Dining Near Reed with a Nut Allergy

From The Oregonian to Eater Portland, an ever-growing variety of unbiased sources rank Portland as one of the best cities in the United States, if not the world, for food. However, like anywhere else, dining in Portland can be difficult with a nut allergy. It’s especially difficult for diners like myself to take full advantage of Portland’s excellent selection of world-class bakeries, donut shops, ice cream parlors, and Southeast Asian cuisine. Here, I provide a brief list of top recommendations for dining near Reed for patrons with nut allergies.

Little Treats

Cloud City Ice Cream on Woodstock is the only ice cream shop I’ve ever been to that keeps items with nuts in a separate case, immediately making it a compelling destination for any Reedies with nut allergies who know how hard it can be to find reliable accommodations at an ice cream parlor. While you’ll miss out on flavors like earl gray lavender that are inexplicably in the nut container even though they don’t appear to actually be made with nuts, the other two-thirds of the flavors, including all of the vegan options, are nut-free. While it’s always a good idea to inform food service workers of your allergies, for diners with social anxiety, a place that builds allergy precautions into all of its service is especially good.

Sesame Donuts is completely nut-free, although for some reason they don’t advertise this fact very widely. You’ll find a better selection at their downtown location near PSU and the Art Museum than the closer location on Powell, which is also in a very pedestrian-unfriendly area, but all Sesame locations still offer a very good donut experience in a middle ground between the pretension of more famous Portland donut eateries (like Voodoo, which besides mistreating its employees and being more than a little racist, tells diners with nut allergies not to eat there) and the dilettantism of Dunkin’ or Krispy Kreme. 

Fifty Licks is a completely nut-free ice cream parlor off of Division, making it a good destination for an after-dinner snack once you’ve wandered too far west to take the 75 back to Reed and need to cut your losses to wait for the 10, which conveniently links Reed to Division and Central Eastside but runs just once an hour because it has barely any riders. Fifty Licks ice cream has a very dense texture that Portland Monthly, for example, has compared to gelato. I don’t like this as much as the more conventional light texture of Cloud City ice cream, but it’s still very good and might be preferable for some consumers. Try the blood orange creamsicle and lavender salted caramel flavors.

Matcha Cafe Maiko just off Powell carries some nut products, but you can easily avoid the handful of menu items with chestnuts and still get excellent matcha, vanilla, or hojicha soft-serve. I personally think that all things hojicha are unfairly slept on in the United States, and it’s very frustrating to me that cafés in Portland have universally adopted matcha without giving hojicha the same regard. Hojicha also has a very nutty and coffee-like flavor despite containing no nuts, so if you’re going for that, it’s a good option.

If you have a very sensitive nut allergy, you shouldn’t go to Champagne Poetry Patisserie on Hawthorne. However, if like me you’re safe as long as you don’t directly consume a nut, the precautions Champagne Poetry takes are sufficient to let you try most of their French-Asian baked goods. Just be sure to tell them about allergies before ordering.

Portland Cà Phê on Holgate serves some seasonal nut products, but the majority of their menu is safe and I usually don’t bother mentioning my allergy there. The mochi donuts are a big highlight if you get there early enough in the day for there to still be decent variety in the case. Be smarter than me and ask about nuts before ordering, but I only bothered the first time I went. 

Meals

There are several decent options for diners with nut allergies on Woodstock. The newly-opened Tomo Ramen location serves very generous portions of intermediate-quality ramen from a menu that, like the majority of Japanese restaurants, doesn’t include anything with nuts. I personally think the original Hawthorne location has slightly better food despite serving the same menu, but might be biased or misremembering my earlier trips there. Another intermediate-quality Woodstock option with good portions is Ate-oh-Ate, which I once heard a clueless patron attempt to pronounce with ‘Olelo Hawai’i phonology (it’s just read like the area code). Double Mountain Brewery serves excellent New Haven-style pizza, although like with most other pizzerias, you’ll sadly have to avoid anything with pesto instead of red sauce. Viking Soul Food has some dishes with nuts and a very small kitchen, but I’ve yet to have any issues eating there, and I really appreciate their unique take on Scandinavian cuisine. Vegans and vegetarians will be out of luck, however, as their main non-meat protein option is the mushroom hazelnut patty.

Further afield but still within walking distance, Pan Con Queso on Gladstone serves some of Portland’s best new pizza with inspiration from Mexican and Pacific Islands cuisine. As with the majority of pizzerias, almost all menu items are nut-free. I am partial to the pizza con todo, which is topped with pepperoni, chorizo, kale, onions, sweet peppers, cotija, and oregano. Pan Con Queso is also attached to a bar, Holy Ghost, and will take food to their seating area if you want. Vegans will have to avoid ordering the cashew ricotta, however.

Yoko’s Japanese Restaurant & Sushi Bar is also on Gladstone. Their menu has few items with nuts, and those that contain them are explicitly marked. I’ve only ever ordered from the kitchen menu, which the staff seem to deprioritize, but by all accounts the sushi is excellent. Yoko’s also has some of the best miso I’ve had in Portland.

A little further north, visit Magna Kusina on Clinton for Portland’s 2021 Restaurant of the Year. To my knowledge nothing on the menu has nuts, but be smarter than me and ask anyway. Go during their lunch hours so you can actually get a walk-in table, and order chicken inasal. If you have family or other assorted loved ones visiting for break, take them here. It’s very good. The only caveat is that you have to take the 10 there and back if you don’t want to walk 35 minutes each way. Perhaps I should learn to ride a bicycle.

Hopefully this brief list of recommendations has provided you with some compelling alternatives to Commons for winter break! As a reminder, I am not a food journalist, so take all my commentary with a grain of salt.