Portage

• Cuisine(s): French
  Hours: Sun 4pm-10pm, Mon-Sat 5pm-10pm
  Price: $$$
• Payment Types: All Major Credit Cards
  Features: Patio/Sidewalk Dining, Takeout, Wheelchair Accessible
  Serving: Dinner
• Alcohol: Beer/Wine, Full bar
  Reservations: Accepted
  Parking: Street

Description

Vuong and Tricia Loc have named their restaurant after their home town of Portage, Michigan, but it's modeled after the mom-and-pop bistros of small-town France. The small gold room has the subdued comfort of a much tonier place, and Vuong's menu is filled with gratins, tart tatins, pots au feu, and cassoulets-dated but not forgotten. Modern American cuisine is all about juggling a handful of distinct, discrete flavors (black sesame! grapefruit! basil!). But in Portage's classic French food, everything converges. So it goes with a dish like Loc's roast quail stuffed with fennel and walnuts and surrounded by vinegar-spiked onion jam: it's so robust, so full, that you may find yourself sucking the legs in an inappropriate manner. Dab your lips with your napkin and compose yourself.