Huber's is Portland's Oldest Restaurant
I don’t know why people make a big fuss about eating turkeys. To me they are factory farm-produced trash animals. Do you really trust meat that is only $1.50 a pound?
Back in the good old days before factory farms existed a place called Huber’s in Portland, Oregon specialized in turkey. Huber’s has been known for its turkey dinner since 1879. To grasp how different the Pacific Northwest was back then know that Portland’s population in 1880 was 18,000 and Seattle had just over 1,000 people. Not sure if the U.S. census counted aboriginals, or what was left of them after centuries of decimation first from European diseases and then from European colonizers.
Tip of the hat to friend of the blog Kay for this tip about Huber’s. Until recently I associated the name Huber with the famous Wisconsin beer brand, which started as the Blumer brewery in 1845. Disclosure - I have never been to Huber’s, but I remember trying a delicious Huber produced beer called Augsburger, introduced in 1978 and a precursor to the craft beer explosion that began in the 1980s and exploded in the 1990s.
“Sorry, we are NO LONGER ACCEPTING ANY TURKEY PACKAGE ORDERS FOR THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER.” -Huber’s
Huber’s has been dishing out turkey sandwiches since they opened. The cold turkey sandwich is a very simple combo of turkey, lettuce and tomatoes with Huber’s cole slaw. Their hot turkey sandwich has “sage dressing or mashed potatoes with gravy and cranberry sauce … served Open-Faced and Topped with Mushroom Gravy.” WOW! The best part of Thanksgiving to me has always been the next-day leftover sandwiches. The worst part has been knowing that Thanksgiving is a genocide holiday.
Huber’s is all about upscale comfort food. Appetizers like crab cakes … chicken wings. Onion rings. Mongolian beef skewers … brandied liver pâté? Hell yeah. And for dinner? Roast turkey, of course. Sage dressing. Mashed potatoes or yams with hazelnut butter.
Huber’s is what a restaurant should be. A place with some history and ambience that you go to only for special occasions. The food is hit or miss but you are there because of family and friends and booze. Kind of describes America.
—Alex