Anatomy of a Bad-Ass

You'd never meet Donald Kotler and think, "Wow…what a badass!" And indeed, he is not.

This native of Long Island, New York, is smart, funny and articulate. He started his first restaurant, Toast, on a sketchy corner of deep Southeast Portland, moving into what had been a classy joint called Angie's Bad Ass Video.

Donald embraced its former badness with a vengeance, naming several dishes after video titles or even Angie herself. None is more emblematic than the most popular item on the menu, the Bad Ass Sandwich, a pile-on of two fried eggs, bacon, goat cheese and field greens between two slabs of toast. (All the breads here, including their justifiably famous English muffins, are made on premises.) It's served with Toast's signature take on hash browns called a potato rosti, a buttery round of thickly grated, locally sourced potatoes grilled to golden, crispy perfection—and well worth ordering as a side with any of their other dishes.

There's a weekly celebration, appropriately designated Bad Ass Wednesdays, where you can get all the goodness mentioned above for only $5, an astonishing deal considering the local goodness that goes into it: Stiebrs Farms eggs, Sweet Briar Farms pork belly, Cypress Grove Chevre,  Purple Rain Vineyard greens and that housemade toast made with grains from Bob's Red Mill. Add on a Bloody Mary concocted from Donald's secret Mary mix for only $5 and you've got yourself a memorable morning.

Details: Bad Ass Wednesdays at Toast, now through Dec. 19th. 5222 SE 52nd Ave. 503-774-1020.