Paulius Musteikis
The chicken hand pie comes with addictive horseradish dipping sauce and pairs nicely with the beautiful Portage Pi house salad.
Among contenders vying for the title of “the new cupcake” over the past few years has been the hand pie. These diminutive dough pockets — which might be compared to a pasty, an empanada or a Pop-Tart, depending on your culinary background — are, yes, about the size of a hand, but they’re so called because they’re easy to hold and transport.
Portage Pi, the new grab-and-go nook inside the Graduate Hotel lobby on Langdon specializes in hand pies. Portage Pi’s aim is to provide “a snack for the journey,” a theme carried through the menu and decor. It’s okay to sit down and eat, though: A long communal table is decorated whimsically with toy-sized vintage RVs. Another sign that travel isn’t the only option are the four beers on tap (Capital Amber, Spotted Cow, Fantasy Factory and the ubiquitous Miller Lite).
The hand pies, made in-house by chef Chris Cubberly, are a must-order, particularly the beef short rib. It comes with a potent but not-too-potent horseradish dipping sauce that’s as flavorful as the pie itself, with its fine dice of savory meat and potatoes. A chicken and a roasted veggie version are just as good.
The main debate is whether the pie should be eaten warmed or cold. Heated, the flavors of the fillings emerge, but the thin, pliable, buttery crust disintegrates. Cold holds together better. Room temperature? I’m torn.
Sweet pies include apple, cherry and specials like a chocolate banana s’more (more gooey bar cookie than pie, but who cares?), my favorite so far.
Salads, a few pressed sandwiches and contemporary fresh juices (like a honeydew melon, cucumber and ginger version — very cucumber-y) round out the menu.
The salads are large and beautifully composed in their takeout containers. The sherry-honey vinaigrette is an excellent dressing that brings out the best in the veggies.
But there is way, way too much kale going on in these salads, and large pieces of unmassaged kale at that. Kale appears in every one, usually as the sole green, or joined by arugula and spinach. These hardier greens hold up to travel better than many mixed greens, but they make for very chewy salads. Given the care that otherwise seems to go into their assemblage, this is puzzling.
Sandwiches (ham and cheese, grilled veggie, chicken club and a BLT) are made with some of the same ingredients as the pies and salads, and at $7 make a more substantial lunch than the similarly priced hand pies, though with less novelty.
The hand pies are rich and, in that sense, filling, but they don’t approach a whole meal. So at $6-$7 each, these would seem price points for visiting parents, more so than for many students. Still, with its thoughtful range of breakfast and lunch items, coffees and other drinks, and welcoming surroundings, Portage Pi could become a successful lobby stop for hotel guests. And it bodes well for the forthcoming rooftop small plates/bar, the Madison Blind, to open later this year.
