**** CLOSED - Losing Faith in Nutshell - ****
posted on August 9th, 2008 in Portland
the lowdown: Nutshell | 3808 N Williams Ste. C, Portland, OR 97227 | 503.292.2627 | Website | Dinner | Entrees $11 - $14 | ***
All vegan cuisine.
It has been nearly a year since my first visit (and subsequent review) of Nutshell and my god is an update long overdue! Not only had the food pricing changed, but my general thoughts have as well. I choose Nutshell this week as a meeting place with a friend because it is relatively close to the freeway, which is handy for my friend making the horrific commute from Beaverton to Vancouver. Lucky for me, it is a 5 minute bike ride.
Since last year, Nutshell has raised their prices, reduced their menu options, decreased their portions sizes, and changed business hours. My first review included price ranges from $5 - $11, now the only thing $5 will get you is a side of fries! The tandoori bread and oil options remain and the menu items are all fresh and elegantly presented, its just different. Either Nutshell is having an identity crisis or business is on the decline. I ordered the Barbeque Platter ($14); red beans, potato salad, roasted green pepper stuff with corn, and corn bread. While my friend ordered the Fried Quinoa & Polenta ($13); a meticulous display of three quinoa triangles topped with greens. I was rather disappointed with platter due to the dried corn bread, tart potato salad and unimpressive portion of beans. I favored the quinoa, but there is no way that portion would have been enough for me! My experience with service has always been spotty. This time it was great but it seems the half baked appearance of the cooks and servers isn’t improving as the prices go up. I’ll leave Nutshell open as an option but will more often keep riding by.
I totally forgot about this place! I’ve been before, but it was like last September? I can’t believe they’ve increased prices! It was already pretty pricey for me, but now….I can probably forget about it :(. I didn’t think my meal was even that bad!
Hey Anne! I have only been three times but it seems like every time I go there is something different about it and it is more then just a seasonal change in the menu!
Did they still have the $1 shot of lettuce soup? It’s under $5, at least.
I hope the BBQ platter didn’t replace my favorite, the Jamaican BBQ - say it isn’t so!
Hey JD! I didn’t notice the shot but if it is still there you have a great point! My fav was the Jamaican BBQ, now that you mention it. I had it the last time I was at Nutshell (which happened to be a PPK meetup!)…
I only went to Nutshell once: when Ten01 promised to take foie gras off their menu I took my mom there for her birthday in May. I had the Jamaican BBQ platter and it was a ton of delicious food. I don’t want to support them anymore though, knowing that Ten01 lied and brought foie gras back. The whole situation is really too bad. I wish the head chef (who is vegan) could buy it from the Ten01 owner…
Hi Chelsea! So it’s Ten01 that shares the same ownership with Nutshell. For some reason I thought it was Tabla. For the sake of curiosity, is your decision to not support Nutshell due to Ten01’s menu based on the fact that by dining at Nutshell you are indirectly supporting the foie gras industry?
Exactly. I suppose it helps that Nutshell is totally out of the way for me, too. I was just so shocked when the owner brought it back… at the very first protest he said he was taking it off the menu because he couldn’t afford to lose his vegan customers at Nutshell, and that he knew we meant business when we all showed up (scary Radical Cheerleaders, too!
). So yeah, if I happen to be in that neighborhood I’ll go to the Bye and Bye now. I also need to try En’joni!
P.S. I think the owner, Adam something, also owns Tabla.
I had no idea this happened! Do you know if Nutshell’s business has been hurt by this? That would be interesting to find out. It takes a lot of capital to start a business and oftentimes people do what they have to do in order to open business. it is a tough one because in order for the co-owners (or whoever it is that wants to split off from Adam) to go out on their own, they need to have the money and as long as folks don’t support them because of their ties with Ten01, that will never happen. Its a conundrum.
I’ve heard that Nutshell’s business has been hurt by this… I have a vegan friend who works there. I know that Adam opened the restaurant because the weekly all-vegan dinners he did at Tabla were so popular, so it was a money-making thing, pure and simple. The first chef was a weight-loss vegan, not ethical, and now the chef to my understanding is an ethical vegan. It sounds like everyone else working there eats meat, though :(. It was interesting, at the first protest when Adam said he would take it off the menu, he was going on and on about all the good things he does for the community, like programs with public schools to offer more fresh produce and stuff like that, and that us animal activists just focus on something else… of course a lot of us are teachers, social workers, one regular protester works with disabled adults, and he didn’t know what to say to that! Human freedom, animal rights! Right? People don’t get it! Oh here’s a link I found with some more background on the issue:
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2008/06/376949.shtml?discuss
Thanks for the background information Chelsea! I appreciate your passion and wish that Adam could be more responsive to groups requests. I am curious if Foie Gras is a huge seller at Ten01. Anyway, I would hate to see Nutshell go out of business (one less vegan dining option, loss of jobs, loss of business in a growing neighborhood).
A Portland vegan who hasn’t heard of the controversy with Nutshell! AND one that appears to eat out often!
wow.
Hey Annie! Thanks for stopping by. I had heard elements of the controversy but didn’t realize the extent. I have to admit, being in school and working full time, unless its news that hits NPR, the Wall Street Journal, or the blogs on my blogroll, I don’t hear about it.
What program are you in anyway, VF? Do you have a long time to go? I just realized that I’m 15/45 credits - that’s 1/3- of the way done with my program - woohoo! But then I realized that took me 2 years… so yikes. I’ll be 30 when I finish at this rate!
Hey Chelsea! I am in graduate school for my MBA. I have 3+ years to go b/c I am only taking one class at a time. It is just too difficult to pile on too much school and go to work! What program are you in?
I’m slowly working on an MA in Curriculum and Instruction: Specialization in Early Childhood Education. That’s a mouthful! It’s been 1 class/term for me, too. I just don’t feel like I can do more while teaching full-time.
Bummer that this wasn’t the greatest experience! But how cool is it that Portland is so veg-friendly that you can base an entire blog theme around reviewing its restaurants?! Seriously, that’s amazing. Now that I am actually living *in* Minneapolis (as opposed to the ‘burbs), I am having a great time exploring all the veg restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries, etc. It’s so fun!
Hey Chelsea! I am so with you! I need time to eat and breathe
Hey Jess! You are absolutely right! I honestly take that for granted more then I should. Its been a while since I did some travel so I need to add some variety to my blog (and life!). I think my next stop is Montreal or San Franciso!
I also can’t bring myself to go to Nutshell because of the Ten01 foie gras. This is just too horrid to support. I wouldn’t worry about Nutshell closing–this guy can’t be making so much money from one ingredient that he’d let that happen. The choice seems very simple; he just needs to be faced with it.
And since before I’d even moved here, I looked forward to going there. Now that I’m settled and can afford to…thanks, a-hole!
Hey VV! It surprises me how out of touch the owner of Ten01 and Nutshell is with the vegan community. It is a force to be reckoned with, that’s fo’ sure! Now that you aren’t going to Nutshell where do you go instead? I’m ready for another vegan hot spot to open!
I just got here, so I don’t even know what I’m missing. If I don’t hear about it from you or Stumptown Vegans, I’m not likely to stumble upon it. We don’t go out so much, but 50% of the time we do, we’re either at Hungry Tiger Too or Vita Cafe. Not so schmancy, but they’re reliable. I like reliable. I’ve got to get by behind over to Bye and Bye.
Vita and HT2 are good staples. Tin Shed would be another good one. Excellent brunch options!
[…] week Nutshell made another turn. With rumors circulating about its demise and increasing complaints about the food and service Nutshell added butter, eggs and cheese to just about every dish on the menu (There’s even an […]
I went there last night for my third or fourth time and found a huge shock. They now carry dairy and egg products in a lot of their dishes. The dishes that were vegan were very mediocre and flavorless. They have asterisks on dishes that *can* be made vegan but when the dish is “poached egg on bread” then you’re just paying for $11.00 bread.
Very disappointing.
Hey Aayla! Thanks for the update! I had read about that on another blog and was shocked myself! Nutshell’s identity crisis has reached a critical point…
I ate there once, months ago. The food was pretty bad. Not just bland or boring, but actually some things were inedible. I had brought my gourmet chef cousin from Seattle thinking it might impress her… boy was I wrong. I hear they fired the original cook and I think we went right after that, so maybe they were in transition. But the food was so bad, I never went back. And now knowing about the sleazy owner and foie gras, I never will.
Hey Jn - Thanks for visiting! Nothing worse than thinking you are going to impress someone and you don’t! It still amazes me that a place that once toted itself has fine vegan dining is now serving egg and cheese. Wow…Is a strictly vegan somewhat upscale restaurant not sustainable?
[…] week Nutshell made another turn. With rumors circulating about its demise and increasing complaints about the food and service Nutshell added butter, eggs and cheese to just about every dish on the menu (There’s even an […]
Damned if they did, damned if they didn’t. Poor Nutshell couldn’t win. The fois gras thing at Ten01 made vegans hate them, not having meat made carnivores not interested. The mercury review drove the nail home. In this economy apparently you can’t past muster trying to serve decent food to people full of hate. Sorry that you couldn’t support people trying to do nice things for the community. All the farmers who sold their produce to Nutshell are going to pretty bummed out too.
P.S. Not owned by the same group as Ten01, one guy who didn’t really have a voice on Ten01’s menu. And Sean Coryell was fired because he was unreasonably crazy and the whole staff was ready to walk. Oh, and he stole most of his recipes and was bankrupting the owner. And a lot of his ingredients were imported from third world countries where they exploit their growers. So think about that next you are in the drive-thru of Taco Bell getting a bean burrito and you want to protest a restaurant that buys locally grown produce.
Thanks for stopping by Sad. I agree that is it unfortunate that the criticism is bringing Nutshell to its knees. I am always sad to see a local business go through hard times. Vegans are a tough crowd, as such the owners should have done their homework about the vegan community before opening Nutshell’s doors. It is simple business to know your target market.
[…] Find Nutshell at 3808 N Williams Ave. If it’s too crowded and you’re starved, cruise up the street a bit further to Dalo’s. Check other reviews all over, but quickly: Stumptown Vegans and VeganFabulous. […]
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