coleslaw, both
dripping with the Dune’s slightly
spicy chipotle mayo, it’s most
everything you want in a Po’Boy:
messy, tangy, creamy, supple and
comfy. It’s not huge, though. And
my friend might feel like it’s pretty
expensive.
He’d find it more satisfying
than a wrap, though. Essentially
chicken sandwiches in tortillas, the
wraps might remind him of airport
food: slim, dim and overpriced
($13 to $14).
My friend would eat the House
Salad ($13), but he might feel as if,
for that price, he should’ve gotten
more — more care, body and
balance. While he might be used
to receiving loads of out-of-season
tomatoes, he’d wonder why every
forkful seemed to include an entire
cross section of white onion.
My friend would appreciate that
the dressings at the Dune are all
house-made. That would go a long
way toward his feelings on the
salad. (The Mouth is not quite as
forgiving.)
He would likely enjoy a bite
or two of the rich, salty Smoked
Salmon Chowder ($4 cup/$8 bowl)
while agreeing that it earns repute
simply by trading clams for salm-
on. He might dabble in many of the
fried things — an oyster, calamari,
some fries or tots — but it’s hard
to imagine him ever ordering them
for himself.
My friend wouldn’t, howev-
er, dare eat but a smidgen of the
delightfully gluttonous hunk of
Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie ($6).
Even in the name of duty, the
oft-unhinged Mouth would
require a few friends to share it
with.
And, in a location that’s so near
to the beach, so susceptible to
becoming an all-out tourist trap,
that the Dune provides not only
space for me to share a piece of
that absurd chocolate pie (and then
dance it off), or for my friend to
use it as a burger beacon, is saying
something. CW