LB Kitchen is one of most uniquely simple—though far from dull–restaurants to have opened this year in Portland. It fills a niche that many contemporary chefs are filling—limited hours, in this case only breakfast and lunch are served, much like Krista Dejarlais’ Purple House for bagel breakfast and lunch. It’s an ideal that some women chefs who want to maintain a normal home life with partners and children instead of toiling away into the wee hours of rigorous dinner service.
The bright white dining room and kitchen at LB
LB refers to lunch and breakfast or to chef and partner Lee (Farrington) and Byrna (business and life partner). Yes, it’s cute and doesn’t really tell the story of this diminutive shop refashioned from the more expansive Figa that Farrington operated during several iterations in past years.
Centrally located at the base of Munjoy Hill where the old Figa used to be
The menu is centered around grains, whole foods, meats and a passing glance to vegan dishes–a kind of simplicity that loosely plays homage to sustainability, a sensibility that recalls credos like 1970s Mother Earth News; think a less pedantic Source with more relevance, style and panache.
You can fill up at lunch easily with such dishes as The Bowls like American-Asian chef Edward Lee’s style of cooking. The Figa is the meatiest. Coconut rice is topped with beautifully braised chunks of wild boar in rendang, a currylike sauce that is rich and complex. The coconut rice is luxuriously delicious—soft and sweet.
Other bowls include a die-hard kale bowl or loosely fashioned Caesar salad using the ubiquitous kale with crunchy additions like chickpea croutons, cashews, all of which is served over Romaine—a leafy bonanza of greens.
My favorite dish besides the Figa bowl is the egg sandwich. It’s made with lightly toasted white bread from Standard, with a really tasty turmeric fried egg with kimchi and cashews, another crunchy element that imparts great flavor and texture.
The egg sandwich with kimchi is healthy and delicious
Lee Farrington as a chef who accomplishes deceptively sophisticated dishes wrapped in rabbles of complex flavors. At first bite, you might not realize what you’re eating but ultimately progress to fluffy ribbons of flavor.
The room is brightly plain—stark white walls, wood tabletops and a short counter where you order food and sit down on the bar stools to eat if you want to be casual. Your order is announced when ready and you go up to the counter to pick it up along with silverware and napkins. There are various drinks like natural sodas and local juices. My favorite is the best bottled sparkling water aka seltzer that has zero everything (no calories or additives—all natural).
The Figa bowl: braised board with coconut rice
LB is a sweet place, a do-drop-in outpost along the early stretch below Munjoy Hill. Try it for something different with delicious, well-prepared food.
LB Kitchen, 249 Congress St., Portland, ME 207-775-2695 www.lbkitchenportlandme.com/
Rating: First-class purely simple fare prepared by a chef who knows her way around the kitchen creating extremely flavorful food
Ambiance: Keenly simple
Seating: Tables and counter; take-out
Service: competent behind the counter food attendants
Parking: on street
$$$: moderate
