Jennifer K Mahal
There's just something about Plums on 17th Street and Tustin
Avenue that keeps me coming back. Maybe it's the quiet, covered patio
where you can talk under warming heat lamps. Maybe it's the welcoming
inside, where the sounds echo but the art on the wall soothes. Most
likely it's the food, which manages to both comfort and qualify as
gourmet without the high prices.
Using ingredients like marionberries and salmon, the menu of Plums
offers a taste of Northwest cuisine without having to brave the
colder, wetter weather.
Though Plums serves a wonderful breakfast -- I once had a waffle
here to die for -- it is lunch that usually draws me. The sandwiches
at Plums are enough to feed two people. It's a good thing they offer
half servings, complete with a choice of potato, pasta or garden
salad.
On my last visit there, I had a half serving of a Tuscan chicken
sandwich ($6.50), a plump, juicy grilled chicken breast with
sun-dried tomatoes, mozzarella, pine nuts and pesto dressing. The
combination of the basil-infused sauce with the crunch of the nuts
and the tangy tomatoes makes this a real treat. The only hang-up is
that to keep your business suit clean, you may need to eat it with a
knife and fork. The crusty baguette it is served on can be a little
tough to chew.
I chose the bowtie pasta salad as an accompaniment. Sprinkled with
Romano, farfalle pasta is mixed with tomatoes, onions and pesto for a
satisfying side.
My friend ordered a half serving of the turkey and avocado
sandwich ($6.50), plenty of thin-sliced turkey layered with fresh
avocados and Oregon pepper bacon. It was his first time to Plums and
I could tell by his expression -- and because he said he really liked
the sandwich -- that he will probably be back. He even gave a thumbs
up to the dill red potato salad.
Other sandwiches I recommend are the vegetarian grill, marinated
and grilled eggplant, zucchini and onions brushed with a
rosemary-garlic infusion and covered with slices of mozzarella; the
Northwest turkey sandwich, roast turkey breast, tomato and daikon
sprouts with plum-cranberry chutney (could use a little more
cranberry, but it's still good); and the hungry man beef, slices of
roast beef with tomato, lettuce, grilled onion, Dijon cream cheese
and light horseradish.
One of the two times I had the beef sandwich, there wasn't enough
cream cheese, making it a little dry. But I ordered it again anyway,
and the second time convinced me to put it on my list of
recommendations.
