By David & Susan Greenberg
Astoria started as a fist-fighting harbor town. There were steam rooms for Finnish sailors. Finnish was a dominant second language. There were canneries galore to steer unending rivers of piscine protein into countless maws. There were sawmills. There were bars and bawdy houses.
But like Gone with the Wind, all of that is Gone with the Fish and Trees. Astoria’s resource-based economy ran out of resources and has begun gentrifying. And with gentrification, its food scene has slowly, unevenly improved to suit increasingly refined tastes. An early ascender worth remembering was Drina Daisy, perhaps the only Bosnian restaurant in the Northwest, recently closed, alas.
We visited Fedé, Italian trattoria, in a high ceiled, amply windowed room beside the Columbia. Our entire dinner was accompanied by the calls of sea lions who would, if they could, have joined us inside.
The food here seemed to reflect the town itself, without a particle of pretension, no flights of gourmet daring, no garnishes at all, yet reliably delicious in a self-effacing way.
We started with mortadella and artichoke spread on crostini, a toothsome trifecta.
Then fennel, sliced implausibly thin, mounded into a salad, dressed with fresh-squeezed lemon juice and a tad of salt. Simple, elemental, delightful.
Then mafaldine cacio e pepe. Fine Pecorino Romano cheese. Fresh crushed black pepper. Mafaldine, which looks like holiday ribbons, al dente. Not trophy food but scrumptious, equaling Rome’s best.
For dessert we shared a panna cotta that, even though it was slightly over-gelatinized, didn’t deter us from squeegeeing our plate.
Dessert Wine
This restaurant feels like Astoria itself. If your Italian grandma really knew how to cook, this is the food she’d serve. Come.
112th St. Pier 12, Astoria, OR
They don’t take reservations.