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There may be no more industrious couple in town right now than Rose Allred and George Page.
They have four kids under 6, a food truck and restaurant in Northwest Portland, and a farm in Columbia County, just south of Clatskanie. And they find time to blog about their busy lives in very readable prose. One entry shows Allred with a baby slung at her breast while she cuts a massive pork loin into chops with a saw.
You get the sense that when the Cascadia subduction zone fractures and shakes Portland into rubble, Allred and Page are going to be feeding the rest of us foie gras from a FEMA trailer.
The pair came to Oregon from Vashon Island, Wash., where they had raised animals for years. In 2021, they bought a bigger spread near Birkenfeld and dubbed it Sea Breeze Farm at Neverstill Ranch. From that acreage, they supply their “Magic Meat Truck” (a butcher case on wheels) and their newest venture, a restaurant called Coq au Vin (2376 NW Thurman St., 206-245-6576, seabreeze.farm/coq-au-vin) where the truck tucks into the décor.
The food at Coq au Vin is hearty and delightful, especially if you’re a Francophile looking for a French country dinner of duck and dumplings that doesn’t require a 12-hour flight.
But the best thing about the Allred-Page operation might be their unfathomable warmth and familiarity. Kate Sokoloff, co-creator of the Live Wire radio show and Low Bar Chorale, a drop-in singalong, dined there recently and, between courses, found herself with a baby in her arms. It was Allred and Page’s youngest, Amora, making the rounds.
Sokoloff, who has a way with words, nominated Coq au Vin as the “best place to hold a baby while you wait for some damned good French food.”
“It was honestly one of the most charming dinner experiences I’ve had,” Sokoloff says.
We could all use a little charm and a little warmth these days. Coq au Vin has both, in spades.
See the rest of Willamette Week’s Best of Portland 2024 here!