Porter's, Medford

Medford, Oregon, December 6, 2009—

WE ATE HERE ABOUT five months ago, and needing to break yet another trip to Portland — on a Sunday night, when New Sammy's is closed, alas — I thought, well, why not go there again. You can stay in Medford at a perfectly acceptable motel for fifty or sixty bucks, and Porter's isn't disgusting.
But tonight, a very cold night by the way, there wasn't anything on the menu that really spoke to me. Well, the beef beckoned, but Lindsey pointed out it was grain-fed, and who knows where it comes from. She ordered fish and chips, but it was too cold for beer or white wine for me, Zinfandel called, so I ordered the pork tenderloin, stipulating that it be divested of (or, rather, never invested with) an irrelevant blue cheese, and that it be prepared as rare as their lawyers would allow. It was okay. Before it, a "Caesar" salad, the quotes meaning: innocent of egg; innocent of anchovy.

Ridge Vineyards "Three Valleys," 2007

Porter's Train Station , 147 N. Front St., Medford, OR; tel. 541-857-1910