I have to admit, I don’t know much about sake. I’ll drink
anything you put in front of me, of course, but as for really
appreciating it—I’ve long considered sake to be just another taste that
I can’t quite afford to acquire. The accessibility of sake in Portland
has recently gotten a serious boost, though, with the opening of NE
Alberta’s Zilla, a sake bar boasting the largest selection in the
city.
Sake may be poised to become the Next Big Thing in the drink world,
but the atmosphere in Zilla has none of the exclusivity or snobbery you
might expect from the foremost representative of a burgeoning trend. If
anything, the opposite is true: Both the service and the space at Zilla
are welcoming enough that any sense of intimidation surrounding a foray
into unfamiliar gustatory territory dissipates almost immediately.
The bar boasts over 40 varieties of the Japanese rice wine,
organized by polish ratio. (Polish ratio refers to the percentage of
the rice grain that remains after excess fats and lipids—which can
adversely affect the quality of the final beverage—have been polished
from the surface of the grain.) Each sake gets a few sentences of
description in the menu, and the servers are quick with recommendations
if you find choosing one variety out of the extensive list a little
overwhelming. There are also samplers available, including a $12 flight
from Forest Grove’s Moonstone Sake.
Comparing the handsome, cork-bound sake menu with the one-page paper
food menu makes it clear that the emphasis here is on drink, rather
than food—but even though the food menu is limited, considerable care
has been taken with each item, all of which are small plates designed
to be shared. The spicy ika (a dried squid jerky served with
wasabi sauce for dipping) is served in a fibrous, tangled heap that,
despite its resemblance to a bowl full of hair, makes for a perfect
drinking snack, chewy and salty, with occasional dips into
sinus-clearing wasabi. Seared tuna with sake marinade is elegantly
presented and reasonably portioned for the price ($8), while a large
bowl of warm edamame, peppered and dashed with ginger, beats the hell
out of peanuts.
The space is small, pleasant, and dark, with lots of dark wood and
gray-green walls—the type of room that feels cozy on a cold day, cool
on a hot one. The interior design is understated, but notes like the
metal-framed paintings on the walls and the lovely wooden backbar
reveal a studied attention to detail. A few high-backed booths have
inlaid carvings that light up prettily, while a long wood bar and a
loungy front area lined with cushioned benches offer a range of seating
options.
My only complaint about Zilla is that their sake-based cocktail list
is limited and not particularly interesting. The “Fuzzy Feeling”
combines peach sake, orange juice, and raspberry Stoli for a twist on
the Fuzzy Navel—but who drinks Fuzzy Navels? What am I, 55? The sake
julep, while tasty in execution, is similarly banal in concept. It
would be nice to see some more creativity demonstrated here—perhaps
making use of some of the ingredients the kitchen has already—rather
than simply sake-fied versions of standard cocktails.
Maybe quibbling over cocktails at a sake bar is missing the point,
though—and either way, it’s the one off note in what is otherwise a
genuinely likeable and unusual addition to Portland’s bar scene.