Joel Palmer House

[DRColby]

We have a wedding in Corvallis the weekend of August 7-8.

We have made a reservation for 2 people for 6 p.m. Friday Aug. 6 at the Joel Palmer House in Dayton, OR .

This is suppose to be a Nirvana experience for mushroom nuts. If so it will be the secod of the year. The first trip to mushroom heaven was over the 4th of July when we picked about 30-pounds of morels in a high mountain burn.

I am wondering if anyone would like to join us? If so, rather than tie up the thread contanct me privately and I'll see if I can expand the seating.

Dave

[tighe]

Dave, I look forward to hearing about your experience at the JPH. Many people have raved about it, but on my one visit a few years ago I thought it fell well short of the hype.

[ExtraMSG]

Joel Palmer was inconsistent in my few trips. I had one great experience, one bad experience, and one mediocre experience. It really depends on what you get. I'd recommend sticking with mushroom dishes, getting the soup, but avoiding the godawful "tart". The place is beautiful and the herb garden area nice to sit and rest. The service can be good or bad, but they will charge you 18% either way. Too many high school/college-age people working the floor.

[fierydrunk]

Yes, let us know. My dad is coming out from Florida with his "lady friend" and is interested in checking it out. Is there another restaurant/s that people can reccomend to take a 50-something great cook and his woman for a nice dinner with the kids? They have never been to this area (PDX).

[DRColby]

If my reading and cookbooks are correct (someone didn't return the original "Joe's" Mushroom cookbook). The current owner is the son of the man (Jack, I think) who was so sucessful in Pennsylvania. He migrated to Oregon because of the mushrooms and wine.

Also keep in mind that it's pretty tough to run a wild mushroom resturant out of season. I think the dining would be better September through June. I have talked twice with them on the phone and they seem very accomodating.... We'll see and let everyone know.

Dave

[mildbore]

My Joel Palmer House meals have ranged from good to excellent, depending on what I order. Some things are just more to my taste. In general, appetizers please me more than main courses, at least partly because I am very hungry at the start of the meal.

I like the soup and the mushroom tart, but your mileage will obviously vary. Usually the special mushroom appetizer is wonderful, sort of the catch of the day. I did not much like the "Faux Gras". Among the main courses, I have really enjoyed the scallops and the pork though the pork is not a mushroom dish.

Service was never less than competent, and was outstanding on a couple of visits.

Bill

[little ms foodie]

Yes, let us know. My dad is coming out from Florida with his "lady friend" and is interested in checking it out. Is there another restaurant/s that people can reccomend to take a 50-something great cook and his woman for a nice dinner with the kids? They have never been to this area (PDX).

JPH is one of my favorites in the Willamette but I also really love Tina's!

A newer, more casual but still fantastic restaurant in McMinville is Maison something or another??? grrr... can't remember but it's a great French bistro... oh wait..... Bistro Maison I think is the name!

[jbonne]

Joel Palmer was inconsistent in my few trips. ... I'd recommend sticking with mushroom dishes, getting the soup, but avoiding the godawful "tart".

fascinating -- my experience exactly, though on just one visit. soup was brilliant, tart was blah, other stuff was middling. it was July, which is low time in the mushroom world, so that may have contributed.

was made extra bizarre after we figured out the woman at the next table (of a mostly empty restaurant) was Karen MacNeil.

all in all, i was surprised, since everyone had raved about it. the flavors were muted, sometimes over-salted. i'd make a return visit to verify, but not so enthusiastically.

incidentally, Jack Czarnecki's mushroom cookbook is an informative, fascinating but slightly curious thing. i loved the info, and about half the recipes looked delightful. the other half i found a tad bizarre.

[hollis]

Any reccomendations for restaurants like JPH where you have to make a 45 minute drive out of Portland, preferably through some countryside for impressing the parents from Florida? I really loved that aspect of our trip to Scholl's Public House but I want to go to a "real" restaurant with my dad.

[ExtraMSG]

Any reccomendations for restaurants like JPH where you have to make a 45 minute drive out of Portland, preferably through some countryside for impressing the parents from Florida? I really loved that aspect of our trip to Scholl's Public House but I want to go to a "real" restaurant with my dad.

Tina's and Red Hills are the other two that are the established favorites. I haven't been out that way since last summer, though, so I'm not up on what's new.

fascinating -- my experience exactly, though on just one visit. soup was brilliant, tart was blah, other stuff was middling. it was July, which is low time in the mushroom world, so that may have contributed.

That "tart" was like a cheesecake without cheese, only mushrooms -- a shroomcake. Way too much of the same flavor. A sliced mushroom galette would have been so much more elegant and so much more satisfying. And it would have taken a hell of a lot fewer mushrooms. Blech. One of the worst dishes I've had in an upscale restaurant.

[fierydrunk]

When is "mushroom time" exactly? And is this place worth bringing the parents to? It is beginning to sound like I need to convince them they want to go somewhere else...

[DRColby]

Joe Palmer's House is in Dayton, about 45 minutes south and west of Portland and just off 99W. They have a web site with direction and menues.

We were there Friday night (making a special trip) food was okay but we wuld probably not do it again. People are nice but Dayton is very small town so satff is probably hard to come by and very young. 18% gratuity was added on and while service wasn't bad, it wasn't knowledgeable, eg. We had a bottle of pinor blanc and need to ask for a tub to cool it.

Mushroom season is now as far as Jack is concerned. He picks for his menu two or three days a week and was out the day we were in and told me he was starting to find some small chantrelles along the coast.

I had a morel fricasse that was in a quite heavy sauce, the way eastern Europeans (where the family is from) would prepare them. I then had seabass with black chantrelles in a lemon cream sauce. It was good, not great. Cathy had their mushroom tart (signature dish) which she thought was quite good and a summer salad.

The next day we visited the farmers' market in Corvallis and I was talking with a mushroom seller who said she also sold to a resturant in Siliverton that specialized in mushroom dishes. We'd probably try that next time down, but wouldn't go out of way to stop at Joe Palmer House.

dave

[jbonne]

When is "mushroom time" exactly?

hard to say exactly. the two to concern yourself with are morels and chanterelles, though others might add some additional ones in there.

morels usually start mid-spring, maybe April, though it varies. (for more, read this rather in-depth take.) and they go through early summer, though i found some decent morels at the market this weekend. (but i'd say the season has largely past.)

chanterelles usually start early fall and go into the late fall. (check this item from 1997 in the P-I.)

so now's not an optimal time for fresh mushroom cooking. matter of fact, we just took Czarnecki's cookbook back to the library, having found we weren't inspired to cook much out of it. also, most of the recipes that caught our eyes called for soy sauce, oyster sauce or both. not my thing.