Portal
The kitchen at this Lake Merritt beer garden runs on Afghan, Lebanese and Belizean cooking, the roots its chefs brought with them.
Why go
The owner tells you why it exists, and she starts in Lebanon. My grandma frying fish in her nightgown while passionately talking politics. My grandpa teaching me to seal his distiller with potatoes and flour.
1 Fruit and vegetables washed in the Mediterranean, still salty in the bite.1 The kitchen puts it plainly: The food moves through Afghan, Lebanese and Belizean flavors, the roots of our chefs and the stories we carry with us.
1 That is the whole published record. The full trading name is Portal Beer Garden & Restaurant and it sits on the south-east side of Lake Merritt, so plan on outdoors and a group. Nothing published names a dish here, so I have nothing to tell you to order.
Good to know
- Where it is: 1611 2nd Ave, on the south-east side of Lake Merritt.
Verdict
could-visit — The owner writes about her grandfather sealing a still with potatoes and flour, and about cooks whose roots are Afghan, Lebanese and Belizean feeding one kitchen. That is a real reason for a place to exist and it is the venue's own account, so it stands as intent and not as a review. Against it, nothing published anywhere names a single dish, a price or a cook here. A beer garden on Lake Merritt with a story and no menu evidence sits at could-visit until somebody eats there in print.