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As a society, we learned very little from the pandemic. But stuck at home with restaurants closed, I did gain a renewed appreciation for Reser’s Fine Foods, the purveyor of creamy premade picnic side dishes: potato salad, mac salad, chicken salad, really all the fattening salads.
Reser’s is a perpetually overlooked Oregon success story. (Short version: Mildred Reser made potato salad in her Washington County kitchen; now the company has a billion dollars in annual revenues and its name on the side of the Oregon State football stadium.) You probably didn’t even know it has a Reser’s Outlet Store, even though the shop is located just across the street from the Nike campus. There’s something pleasing about the knowledge that beside Phil Knight’s gleaming starship sits an anonymous office that sells discounted coleslaw.
Anyway, it’s a real place, a mecca of mayonnaise, with four walls of fridges and freezers stocked with instant solutions to inflation. We’re talking 8 pounds of potato salad, in what looks like an oversized milk carton, for $10. On a recent visit, 12 ounces of seafood salad was $2. The clerk says most customers are buying for parties. “This is the busiest we’ll be all summer,” she said July 3. More for us!