{"id":4659,"date":"2010-12-13T15:42:55","date_gmt":"2010-12-13T23:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/burgersdogspizza.com\/?p=4659"},"modified":"2010-12-13T15:42:55","modified_gmt":"2010-12-13T23:42:55","slug":"portland-or-stepping-stone-cafe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/?p=4659","title":{"rendered":"Portland, OR – Stepping Stone Cafe"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Stepping<\/a>
Stepping Stone Cafe, Portland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“……eyeeeeeeeeeee’m not your stepping stone….”\u00a0 (remember this Monkees hit?\u00a0 no?\u00a0 punk kid).\u00a0 Anyway, I’m not your stepping stone, but neither is the Stepping Stone my choice for a burger.<\/p>\n

The place gained a bit of notoriety last year, when that slob of a television host, Adam Richman, showed up to down some “mancakes.”\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If there is ever anybody that can get me to switch off the Travel Channel, it’s Richman’s Hour of Gluttony Program.\u00a0 It’d be more interesting if they show all the times he’s hurled, I think.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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So I guess you get famous for one thing, you could give a rat’s about others, and it seems that if you are going to Stepping Stone, breakfast is the thing, with huge portions, if that’s your bailiwick.<\/strong><\/p>\n

BTW, Stepping Stone’s slogan is “You eat here because we let you.”\u00a0\u00a0 Guess that’s right, because I won’t be back for the food or service.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The burgers?\u00a0 The menu states that they are serving 1\/3 pound chuck burgers, cooked to medium, and dressed with lettuce, tomato, mayo, and onion.\u00a0\u00a0 Comes with fries or tater salad, opt for o-rings for two bucks extra, and I did, after quizzing the waitress on whether or not they were made in house.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I ordered the bacon cheeseburger, boy\u00a0A took my order, presumably gave it to the kitchen, and disappeared for a half hour.\u00a0 This is only significant because\u00a0boy\u00a0B was apparently only in charge of busing dishes and filling creamers, and not allowed to touch prepped food.\u00a0 This left the one waitress taking care of a full house, and while she was adept at handing out\u00a0bills and taking money, she\u00a0also didn’t seem to be interested in delivering food.<\/strong><\/p>\n

How do I know this?\u00a0 Somebody gave the cook a bell for Christmas, and it dinged with ferocity every couple minutes.\u00a0 At one point,\u00a0boy B said “ring it again, see what happens!”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Apparently nothing.\u00a0 I watched as several orders piled up on the counter (including my own),and although\u00a0waitress 1 and boy B walked by the food many times (boy A was still awol), neither of\u00a0them lifted a finger to deliver the goods.\u00a0\u00a0 I am relatively sure this made the cook VERY happy.\u00a0 She probably tries her best in an under-equipped kitchen, using the materials she is dealt, to deliver the best plates that she can. One would imagine\u00a0in her mind that these\u00a0creations would best be delivered hot, but maybe not.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Boy B reappeared, Boy A disappeared, but somehow my plate got put in front of me.\u00a0\u00a0 Nice bun, big rings (not sure 4 rings are worth $2 extra), and a pedantic looking hamburger, with a dollop of mayo, the promised tomatoes and onions, Tillamook Cheddar all melty and gooey-goody, and crispy bacon (no word on the\u00a0menu as to whose bacon this is).<\/strong><\/p>\n

And really? There ends the story.\u00a0 This burger was pressed in an assembly line somewhere, the\u00a0vegetables were lifeless, and they used a hypodermic\u00a0needle to squeeze out a gram of mayo (not that I cared about that).<\/strong><\/p>\n

The\u00a0 burger wasn’t particularly seasoned, so there was really nothing to stand out,\u00a0save the soft bakery roll.<\/strong><\/p>\n

While the rings were large,\u00a0and the breading was “OK,”\u00a0 there was also no unique seasoning here, and any crispness the rings may have had coming out of the fryer undoubtedly dissipated while the food was sitting on the counter being ignored by the servers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Seriously, is this place on anyone’s “top burgers in Portland” list?\u00a0 If so, where do you usually get your burgers, Wendy’s?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Was there anything\u00a0of note about my experience today? Yep, made great progress on my Sunday NYT puzzle, and I\u00a0ate\u00a0before my hypnotherapy session, which I was able to direct into helping me forget the entire meal.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Where did I go again?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Stepping<\/a>
Stepping Stone Cafe, Portland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"Stepping<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 “……eyeeeeeeeeeee’m not your stepping stone….”\u00a0 (remember this Monkees hit?\u00a0 no?\u00a0 punk kid).\u00a0 Anyway, I’m not your stepping stone, but neither is the Stepping Stone my choice for a burger. The place gained a bit of notoriety last year, when that slob of a television host, Adam Richman, showed up to down some “mancakes.”\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0… Continue reading Portland, OR – Stepping Stone Cafe<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11,12,16],"tags":[2747,2816,2836,2852,2866,3338],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4659"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4659\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}