Portland Broder restaurants expand to Hood River

Broder Ost, which translates from Norwegian to “Brotherly East,” will open in early May as downtown Hood River’s next eating destination. In Scandinavian style, pancakes, baked egg, sausage, potato and seafood dishes are served piping hot in cast iron cookery and presented on wooden boards. Salads and vegan dishes will also be on the menu.

White Salmon native Chad Hinman, who has licensing rights to the Broder name, is setting up the new breakfast and lunch spot next to the lobby of the hotel at First and Oak streets.

Broder restaurants started in east Portland with Broder, expanded in 2010 to Broder Nord (north) in the Albina district, and in 2015 to Broder Soder (south) in the Garden Home area of Portland. Hinman said Broder founder Peter Bro gave him a “generous” licensing agreement, and the group had been eying Hood River for several years. (The hotel restaurant had operated for most of the past 10 years as Cornerstone Cuisine; Vintage Grill was in the space for most of 2015.) Burt Hissong of Broder will be chef; Broder executive chef Daniel Oseas will assist with training.

The dining room is undergoing extensive expansion and remodeling. Changes include new sliding doors between lobby and restaurant, done in the same style as the hotel’s French-style entryway doors. It’s all part of an effort to complement the dining room to the lobby, Hinman said.

Other changes are paint and new flooring on the ground floor and mezzanine. The old bar from the restaurant’s 1989 Pasquale’s days has gone away, to be replaced by a soapstone bar and simple back bar. At that bar, look for a selection of aquavit, a Scandinavian distilled spirit. Hinman said an aquavit Bloody Mary is a specialty of the Broder restaurant line.

Few changes were needed in the kitchen, which Hinman described as “fully equipped” and clean. The main work being done at the burners is prepping the cast iron pans with repeated curings of vegetable oil and salt, necessary for creating the delicate Danish- and Swedish-style pancakes that are central to the cuisine and Broder menus.