Portland, Oregon – January 15th, 2013 – The space formerly known as Vino Vixens is rebranding and upping the ante.
Lesa Wolman, the proprietor of now-known Shaker and Vine, has teamed up with Portland veteran Chef Ronnie Vance and mixologist Lucas Plant in an effort to reinvent the wheel. Hidden away in an unassuming strip mall on Powell Blvd., the eclectic little spot realizes more than a wine shop and cocktail lounge in its approach.
Its funky back rooms, filled with comfortable couches, coffee tables, games, and local artwork, is poised in anticipation of the release of the modernist elements involving the bar and kitchen.
Lesa and Chef Vance have created a dining experience involving some of her favorite wines and both of their drives to do something unique. The menu will be double sided, offering a “SAFE” side with fairly straight forward café fair, and an “ADVENTUROUS” side, which will offer degustations of modernist cuisine paired to the wine rather than the more traditional approach of pairing a wine to the food. Both menus will be affordable, reflecting the price-point of the times. The Adventurous offerings will be presented as flights of 3, 5, 7 and 9 courses, inclusive of the wines they were “built” to accompany.
The bar will also be keeping pace and offering some modernist influenced cocktails.
Although the approach from the kitchen is experimental and exploratory, it promises to not be too challenging as Vance intends to keep flavors familiar and steer away from the austere.
These changes will hopefully coincide with the new signage for the business, but it is Portland so there may be a bit of staggering (pun fully intended). Shaker and Vine is located at 2929 SE Powell Boulevard and is open Tuesday-Sunday.