A Dark Restaurant With Bright Food

 Lincoln in North Portland is the kind of restaurant everyone wishes was their neighborhood place. The service is friendly, the wine list well chosen with several affordable bottles, and the food is inventive and delicious.
I might have missed this little gem but chef owner Jenn Lewis was recently named of one Food and Wine Magazine's Best New Chefs for 2012. When I read the magazine I had no idea I was on my way to Portland. Since I am here I couldn't miss a visit.
Lincoln is one of those restaurants that takes mood lighting to an extreme. Generally that turns me off a restaurant -- when I cant read the menu -- but the staff at Lincoln is so cheerful, charming and genuinely pleased you are there it's kind of hard to be bothered by little flaws. Don't judge the quality of the meal by the quality of the photos. Lewis is clearly an ingredient focused chef. She produces unique dishes that treat her high quality ingredients with inventive respect.

 For starters the menu offered fried fava bean pods. For some reason I still expected beans. What arrived were crispy, light, additive strips of fava bean pod in impossibly light batter. A tangy aioli brought out the grassy fresh flavor of the pods  -- an ingredient I've never thought to use on its own -- and the crisp salt of the batter.

 Secreto Iberico. A specially cut from the same acorn-eating pigs used to make Spain's Jamon Iberico. The cut was lightly seared and rubbed with a delicious seasoning I can't even behind to identify that perfectly complemented the rich, almost rare meat. Lewis is a chef who is not afraid of salt and this meat literally danced with flavor. A stand-out dish in any restaurant in any city that only a supremely bold and confident chef would ever attempt.

Fresh and light, a simple salad of thinly sliced summer squashes. A bracing, herbed dressing and seared chunks of ricotta salata elevated this summery salad from similar versions.

Barely a photo but this duck confit was worthy of a mention. The best part? A bed of earthly Borlotti beans sautéed with ultra-flavorful bunching onions.