[Here’s another great article from our 2020 Holiday Food & Drink Guide! Check the rest out here to make your holidays extra festive!—eds.]
Being forced to stay home and practice one’s cooking skills will certainly pay off in the long run—many of us are in training for when we eventually have to host and/or be responsible for all the food on any given holiday. But in the short run, sometimes food just tastes better when someone else cooks it. After all, all the best, most mind-blowing takeout is the stuff you don’t yet know how to make yourself. For when you want to take the pressure off yourself to make dinner, here are eight great BIPOC-owned restaurants to get takeout and delivery from this holiday season.
Swiss Hibiscus
The Switzerland-meets-Hawaii restaurant Swiss Hibiscus have temporarily converted their giant windows into a makeshift takeout counter off Alberta. Go here when you want a full-blown dinner with all the bells and whistles, including bread, salad, and appetizers. The restaurant’s signature, widely famous Martin Swiss Dressing also works well as a dipping sauce for those warm and toasty dinner rolls, and if you get a bottle from a local grocery store, it can make any salad more exciting. While the celebrated restaurant hasn’t had seated table service since March, partners Jennie Wyss and Tammy Hay are still serving their usual Swiss fare for takeout. Some of their best appetizers include alper magronen ($11.50), a rich mac ’n cheese-type dish that includes potatoes, sautéed onions, and ham, as well as cream and gruyére (which can be made vegetarian). Another “don’t miss” is their sauteéd mushrooms appetizer ($10.50) dressed in their housemade garlic butter. They’re also still serving regular entrees like Paprika Schnitzel (pork medallions or tofu with paprika mushroom cream sauce, $18.50) as well as rotating and holiday plates, such as a recent osso buco, and of course, the frequent salmon special that can be made cajun-style or with a beurre blanc sauce and capers. Entrees come with the customer’s choice of salad/coleslaw, and either spätzli (traditional Swiss pasta fried in garlic butter) or rosti, a hashbrown made with sauteed onion, ham, and cheese—and again, the veg version is great. Speaking of, their deep and flavorful vegan lentil stew is a nice lighter option (still comes with salad and a side!), and might be just what you need delivered at some point during this cold, flu, and COVID season.
4950 NE 14th, Thurs-Sun 4-8 pm, 503-477-9224, swisshibiscus.com/menu
