Viking Soul Food sets sail with new brick-and-mortar stores

Viking Chic Is Everywhere These Days, From Marvel Thor to CBS ghost In the glorious beards and manes of many Major League Baseball players. Vikings: It’s so hot right now! As always, we are ahead of the curve at Rose City. Portland’s own Viking Soul Food, now a longtime member of The Bite on Belmont Food Pod, opened in 2010. In late 2022, owners Megan Wolfood and Jeremy Daniels expanded to open Viking’s first brick-and-mortar store in southeastern Portland. .

The new location is in the former Taqueria on a bustling stretch of Southeast Woodstock Boulevard between Double Mountain Brewery and New Seasons. This outpost has a lot more than a food cart. There are indoor seating, liquor licenses, and off-the-shelf items like a beet-based hot sauce named after Thor’s mythically unpronounceable hammer.

Space is not big. Longship than Great Hall. The restaurant has about eight seats, most of which surround the open kitchen. His two additional picnic tables provide room to breathe outside, but are tight. Upon entering, the atmosphere is more hygge than hip. Mushroom stew bubbly on the stove.A stack of books with titles like fire + ice and having fun the Finnish way I sat by a bottle of mead and two shot glasses carved out of the corner of something. By the way, that mead is made by Wyrd Leatherworks and Meadery nearby he. The menu says it’s a “great introduction” to mead, but Viking Soul Food’s label of pickled herring isn’t taken lightly.

All this is not to say that the soul food aspect is missing. Rather, it is the restaurant’s secret superpower to boost otherwise frugal dishes. Troll Snacks ($15) is served on dark rye crackers and topped with Yarlsburg and garlic. It’s the ideal after-school snack for elementary school students who are already getting their 5 o’clock shadows.I used to love pickled eggs that I only knew as a gag Simpsons. Viking Soul Food’s version is salted with beets, which gives the finished product a nice lavender hue. With a fuzzy egg yolk, orange chunks of salmon caviar and a shower of fresh dill, it’s absolutely delicious.

Much of Viking Soul Food’s menu is surrounded by lefse, delicate wraps made from potatoes, butter, and flour. Traditionally, lefse is heated on a griddle before being served with fresh butter and sugar. In the old days, lefse was dried during the winter and during long sea voyages. Today, all you have to do is order at the counter. No need to go out to sea or row a boat. If culinary history (or gluten) is too much for you, the large appetizers also all come as salad plates.

Adding lightness to savory wraps and a heavy emphasis on sweeter kid-friendly repeats, Lefse’s versatility works wonders. The refse has a texture more like a crepe than a flour tortilla, so it doesn’t overwhelm, it just complements the accompanying ingredients. Something as traditional as the Smoked Steelhead ($13) recedes in the background, underpinning the crunchy veggies and acidity of pickled shallots and dill crème fraîche. So are Norwegian tender pork and beef meatballs ($13), served with gjetost (a subtly sweet, caramelized goat cheese), pickled purple cabbage, and wine-braised pork sausage ($12). With Jarlsberg, mustard and lingonberries.

These iconic lingonberries also appear in sweet Lefse ($8) filled with tart jam and cream cheese or lemon custard. Both fillings also come in an excellent Thumbprint Cookie ($4), with a generous amount of sea squirt jam or custard in the center. When available, the Special Winter Wrap ($8) with roasted apples, honey, walnuts, and chevre is probably the most delightful dessert for adult palates.

What Viking Soul Food lacks in seating, it makes up for in heart. Years after their inception of “chocolate in peanut butter” with meatballs in refse, Wolfood and Daniels are now loving ambassadors of Scandinavian street food. With their own twist, they’ve turned Viking Soul Food into a Portland institution along the way. Let’s all celebrate and raise the mead horns.

eat: Viking Soul Food, 4422 SE Woodstock Blvd., 971-430-0171, vikingsoulfood.com. Sunday-Thursday 11am-7pm, Friday-Saturday 11am-8pm.