Rocket

She’s closin…
sad but true.
dang recession!

Rocket is closing… this just in:
Rocket will close Saturday, November 8^th, 2008. Economic pressure and
critical dissatisfaction combine to make continuing on our
current course impossible. We are, however, resolved to keep our
beautiful space and our magical garden for as long as we can. To
that end, we intend to become a private venue.
We hope that you will consider Rocket for your functions: holiday parties,
birthdays, receptions, hip-​hop throw downs, pinochle tournaments
and any other events you can imagine.
We will also sponsor several events of our own: wine dinners, thematic menus and roof produce driven dinners. Despite the current national vogue of finger pointing, I’m afraid the responsibility for our failure
lies squarely with me. In an attempt to wow and titillate I
forgot the fundamentals of a pleasant dining experience:
thoughtful, delicious food served expertly. In a fever for
molecular gastronomy and cute, clever combinations, I alienated
customers and critics. Bring on the humble pie.
This is not a tragedy. Employees will be paid, debts will be honored and there will be no absconding with cash. There are no investors left
holding an empty bag. The ripples of our closure are contained.
We would like to extend an invitation to you to join us one last
time in the coming weeks. We will host a tequila dinner on
November 5^th. That will be fun. Other than that we will continue
our dinner service, Tuesday through Saturday, from five until
whenever.
There is still plenty of produce to pick and liquor to drink. We’d love to see you in Rocket and we hope you’ll keep us in mind in the future. Please forward this message to anyone who might find it helpful and remember to subscribe to our newsletter.
Sincerely, Leather Storrs

I drive by the building every day.
I have seen the articles about the rooftop gardens from which they harvest fresh herbs /​veggies and use in their dishes and some cocktails.
It was time to try it.
We entered and the hostess was really nice. We didn’t want to do dinner So she invited us to the bar. We were thrilled to sit at the bar and have cocktails.
For me… Two High Balls and I felt just fine. This sweet little number contained the following: Bulliet bourbon, black tea concentrate, tamarind caramel syrup, & soda
Yum.
Would I go here again? Likely not in the winter unless we had out of town guests & a babysitter. I would definitely head back here in the summer to hang on the patio though. The views are simply amazing and truly one of a kind from the inner SE.

I like Rocket, but it’s definitely a «unique» place. Think Portland City Grill comes to the Eastside. It’s way hipper, greener, and better than PCG, but if this place wasn’t on the rooftop, I don’t think it’d survive. Anyway, the drinks, wine list, and beer selection are not great — maybe the specialty cocktails are good, but the basics suffer. The food is great, especially the red meats and the fresh greens. The service and atmosphere are awesome and really make the place.

I’ve been a couple of times now and two stars nails it: «Meh».
I do get quite a bit of pleasure from quietly screaming «pocketrocket!» at my table, but the fun doesn’t make up for the extremely scattered menu, miniature portions, and poor execution.
One star for inventive drinks and another for the view.

I will definitely be heading back to Rocket — sooner rather than later, I hope! Sat outside on the rooftop patio, overlooking the city. Beautiful view, and a different perspective of the city than I’m used to. The happy hour was great — 5:00 — 6:30pm. We had the roof top greens salad (all their produce is grown on the roof of the restaurant!) and followed it up with the lamb corn dog. SO tasty! The service was great — Daniel was very personable, attentive and cute, too!
Fun, new spot… would be great for a date, or to bring your out of town guests!

In town for business, tried to walk into Le Pigeon at 7 on a Wednesday. Was told there was a 2+ hour wait. Really? When asked for another option close by the hostess recommended Rocket. And I’m glad she did.
What I had:
Cocktail: Verte — Gin muddled with rocket (arugula) and other herbs. Delicious! Like having a gin salad (I know it won’t be to everyone’s liking)
Salad: prefectly dressed mixed greens with shiso and dill (which normally dislike in a salad) was excellent
Entrée: one of the specials, Oregon Albacore, perfectly seared on the ouside, just right on the inside, atop marinated, but raw, thinly slice squash and fennel. Topped with a little olive salad. Wonderfully fresh and light
Desert: Cherry «pop tart» with Buttermilk ice cream. For the cherry was a little too sour but the buttermilk ice cream was rockin’ good.
The staff was really friendly and attentive though not overly so .
The décor was modern but not off-​putting like some restaurants with modern décor can be.
Oh and since its on the 4^th floor the view was very nice. They even have outdoor seating though we didn’t take advantage of that due to the wait involved.
Highly recommend you give it a go.

Amazing, amazing salads… the butter lettuce, and the arugula salads (esp the latter) are fantastic. I had the cod off the menu, and it was quite good. Juicy and fairly flavorful. I did feel like it was missing a little bit of flavor, however. Also, there were only 2 beers on tap — and although the beer that I had was just fine, I wouldn’t put it up there with one of my favorites.
The ambiance there is nice, but it’s really tough to see other people throughout the bar and sometimes tough to see even the people that you came with because the booth is so huge. I like the «jacks» look that they have going on with the lights above the bar, but overall just kinda average on the ambiance there… I didn’t get a tour of the gardens upstairs, but heard that they were awesome — so, that might have been something to check out.
Overall happy with the menu and the options, but it just lacked some things that won’t get it the 4-​star rating. It’s certainly something that could be obtained given the right changes, but probably won’t need to return any time soon… there are too many other places with better food for the same price. And so it goes…

yum! love the food, ambiance, and view. i’ve gotten the lamb corn dog every time. also love the linguine with truffles and mushrooms (wowie!) and avocado and crab salad. everything delish!

Rockin Rocket!
I was taken here by a Porland Local over the weekend when I was visiting. I enjoyed the atmosphere (great room décor) and the service was great (very attentive and friendly).
Im blown away by the number of new restaurants in this town and it boggles the mind how all your Portland people can frequent them all…
The food was really good… not the best, but definately tastey. If I lived up with all of you I’d definately go back!!!

Atmosphere: 5
Food: 3
Service: 4+
I was told Rocket is the «super cool place» right now, and I can see that. Modern funky Jetsons-​style design on a rooftop (above Chesterfield’s) with a great outside patio and great views. (My sis posted some good shots, btw.) I like the rocket /​arugula theme. There’s a really pretty wood furniture thingee by the door with a wild arugula shape inlay. Arugula on the menu, etc.
Anyway, the dishes all sound good and are creative, but the execution could use some work… The quark w/​thyme butter crackers w/​tomato and olives was zesty and tasty veggies with pretty tasteless cheese n crackers. The lamb corndog was kind of gamey and weird texture. The goat cheese and greens was soo overdressed and soggy. The braised bacon with broccoi and pork confit was tasty but the bacon was tough.
They also are into some Food Science, ie cocktails with ‘cranberry orbs’ where juice is dropped in some chemical that transforms it to a solid. Cool concept but not necessarily tasty.

Just down the street, Rocket is the antidote to Doug Fir (see my Doug Fir review)!
It’s sleek, modern and offers a beautiful view of downtown Portland from it’s balcony, complete with heat lamps.

Rocket gets big ratings on view alone, It’s 4 floors up on Burnside and gives you a fabulous view of downtown and the East side. Drinks are quality and inventive, as you would expect, and I haven’t tried the food, but it’s basically in the Rontom’s (strange as they’re so close) vein of dressed up Americana (beef tongue hot dogs, catfish pierogis).