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Coquine Inaugurates Full-Service Lunch

It involves negroni popsicles

For the first timesince opening in 2015, the sassy, French-inspiredCoquine restaurant, Eater PDX’s2015 Restaurant of the Year, is rolling out full-service lunch. The restaurant alreadyoffered lunch, but it was counter service only, and the new model will add Coquine’s uniquely neighborly service, as overseen by co-ownerKsandek Podbielski.

“We originally thought we’d be a coffeehouse,” Podbielski tells Eater, with a bashful grin; instead, Coquine has drawn the eye of everyone from theO, whonamed it its 2016 Restaurant of the Year, to the James Beard Awards, for which itwas a semifinalist for 2016 Best New Restaurant. Now it’s a challenge to get a seat for dinner on Friday and Saturday nights, which makes lunch a prime opportunity to taste chefKaty Millard’s plates... and popsicles (Coquine’s current popsicle flavors include negroni, orange creamsicle, and pudding pops with a peanut-candy-ginger crumble).

Podbielski says the new service model will free up space at the counter, so those on the go can slip in for a coffee and house pastry (or the Coquine chocolate chip cookie), while others can grab a table and get ready to hear the day’s specials. Coquine’s lunch menu doesn’t offer the full range of dinner plates, but Millard doesn’t hold back, with things like potato gnocchi with artichokes, cherry-glazed pork short rib, and chicken salad on sourdough with green garlic aioli and spring onion relish. There’s also a rather luxurious daily special for two: a complete meal with a half bottle of wine for $72.

Tucked away on the north side of Mt. Tabor, Coquine’s full-service lunch is now available Monday through Friday, from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Breakfast remains a counter-service affair, beginning at 8 a.m. on weekdays. Weekends are still reserved for full-service brunch.

• Coquine [Official]
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