Places to Eat in Portland: LARDO and RubyJewel Scoops

 

This weekend we had family in town for Jared's white coat ceremony.  My baby brother is a voracious reader who insisted that his visit include a trip to Powell's City of Books. 

 

(Of the five people who visited us this week, every single one brought at least one book with them.  And almost all of them spent time reading during their visit.)

 

We spent a good while toodling around Powell's.  I hung out with my mom in the travel section, and then she followed me to the mystery shelves.  We found Max near the Civil War section, while Jared was busy giving himself the creeps with Jack the Ripper.  My dad was upstairs in the Pearl Room looking at art books.

 

Buying books makes me hungry, so instead of driving home to make dinner, we decided to look for food en route to the car.  We walked past LARDO, which Jared yelped for us.  It had good reviews, so we decided to check it out.

 

 

For you Paleo types, they will make any sandwich into a salad for you.  The bread's awesome here, but it's always nice to have options.

 

Jared ordered the Double Burger, and I got the PBLT (Pork Belly Lettuce and heirloom Tomato). 

 

 

We also got an order of Dirty Fries to share with my family:

 

 

The fries were perfectly done, with pepperoncini slices and bits of pork.

 

Max got the Sausage, Egg, and Cheese...messy, but good.

 

 

The service and atmosphere were both great, and the food was delicious! 

 

 

While eating outside, we looked across the street and saw ice cream...which of course we needed after a serious lunch like that.

 

 

 

RubyJewel Scoops has several delicious flavors available: some traditional, like Double Chocolate, and some a little different, like Roasted Beet with Mascarpone.  We tried the beet and it was surprisingly good.

 

 

I ended up with Blueberry Marzipan, which was sweet without being overpowering.  The blueberry flavor really came through and the texture was creamy.

 

 

My favorite flavor was probably Jared's Brown Butter Bourbon Pecan, but all of us were really impressed with our scoops.  They offered kids' sizes, which I liked (mine above is a kid's scoop).  Their "single scoop" is actually two kid-sized scoops!

 

If you are in Portland near Burnside and Powell's, be sure you check out LARDO and RubyJewel!