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• BAR SPECIALS • 

Ballard/Seattle - February 28, 2010
SATURDAY DINNER AT PORTALIS
Join us every Saturday for our 3-course prix fixe dinner menu ~ $25.  We will offer you delicious wine pairing suggestions in addition to the dinner menu.  Prix fixe menu changes weekly.  Here are some of our recent menus:
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First Course · SOUP with spanish chorizo, chick pea, tomato & spinach
recommended with Domaine Sorin 2009 Rosé ($7.50)
Second Course · STEAK AU POIVRE with brandy mushroom sauce & spinach gratin
recommended with Durigutti 2007 Malbec ($8)
Third Course · POT DE CRÈME chocolate with whip cream
recommended with Niepoort NV Ruby Port ($8.50)
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First Course · FRISÉE SALAD with shaved red pear, candied walnuts & blue cheese 
recommended with Weingut Hiedler 2008 Loess Grüner Veltliner ($8.50)
Second Course · CABBAGE ROLLS with duck rillette, braised red cabbage, mashed potatoes & duck jus 
recommended with Bechegger 2006 Blauer Zweigelt ($9)
Third Course · STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING with warm brandy whip cream
recommended with Porto Kopke 20 Year Tawny Port ($12)
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First Course · GALETTE with mushrooms & brie 
recommended with Apolloni Vineyards 2007 Laurine Pinot Noir ($9)
Second Course · TROUT ALMONDINE with roasted fingerling potatoes & green beans 
recommended with Château Lafont Menaut 2006 Pessac-Léognan ($9)
Third Course · CRÈME BRÛLÉE
recommended with Domaine des Bernardins 2005 Muscat de Baumes de Venise ($9)
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Sunset Magazine - March 2010
Special Section Inside Seattle by Jess Thomson 
Wine City   Tours. Tasting rooms. Winemaker dinners. How to enjoy a wine country weekend--without ever leaving Seattle.
... 3. Pick up pairing tips from the pros
Ballard's Portalis is a little, local wine shop with a big selection of affordable bottles and a bar that acts as a private tasting room--and classroom. A new monthly series (Mar 27; $40; reservations required) focuses on pairing wines with one food each class--this month: lamb. Learn why different cuts require different tannin levels, and which full-bodied white wine is (surprise!) a perfect partner for a Mediterranean-style tagine.  Closed Mon; tastings from $15; 5205 Ballard Ave. N.W.; portaliswines.com or 206/783-2007. ...

Edible Seattle - November / December 2009
Portalis is a cozy little wine bar built around its 450-bottle wine shop, offering a wide selection from the Pacific Northwest.  With an ever-changing seasonal menu, Portalis is a wonderful tasting room for the best of our local wines.

Ballard/Seattle - November 2, 2009
HOLIDAY FOOD+WINE PAIRINGS AT PORTALIS ~ TUESDAYS IN NOVEMBER
Every Tuesday in November we'll be featuring a classic holiday food paired beautifully with a classic holiday wine.  Of course Gina will be on hand to give you the details on why the pairing works.  Join to taste the following wines during Happy Hour (4-6pm).  The tastings are free of charge: 
Nov 3      Weingut Graf von Schoenborn 2008 Sylvaner 
               Kabinett paired with curried pumpkin soup
Nov 10   Beran 2005 Estate Pinot Noir Dijon Clone 
               paired with turkey paillarde with cranberry, apple 
               bread pudding  
Nov 17   Qupe 2007 Syrah Central Coast (CA) paired with 
               ... something spicy (stay tuned)!
Nov 24   Domaine des Bernardins 2005 Muscat de Beaumes 
               de Venise paired with something sweet (stay tuned!)

Ballard/Seattle - October 26, 2009
PORTALIS WINE BAR EXPANDS MENU
Wine is our gig, but food increases the pleasure of the experience manifold and so by popular demand we’ve expanded our menu to include a larger selection of entrées.  Chef Tracey Stoner has put together a seasonal, wine-friendly menu with about a third of the items rotating weekly. Examples of recent food & wine pairings include: NEW YORK STRIP STEAK  paired with Isenhower 2007 Cabernet Franc, WIENERSCHNITZEL paired with Weingut Graf von Schönborn 2008 Sylvaner Kabinett, SHEPHERD'S PIE paired with Château Cardinal-Villemaurine 2004 Saint-Emilion Grand Cru, MANILA CLAMS paired with Nessa 2008 Albariño ... and more. Press Release > 

Wall Street Journal - December 12, 2008
Food and Drink: Wine Events
Sparklers Are in Store by Melanie Grayce West
French Fizz | Seattle
Portalis wine shop and bar will serve five French sparklers during an evening taste and learn session. Importers will pour and talk about each of the wines (three Champagnes and sparklers from the Loire Valley and Alsace). There will be appetizers to pair with the wines. To RSVP, call 206-783-2007; portaliswines.com.
WHEN Dec. 12, 6 to 7 p.m. or 7:30 to 8:30 p.m.
WHERE 5205 Ballard Ave. NW, Seattle
HOW MUCH $19.50 at the door; includes a $10 in-store credit
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Sunset - November 2008
Ask the expert:  Dawn Smith
"The sommelier and wine director of Kirland's Bin Vivant shares her picks from the wine country, including Idaho, and gives us drinking pointers in Seattle. ... Best Seattle Wine Bars? ... Portalis in Ballard ($; portaliswines.com), which is a wine bar, restaurant, and wine shop -- one-stop happiness."

Seattle Weekly - July 3, 2007
Ballard's Portalis Wine Bar's Not Rustic, But Refuses Chic
At 9:45 p.m., the sun still hadn't completely set. Strands of color hung in the Ballard sky and seemed to be stretching their way slowly to the west over the Olympics, a gentle tangerine and indigo hooding of the Earth. At Portalis Wine Bar, the main facade is composed of glass doors that open up for weather just like this, creating a spillover onto rustic-chic Ballard Avenue. Considering the interior of Portalis (abstract art hung from exposed brick walls, a library of wine shelved near worn-out signs for Ford and Yick Kee Laundry), the flow between the two is perfectly natural; Ballard Avenue is now far from rustic, but still stubborn enough to resist looking chic. Wine by the glass ranges from a California syrah to a Burgundy chardonnay, while the Small Bites menu boasts a Fresh Market Cheese plate that changes, presumably, with each visit. The mix of clientele (upper-middle-class sippers and blue-collar guzzlers) speaks to Portalis' ability to transcend the stereotypes of wine drinkers, and to its staying power on this ever-changing street.
BRIAN J. BARR

Seattle Magazine - Summer 2007
Wine Bar Boom by Sara Dickerman
... "Setting the gold standard, as far as I’m concerned, is five-year-old Portalis Wine Shop and Bar (Ballard, 5205 Ballard Ave. NW; 206.783.2007; portaliswines.com). There, former anesthesiologist Jens Strecker presides over a crew of well-versed wine geeks and mixes neighborhood-bar warmth with seriously interesting pours from around the world. Portalis has all sorts of wine bar virtues: a tiny 1-ounce taster serving for those truly afraid of commitment, a great selection of dessert wines by the glass, good bar snacks, free Sunday afternoon wine tastings and a Wednesday night deal when the $12 corkage fees are waived on all the wine shop’s bottles. ..."

Ballard New Tribune - November 27, 2007
Portalis Knows It All by Jim Anderson

SEEK WINE KNOWLEGE AT PORTALIS. Without a hint of the pretentiousness sometimes associated with fine wine, they guide customers to the right choice with the value of wine an important concept. Photo by Jim Anderson

We will never know a fraction as much about wine as Jens Strecker and Julie Howe, owners of Portalis. But with them around, we don't have to! Without a hint of the pretentiousness sometimes associated with fine wine, they guide customers to the right choice with the value of wine an important concept. Portalis offers a wide range of prices and styles and more than 400 wines from around the world in the retail shop, and 30 rotating wines available by the glass in the wine bar. ... Read the article >

Food & Wine - April 2007
New Wine Shops for Foodies: PORTALIS
"Portalis feels like a seattle coffee shop crossed with a European wine bar. Jens Strecker, an expat German doctor, and his wife, Julie Howe, opened the wine bar and shop in 2003, where they serve more than 30 wines by the glass at a long concrete bar, along­side small dishes such as a rustic house-made pâté, a bubbling goat cheese gratin and a slow-roasted smoked-paprika pork sandwich with garlic aioli and cilantro. If customers like what they try, they can buy a bottle from the shop. The quirky selection of more than 400 bottles includes wines from tiny Washington State producers, like Barrister Winery’s Cabernet Franc and Fall Line Winery’s Bordeaux-style blend. Last year, Portalis moved to a larger space to accommodate the groups that come and linger for hours. If I lived in Seattle, I’d spend hours at Portalis, too, drinking and chatting—much like hanging out at a coffee­house, but without the jitters. "
KRISTIN DONNELLY
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Seattle Metropolitan - September 2006
Neighborhood Hot Spot: PORTALIS WINE BAR
"If Ballard Avenue were a home, it would have a noisy kitchen (La Carta de Oaxaca), a civilized dining room (Volterra), an altogether unsupervised garage apartment (Tractor Tavern, Hattie's Hat)Ñand a tranquil wine cellar for the grown-ups. That's Portalis, newly relocated from its smaller digs down the street. It's sheathed in the same warm vintage brick and laden with the same well-chosen vintages, for sale by the bottle or the glass to quaff at the bar or at a table up front. Wine is the star of this wine bar, so don't go mistaking Portalis for a restaurant. That said, the place purveys the sorts of simple noshes wines adore, from an elegant little cheese-and-fig ensemble, to a bracing garbanzo bean-and-English pea salad frisky with herbs, or an onion-and-anchovy pissaladiere, the special when the spotlight region was Provence, thoughtfully paired with a gentle Gigondas rosé. These parings are masterminded by proprietors who may know a lot more about wine than you do but wouldn't dream of acting like it."

Seattle Times - April 11, 2006
LIFE BEHIND BARS:  There’s nothing ‘Sideways’ about Portalis by Mark Shaffer
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Seattle Times - April 7, 2006
Drink in the scene at three local wine bars by Nancy Leson
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The Stranger - January 20 - 26, 2005
43 Bars - The Stranger's Inaugural Drinking Issue
..."Laid-back and welcoming enough for the wide-eyed novice, sufficiently sophisticated and well-stocked for the experienced pro, Portalis Wine Bar is a perfect place to pretend you live in a more progressive, cultured, intelligent nation. Beyond wine, Portalis serves light food (cheese samplers, soup, and sandwiches), rich coffee, and an array of schmancy imported beer. But go for the wines, a couple dozen of which are available by the glass, served in goblets big enough to stick your head into."
DAVID SCHMADER
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Seattle Weekly - September 22 - 28, 2004
SIPS Wine Up Front by Roger Downey
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Seattle Times - August 27, 2004
Dining Deals - Portalis: Varied culinary themes, world wines whisk diners 'round the globe by Kathryn Robinson
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