Bringing in the Harvest
Pacific City picnics have never been fresher, thanks to Harvest Fresh Riverplace
There are waves all over the Harvest Fresh Riverplace Deli, from the sand and water design on the floor to the brushed steel salmon run mounted above. On a summer Sunday afternoon, even the customers are coming in waves, picking up boxed lunches, ordering pizzas and snacking on tamales and freshly-made soup.
For the past four years, this Pacific City eatery has made its reputation among visitors and locals with friendly, prompt service, fresh baked cookies and muffins, specialty deli salads and tempting roasted chickens. Natural-food lovers from wine country, however, needed no introduction. The restaurant is owned by the same company as Harvest Fresh Grocery and Deli, on Third Street in historic downtown McMinnville.
In Pacific City, Harvest Fresh is part of a cool cluster of specialty stores, including the Village Merchants and the new Freed Gallery, with convenient parking. Customers can put in an order for boxed picnic lunches and browse for wine, clothing, cigars, art and more.
From the aroma emanating from the deli, it smells like one of this writer’s favorite items might be coming out of the oven. The hand-tossed artisan pizzas are top-notch, with a hand-tossed ciabatta dough and a garlic and red wine pizza sauce. The Harvest Fresh staff use a tasty three cheese blend, with mozzarella, provolone and Tillamook cheddar.
You can create your own combination, of course, with all the average toppings plus pesto, shrimp, feta and artichoke hearts. Or, if your brain is already on vacation, order right off the menu from favorites like Barbecue Chicken (with sweet red peppers, green onions and mozzarella) or Greek (with fresh spinach, tomatoes, kalamata olives, onion and feta). Small pizzas start at $11.50, large at $17.75.
Pizza aside, some diners believe the measure of a beach restaurant is its fish and chips; in this, Harvest Fresh Riverplace is a contender. Choose between fresh halibut or local rockfish (red snapper, black cod or ling cod, depending on the catch), dipped in a beer cornmeal batter and served with fries or coleslaw. This fresh, tasty take on the classic starts at $10.95.
Pasta Tuesday
If it’s Tuesday, it must be tortellini. Or penne, fettuccini or lasagna, for that matter. All you need is $7.50 and a ride to Pacific City, where Pasta Tuesdays have become a delicious social occasion.
Every Tuesday night, the staff serves up four kinds of pasta, all you can eat, for $7.50. Concentrate on just one or try them all. They whip up two pastas with meat and two without. Among the recent specialties: Bronze Chicken Penne, a spicy chicken breast with bacon and sun-dried tomatoes in a white wine asiago sauce, and Walnut Pesto Fettucini, with mushrooms, onions, peppers, bay shrimp and tomatoes.
Or, try Thai Peanut Linguini, a heavenly concoction of snow peas, cilantro, basil, carrots and mushrooms in a coconut milk-peanut sauce. Tortellini Putanesca, a rustic style of Italian cuisine, is a cheese-filled pasta topped with marinara sauce, olives, capers and peppers, and finished in the oven with a three-cheese blend.
On the go is a-ok
There are 25 inviting seats inside the deli, surrounded by colorful kites and rotating abstract art by Marilyn Burkhardt, and another 20 chairs outside in the courtyard. Specialty coffees and espresso, soft drinks, Italian sodas and bottled drinks galore can be sipped along with a sinful sweet — oversized cookies and bar cookies from Piontek’s Bakery in McMinnville — or a hearty muffin or cinnamon roll, made daily on site.
Small meals, like a three-salad plate or combination of homemade soup and salad, can be munched while you contemplate the collection of sand dollars, painted by customers and lining the western wall.
Even so, they’ll understand if you’d like your meal to go. They offer hearty sandwiches, with toppings like smoked turkey, black forest ham, roasted chicken breast and salmon fillet. Boxed lunches, with a side of deli salad, chips, pickle and a cookie, come with a whole sandwich ($7.95) or half ($5.95).
The staff also roasts whole chickens (including one with Ooga Booga Barbecue sauce) and salmon fillets, and the breads and salads to make a meal. Northwest beers and wines can tag along in the picnic basket, along with a deli salad or three.
The Harvest Fresh River Place Deli can be found at 34950 Brooten Road, just north of the flashing stoplight in Pacific City. Hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, Monday and Wednesday, and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday. They are open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. for Pasta Tuesdays and closed on Thursdays. Learn more at www.harvestfresh.com, or by calling 503-965-0090.
TideTables is an advertiser-sponsored feature of the Oregon Coast Today. To include your restaurant in an upcoming edition, call 921-2306.
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| Enjoy the Harvest Fresh Riverplace's famous fish & chips or, above, its cobb salad, with one of a number of fine wines. |
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