When the photos for the profile of Carafe’s back of the house first came in, the "opera" cake image was out of context. And then I learned the back story behind the photos and I fell in love with this department (new to Edible Portland). Ivy Manning and her husband Gregor Torrence take us behind the scenes, where we get to watch Pascal Sauton and the gang at Carafe handle a restaurant filled with hungry and hurried opera enthusiasts.

If Ivy's story makes you want to wait for the next opera before visiting Carafe, take note: Portland Opera's Rodelinda opens February 8th.
-Deborah Kane

Photos by Gregor Torrence

BACK OF THE HOUSE
Opera Season at Carafe
By Ivy Manning
For Winter 2008

It’s 5:30 on a Saturday night at Carafe. Through the pick-up window, pantry cook Sarah Bray can see groups of patrons dressed in tuxedos and evening dresses waiting outside the Parisian-style bistro. “Here they come,” she says with a deep breath.

It’s the first night of opera season at Keller Auditorium and chef/owner Pascal Sauton announces in a Parisian accent, “The shit hits the fan at 5:45 and won't stop hitting it until 7:15. Are you ready?”

Carafe’s unique combination of location (it’s nearly the only restaurant close to the auditorium) and French-meets-Pacific Northwest cuisine made with local ingredients brings the sophisticated theater crowd directly to his door, seemingly all at once.

The five twenty-something cooks led by Chef Sauton work in rhythmic prep-work dance—grilling artisan bread slices, whisking béarnaise sauce for the steak frites, braising Cattail Creek Farm’s lamb with rosemary, and 100 other tasks in a kitchen of about 350 square feet.

The electronic ticket machine breaks the silence at precisely 5:50 and orders come scrolling in faster than the cooks can grab them. Sauton calls out orders across the kitchen, “two escargot, one frisée salad with duck egg, one lamb—hold the Hubbard squash,” and a flurry of activity ensues. Soon, the pick-up window is full of bistro fare.

At precisely 7:15, the crowd of theatergoers rises almost as a single entity and exits one of Portland’s best-loved restaurants for the opera.