Cult Shop: a temple to salt

Mark Bitterman’s life changed over a portion of steak frites. It was a lunchtime special at a roadside restaurant near Fougères, France, served with a dusting of gros sel. The meal decided his next adventure: a trip to the French Atlantic coast to meet the salt’s maker. There he discovered an operation that went back to the Middle Ages, and kickstarted a lifelong obsession. “Salt is a touchstone for the ways human beings have interacted with their food since the dawn of time,” says Bitterman. “What better thing to pay attention to?”

The years since have been spent researching and collecting salt – Bitterman is the world’s first “selmelier” and a James Beard-award winning writer – culminating in the launch of The Meadow, a quartet of shops spread across Portland and New York. At the heart of this operation is The Meadow’s flagship in Nob Hill, opened a decade ago on one of Portland’s main thoroughfares. Salt is the focus, plus chocolate, cocktail bitters and a pantry section. The pièce de résistance is a $20 tomato paste. “It’s sun-dried by Italian grandmas,” he says excitedly, pausing to shield a stack of croissant-flavoured chocolate bars from the sun. “Like Marmite, but tomato… it’s bouillon in tomato form!”

I have a passion for telling stories about salt

Above all, however, Bitterman likes to talk about salt, varieties of which number 120, displayed in neat little jars. “I have a passion for telling stories about salt,” he says. Many of these tales are personal – take the Campfire Smoked Salt (from $8), which is made specially for Bitterman by “the godfather of old-fashioned, artisanal salts in North America”. Others have a history that long predates The Meadow: the therapeutic Kala Namak (from $9) has been used in Ayurveda and Indian street food for centuries. Another, Pangasinan Star (from $9), known for its “lush, billowy” crystals, is hand-harvested in the Philippines, and is still a central part of the economy there. “For me it’s a story about the continuation of a tradition in a land that’s been modernised,” says Bitterman.

A misconception of The Meadow is that it’s full of “fancy salts for fancy eaters”, which Bitterman says “couldn’t be further from the truth”. The joy of salt is its simplicity. “Toast some bread,” he instructs, “put some butter on it, sprinkle a nice fleur de sel on top... it’s the most delicious thing in the world.” Or “go crazy” with the Black Truffle (from $16), Dill Pickle (from $12), Blue Cheese (from $14) and Salumami (from $8) varieties.

Whether you are a home cook or a professional chef, Bitterman treats every customer like family. “The most important thing for us is that people feel like they’ve been transported to a beautiful, magical place – and also as if it were their own home,” he says. Bitterman was once so engrossed in his salt “spiel”, he didn’t realise he was serving John Malkovich. But he does recall many of Courtney Love’s visits – probably because she often forgot her wallet. (She vowed that she’d always come back.) 

On the subject of whether too much salt is bad for you, Bitterman references a study that shows that wherever people are in the world, they consume roughly the same amount of salt. He sees this as proof that “it’s not our environment that dictates our salt consumption, [but] our nature.” “We don’t advocate eating overly salty food. I salt very moderately,” he concludes, looking hungrily at his colourful salt wall. “But I frickin’ love it.”

themeadow.com,  3731 N Mississippi Ave, Portland, Oregon 97227