Restaurant Review: Swine Dining BBQ & Brew, Gresham, Oregon

"I was a Highwayman.

Along the coach roads I did ride"

There is so much about Swine Dining BBQ & Brew in Gresham, Oregon that is unassuming, from the decidedly non-rustic strip mall location (next to a Chipotle) to the paper plates on which the food is served that one could almost unassume that the food could be good.  But, once you pass through the glass doors, you pass into that olfactory paradise known as smoking meat.  It permeates the place.  Girls fainted before Frank Sinatra, threw their underwear to Tom Jones, and screamed for the Beatles.  The noses of barbecue lovers will have a similar reaction.

"I was a sailor,

I was born upon the tide"

There is no wait staff.  Friendly counter staff take the orders, and bring out the food.  Sometimes, the owner, Dan, takes his turn at the cash register.  

I was lured in for the first time when Swine Dining first opened after watching a Michael Pollan's series called "Cooked."  One of the episodes was called "Fire," which covered with lavish cinematography the pursuit of pit barbecue.  I wanted some.  I stopped in with a few friends.  I had the brisket and the chicken.  I was a little disappointed at the time by the dryness of both meats.  I had planned on not returning, but something magical happened.  The owner brought out samples of something called "Burnt Ends."  Burnt Ends are the ends of the brisket that are closest to the heat.  They were indeed charred all over, but they were moist, and delicious, and smokey, and nummy in the most addictive sense of the word.  They have them every Friday.  I have returned for them regularly ever since.  

"I was a dam builder,
Across the river deep and wide."

I'm happy to report that the brisket and chicken were dry only that once, and I assume that it was because the restaurant was very new.  I was there today, which is a Tuesday, with my stepson, and ordered the brisket, and the pulled pork.  Both were melt-in-your-mouth smokey wonderful, as they have been every time since that first visit.  I use the spicy BBQ sauce, by the way. You should too.  The fries had a good scald on them, not anemic or limp, and they passed the salt test.

Truly good french fries require only salt.  Ketchup is okay to spruce up bad fries, and sometimes sort of good ones when they start getting cold, but really good fries never need any.  This is a personal opinion, and I know that to some out there, ketchup is a requirement.  Try the salt test.  Get to know fries in their native habitat.

"I fly a starship,
Across the universe divide."

The music at Swine Dining is decidedly country.  I'm an old-school rock-n-roller, but there are some country songs that have left deep and abiding marks in my consciousness.  "The Highwaymam" by The Highwymen: Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings, and Johnny Cash is one such song.  It played while I was there today.  While my stepson ate his "All in the Corral (which he described as 'a work of genius'), and talked about distant worlds, and characters from the books he is writing, I heard the opening lines of "The Highwayman," and though that it was just about perfect.

Gary L. Quay
July 31, 2018.