Oregon Drift

Photo by Benjamin Brayfield - Chef Jeremy Buck creates his variation of a seafood classic, bouillabaisse.

By Ron Jackimowicz

From simple to elegant, the Alloro Wine Bar in Bandon can do it all.

It doesn’t matter if you want a glass of wine, a plate of pasta or an elegant four-course meal with a bottle of expensive wine, you can get it at Alloro.

And that’s just the way owners Jeremy Buck and Lian Schmidt like it.

‘At Alloro, we are completely committed to creating the best possible dining experience we are able,” Chef Buck said. ‘That’s why we source direct with local organic produce farmers, personally choose the live Dungeness crab we use and prepare practically everything we serve in-house and in small batches.”

So whether you were shopping in Old Town or been at the beach all day, or if you’ve just played 18 holes at Bandon Dunes you’ll feel as comfortable at Alloro as the large contingent of regulars.

‘It doesn’t cost a fortune to dine at our restaurant,” Buck said. He explained that there is a large selection of appetizers for $10 or less and a number of pasta dishes for $12 or less, as well as soups and salads. ‘We, in fact, encourage the sharing of small plates so our guests get to try as many dishes as they personally want.”

Buck and Schmidt had their choice of locations in Oregon, looking around Portland and the wine country as well as Manzanita and Newport along the coast. A long weekend around Christmas in 2004 sold the pair on Bandon.

‘We really liked the quaint, compact Old Town district with the nice shops and restaurants next to the port,” Buck said.

‘The beaches were drop-dead gorgeous and the access to the outdoors was at your fingertips.”

The pair moved to Bandon in 2005 and opened Alloro in February 2006.

Bouillabaisse

For the broth

• 6 cloves garlic, rough chop
• 2 small onions, thinly sliced
• 1 small octopus, if available, cut into pieces
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1 cup rough chopped tomatoes, fresh or canned
• Sprig of chopped fresh thyme
• Small bunch of parsley, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 teaspoon fennel pollen, if available (substitute 1 tsp ground fennel seed)
• 1 small pinch saffron, lightly toasted, dried and crumbled
• 1/2 teaspoon orange zest
• Juice of 1 orange
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne  pepper
• 1.5 quarts full bodied fish stock
• Salt to taste

Sweat the garlic and onion in some oil until softened.  Add the wine and evaporate by at least half.  Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for about 45 minutes, or until the octopus is tender. Season with salt. 

For the stew

Various fresh seafood

• 4 or 5 good-sized Yukon potatoes, peeled and sliced
• Sea urchin roe, if available

In a heavy, wide bottomed pot, heat the broth to just under a simmer. Add the potatoes, then, in order of the time they take to cook, the various seafood you are able to procure from your market. Once all the fish is cooked through and the potatoes tender, stir in some sea urchin roe you have beaten in a bowl with a wooden spoon, the flavor is incomparable. Enjoy!

A traditional bouillabaisse includes lean white fish such as snapper, true cod, lingcod or halibut, along with other seafood.  In addition to white fish, Buck uses calamari, white prawns, Dungeness crab, black mussels and Manila clams.  He serves a garlic saffron mayonnaise and freshly grilled bread alongside the stew.