Book your holiday party at VQ!

As this holiday season nears, keep Veritable Quandary in mind for your entertaining needs!

We have the perfect space for groups from two to 20, including private dining for up to eight people in our cozy wine cellar. There is no charge to use the wine cellar - if it's available, you can reserve it!


Our charming semi-private loft space overlooking the Willamette River can accommodate up to 20 guests comfortably for lunch, brunch, or dinner. We can also offer the use of our dining room for cocktail parties of up to 40 people between 3pm and 5pm - perfect for an afternoon office get-together.

Give us a call for more details and date availability. We look forward to seeing you this holiday season!

Wine Dinner featuring Tablas Creek Vineyard

Join us at Veritable Quandary for a winemaker's dinner on Tuesday, September 15th at 6:30pm. Chef Annie Cuggino will prepare an inspiring multi-course dinner, paired to perfection with wines from Tablas Creek Vineyard.

Cost is $75 per person (includes gratuity). Seating is extremely limited; for more details or to reserve your spot at this event, please contact VQ Wine Director Nicole Rocco at:

info@vqpdx.com
(503)203-9261

Tablas Creek Vineyard

Extreme Makeover: Beer List Edition

The VQ draught beer list has gone local!

To take advantage of the exceptional brews the Pacific Northwest has to offer, all of our draught beers are now exclusively local/regional. Don't worry, your old friends are still here (some of them now live in bottles). We've just added some new friends from the neighborhood.

Our current selection includes:

Double Mountain India Red Ale
(Hood River, OR)

Terminal Gravity ESG
(Enterprise, OR)

Walking Man Pale Strider
(Stevenson, WA)

Widmer Hefeweizen
(Portland, OR)

Hopworks Urban Brewing Czech Pilsner
(Portland, OR)

Ninkasi Total Domination IPA
(Eugene, OR)

Hale's Dublin Style Cream Stout
(Seattle, WA)

Full Sail Amber Ale
(Hood River, OR)

Our taps are always rotating, so keep checking back to see what PNW delights are up next! All draught beers are $4.50 a pint, so it's easy to sample all the brews our region has to offer.

Go beer!

Summertime, and the livin' is easy

After a brief blog-hiatus, we're back! Now that the weather is ramping up in Portland, it has been a busy couple of months. While Portlanders are reveling in the sun's triumphant return, our garden patio in full swing and fresh, local summer produce (fresh Oregon berries anyone??) is rolling in daily. This of course means new summer cocktails!


Some of our summer creations:

Skinny Dip
House Infused Watermelon & Cucumber Vodka,
Mint, Fresh Lime Juice, and Club Soda
Served on the Rocks


Summertime Lemonade
Seasonal Berry (currently Strawberry & Rhubarb) House Infused Vodka
& Fresh Squeezed Lemonade
Served on the Rocks

Mango Mojito
Rum, Mint, Lime, Club Soda & Mango Puree, Splash of Lime, Served on the Rocks

John Daly
Paradise Tea House Infused Vodka, Cointreau & Sparkling
Lemonade on the Rocks in a Pint

All of your old favorites are still here, and VQ Sangria is coming soon!

Park yourself on our patio, quench your thirst with a delicious summer treat, and relax. It's summer.

Patio season is coming

We bring you the first signs of spring at the VQ... flowers blooming on the patio! Our garden is starting to blossom, and we've got flowers ready to plant. It won't be long now...

Best Eggs Benedict in Portland

And that's in the words of Portland Monthly Magazine, not ours!

In the March issue of Portland Monthly, the editors scoured the city looking for the best of breakfast. We are happy to report that after trying some 60+ restaurants, they decided on our very own Eggs Benedict as their favorite!

Eggs Benedict

Veritable Quandary 1220 SW First Ave; 503-227-7342; Brunch served weekends 9:30 a.m.–3 p.m.; veritablequandary.com

Why We Like It Not that we’ve tasted all the eggs Benedict in town—almost all, most certainly—but just when we’d decided that there were as many bad versions of the dish as there are broken umbrellas in the month of May, we visited Veritable Quandary. Not only did we find the best rendition in town, we found the best Pacific Northwest eggs Benedict we’d ever tasted. That’s right—wedged between a thick house-made English muffin and a poached egg drizzled with hollandaise sauce were tangles of sweet, succulent Dungeness crab meat. There’s spinach in there too, but it’s chef Annie Cuggino’s combination of rich crab, muffin, and buttery sauce that restored our devotion to this breakfast classic.

The Scene Huddle into a wooden booth in the bar area or join the rest of the crowd in back, where light streams in through a greenhouse window and mimosas sit elegantly on stark white tablecloths. In warm weather, the patio is the perfect place to indulge. Expect out-of-towners and regulars as company.

Backup Plan Besaw’s (2301 NW Savier St; 503-228-2619) offers an extensive weekend Benedict menu. On occasion, we also like the old-school simplicity at J&M Cafe (537 SE Ash St; 503-230-0463). —CD

Click here to read the full article, which also includes tons of other breakfast gems across the city.

If you would like to judge for yourself, our Eggs Benedict and Crab Benedict are always featured on our Brunch menu, served Saturdays & Sundays from 9:30am-3:00pm. All in the name of good breakfast, of course. See you soon!

Peanut Butter Pie

In what we hope will become a regular series on this blog, below you will find the recipe for Chef Annie Cuggino's Peanut Butter Pie. Thank you for sharing, Chef!

This delectable dessert is the holy grail for peanut butter lovers; the perfect balance of rich, light and creamy. We hope you'll try it at home - leave a comment here and let us know how it goes!

Peanut Butter Pie Filling

1 lb. Cream Cheese
3 cups Powdered Sugar
3 cups Peanut Butter
3 1/2 cups Whipped Cream (sweetened & w/vanilla)

1. Cream the cream cheese and powdered sugar together
2. Add peanut butter and mix
3. Fold in the whipped cream
4. Scrape into a prepared graham cracker crust (see below)
5. Cool completely
6. Top with chocolate ganache (see below) - cool again
7. Serve with whipped cream and peanuts or peanut brittle

Chocolate Ganache

2 cups Chopped Belgian Bittersweet Chocolate
1 1/2 cups Heavy Cream

1. Bring cream to a boil
2. Pour over chocolate, stir to melt
3. Pour over cooled pie

Graham Cracker Crust

3 cups Graham Cracker Crumbs
3/4 cup Peanuts (ground)
1/2 cup Dutch Cocoa
6 oz. Melted Butter

1. Mix all ingredients together
2. Press into a 10" springform pan
3. Bake until toasted
4. Cool completely before adding filling