The Meadow – N. Mississippi

Have you ever stopped somewhere while on vacation and said «This is GREAT!» only to return a year or two later to find yourself asking yourself, «Ummm…why did I think this place was so great?»
Well…every time I come to Portland and come back to the Meadow, I say, «This place is AMAZING!!»
This time around, we discovered 3 new salts… truffle salt, butter salt and ghost salt. We tried both the truffle and butter salts on our home made popcorn and OH WOW!!! Ordinary popcorn was turned into gourmet. We gave the ghost salt to my brother who says he is now addicted to it. He puts it on his eggs, potatoes, popcorn, sandwiches and meats.
While there in late 2015, we also tried some new chocolates and caramel corn.
The employees here are AMAZING! My adult daughter and I were completely taken by Nathan who couldn’t do enough for us.
If you are in the area, you MUST stop at the Meadow.

This place is lovely and so precious in every way. So many chocolates that I’ve never heard of. So many different salts and a wall full of artisanal bitters. I wish I had enough money to buy and try every kind of chocolate from their full library, but alas, I only purchased 4 small items for $ 20 total — my preset limit for this little splurge. They have everything from local Portland chocolates to delicate chocolate bars from Saigon and many other places around the world. They have dark chocolates, salted chocolates and many assorted flavors, and the salts are very impressive as well. Service is friendly and knowledgeable. Go, but definitely bring your mad money!

–Not only do they have an excellent selection of salts and bitters, but The Meadow also offers a large selection of chocolate. I asked for a suggestion — ended up getting one of the best I’ve ever had. Well done.

The best chocolate everrrrrr! Oh and a large salt and bitters selection too. P. s. The guy that is usually working there is so friendly. Definitely check it out! Great gifts or tourist spot.

Was drawn in by the chocolates, didnt really look st anything else. They have an amazing extensive selection of chocolates from all around the world. Prices vary from $ 6 up to $ 20. Found a delcious dark chcolate bar with lavendar.

Are you prepared to spend $ 40 on salt? yes! Let’s go to the Meadow.
This shop combines many of my interests and crams them into an adorable little space with cute employees and a good selection of dessert wines.
the shop is small and expertly curated, with something you’ve never seen before around every corner. This was the only place I could find that carried my insanely expensive 100% organic ultra-​dark chocolate that I loved so much. It has FLOWERS.
Salt, flowers, wine, bitters, chocolate, cookbooks, little gadgets, fresh eggs sometimes.
what else do you really want? nothing.
also please hire me. xo

I work on Mississippi Ave and feel so lucky to have such a great neighboring business just across the street!
Violet (one of The Meadow’s employees) is so fantastic and knowledgeable she makes me stop in just to say hi and I walk out with new bitters I hadn’t tried, flowers for my roommate, and finishing salts for all my foodie and chef friends.
Everyone who works at The Meadow is so warm and kind I can’t help but stop in and buy something at least once a week.

Such an aesthetically pleasing and well-​laid out store, with the most finely curated selection of salts, chocolates & bitters I’ve ever seen in an ~800 square foot space. The owner clearly has an eye for beauty and a knack for detail. A few gems I came across: Francois Pralus single origin chocolate, Mast Brothers, Olive & Sinclair, flaked salt in a variety of flavors (lemon, smoked applewood, truffle) plus a selection of locally made chocolates and trinkets (handcrafted pewter salt cellars & layered gold spoons). Though I normally find such stores to be *too* deliberate & twee, The Meadow feels like a celebration of rich origins, all things beautiful and sensory, (incidentally) wonderful service, and really!! freaking! good chocolate. The prices are on point as well. $ 8 is much more than I can afford for a bar of chocolate, but it is a wonderful price for a 100% Criollo cacao bar, the flavor of which will resonate in your memory long after you’ve finished your treat. A great place to pick up rarefied gifts for others, or a special treat for yourself.

We were introduced to this shop on a food tour and went back to make a few purchases. Black truffle salt was a literal eye-​opener! Regular traveler in France during the winter truffle harvest season and have NEVER come across this! Bonne idee!
And the small batch chocolates were a real treat. We’re taking one of those on our Mt Hood road trip tomorrow. Thank you Marisa for the heads up!

I stopped in this shop very briefly to look for gifts when I was visiting Portland for a conference. The selection of salts and bitters is impressive, the service was friendly and attentive, and the overall experience was great. However, I want to write specifically about the black truffle salt. After trying some in store, I bought the smallest bottle ($ 16 and worth every penny). This salt is to DIE for. I love making stove-​popped popcorn, and using this salt has taken my home-​made popcorn from good to phenomenal. Now the only problem is that my husband and I are addicted to the salt and have to keep ordering it from their website!

First of all, I didn’t know that a salt shop was a thing, but I’m glad it is, because in addition to being very educational, The Meadow also makes weird salts available that you’re never going to be able to find elsewhere.
I went with a friend for the chocolate selection, which is amazing. The next day I went back to find a Fruition white chocolate bar for my boyfriend before I left Portland, and they were out; the sales attendant was very, very concerned and apologetic, and he helped me pick out a strawberry white chocolate bar instead, which was an excellent suggestion and which my boyfriend has enjoyed. Et voilà! — as the attendant said.
The prices are high-​ish (I don’t usually pay $ 9 on one chocolate bar!) but appropriate for the product, and the service is wonderful.

Awesome place for gifts: Flavored salts, chocolate, and bitters. So I got one of each.
Staff was super friendly, letting you try pretty much whatever you want, giving you lots of good info.
Rosemary finishing salt was my favorite — I put it on chicken after taking off the bbq, and even my kids eat it up.
got one of the many 70% dark chocolate bars, which I usually don’t like, but I even found myself eating the whole thing myself.
And the bitters selection is amazing. Whatever flavor you can think of, its there. I opted for the $ 20 bottle of general bitters replacement (like Angostura but has deeper flavor). Super tasty. Awesome in Old Fashioneds!

I can say that I entered this store not knowing one thing about the mysterious world of exotic salts and left the store empty-​handed but very educated. This place is a mecca for any kind of salt your heart desires, whether it be black volcanic salt from the Hawaiian islands or flaked salt for sprucing up a meal made by your inner gourmet chef self. They have various sizes of Himalayan salt blocks for cooking and preparing/​serving meals as well as numerous flavors of bitters and exotic chocolates. If you’re a serious cook or chef, this is your place if you want to add a little extra special touch on something you’re proud of.
What I liked best about this place, however, is that throughout the store near the products there are cards that tell you about the salts, blocks, etc., their history, and how to use them. The staff is super friendly, attentive and willing to educate you as well, all while not giving you that overwhelming «Oh my god, now I have to buy something» feeling.
They also have very fresh flowers that you can pick and choose one at a time and/​or have custom arranged into your own bouquet (s) and the prices seemed very reasonable.
As I mentioned before — the chocolate. Any kind of chocolate you can think of: salted, spiced, exotic, gourmet, whatever… they have it. But be warned, this ain’t your run-​of-​the-​mill Hershey’s milk chocolate. It’s the real deal and comes at a real price… maybe even $ 8 a bar. Either way, it’s fun to explore and maybe splurge on on a rainy day.

Adorable little shop with a huge selection of salts and chocolates. I stayed on the chocolate side and happily picked out a couple bars. I’m definitely coming back here in the future.

this review is mainly for their online store but I had to make sure to give them a shout out where a shout out is definitely due. WHAT SERVICE! I work in PR and as per usual was tasked with securing a product last minute at the lowest possible cost (shocker).
Found that The Meadow carries it and ships from their online store so I called to double check that if I chose the slower (cheaper) shipping rate it would still in fact reach me by the deadline. Even though no one can TRULY rely on USPS the shipping department made sure they did everything on their end. They sat on the phone with me while they entered it, weighed it, packaged it up, and processed my order to make sure it got out the door in time. I wish I had asked the girl’s name who assisted me, because she was AWESOME. Isn’t it freakin nice when people enjoy doing their job so that you can do yours? Right on, gurlfriend!
Thanks to you guys, I am excited to build a vendor relationship with The Meadow for future event needs, and to taste these Sriracha Bitters… NOM!
:)

This shop seems like a place straight out of Portlandia. In all honesty, I’m probably not the right person to review this.
I do not have a particularly sensitive palate so artisanal salt and chocolate is not going to be my bag… baby.
I spent quite a few minutes looking for milk chocolate while my more epicurean-​minded friend chatted with the store clerk about hand-​ground chocolate (what?)
I grabbed a few bars that had the lowest cacao percentages. I’ll admit, they’re pretty tasty.

This shop is so beautiful it makes me want to cry. Because it has so many things I love.
Chocolate! The variety here is incomparable to any chocolate shop I’ve ever visited. I love all of the small batch/​single origin/​artisanal brands they have. It’s pricey but for a true chocoholic, it’s dizzying and exciting to be in a shop like this and not buy at least $ 50 of chocolate in one go. Also good if you just went to some wineries and want to have some fun pairing some single vineyard pinots to some single origin darks.
Salt! I love the salt selection here for its breadth. But I actually really just love the Meadow house salts because they do choose really goo versatile salts for you. I brought a bag for a salt-​aholic friend a year ago and she went gaga for it.
Bitters! Again, a really really impressive selection of artisanal bitters. We got some Bitterman’s celery bitters last time around that is great in a bloody mary. The carry 4 – 5 of the well known artisanal brands as well as some hard to find liquors and vermouths from Europe.

After eating at TNS and K&Z we were walking towards the MAX light rail and haphazardly came across The Meadow! So excited because I had previously read about this place in a news article and didn’t even think I would be able to go here (but by a bit of luck and lostness we got there!)
They have a GREATTT selection of salts! I tried chocolate salt, fleur de sel, and rosemary to name a few. They also have a whole wall of chocolate! Ramen noodles chocolate was a fun one I saw and I picked up a few locally OR made chocolates for gifts. That day they also featured a free wine tasting. Yummy pinot noir! Also tasted a few of their bitters which were well… bitter! Ha ha… but are amazing in drinks!
A great little store to grab unique gifts and take break from eating :)

«Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men.»
Um, not so fast, Jesus. Are we talking table salt or really, really good salt? If we’re talking about the salts sold at the Meadow there will be no casting out of salts, and in fact I will be licking each fleck up, trodden under stinky feet or not. But these salts would never lose their savor, so pour some on.
Apparently The Meadow has the world’s largest salt collection, and it is quite impressive. My friend had mentioned how amazing their black truffle salt was, and I already knew I wanted to come by, but I was not expecting two walls full of salt procured from Japanese volcanoes, Brazilian seas, French caves, and everything in between. Little sample after little sample lead to a very hypertensive me, but it was worth it. They also sell big Himalayan salt slabs for the home cook, so when you need to give a gift that keeps on giving, this is a good bet. The salts are sold in different sizes, so you can keep your costs low by getting a ‘taster’ or go crazy getting some rare and exotic salt in a 32 oz bag. The staff is knowledgeable about how to pair the salts and I never got a sales pitch, just friendly and enthusiastic Portlandia hospitality.
Besides salts, there is an amazing collection of bitters and chocolates, as well as a decent flower selection. Whoever runs this store must operate on the pleasure principle, because everything offered here pleases on a visceral level, and I like it.
«Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”-good encapsulation of the Meadow’s philosophy. And that salt and tomatoes go together like peaches and cream. If you can’t get to Portland, they have a website!

Hadn’t been here for a few years, but glad I made a point on my last trip.
I have been on their mailing list since I visited back in 2007, and have ordered from them as well. It was great to check out the store again… salts, chocolates, flowers, and now a whole huge assortment of bitters!
My cousin (local to Portland) was so glad I showed her this place!!!