THE NIGHT LIFE 1

The Bayou after dark

By Josh Rogers

Every weekend, Portlanders feel the absence of the late-night diner. After the bars close, your only options are the paltry offerings of the 7-11. Since Becky’s reigned in its twilight hours (it still opens at 4 a.m.), nothing has filled its place (unless you count Denny’s, and maybe you do, see “Protecting a great pie,” this page).

Enter the Bayou Kitchen. The secret Bayou. Tucked away behind The Station nightclub and Spotshots pool hall in Union Station Plaza on St. John Street, you can now find bacon frying, cornbread grilling, and eggs scrambling. Yvette Faulkner, co-owner of the Bayou, says you can get the traditional breakfast fixin’s and some of the Cajun grub offered by the restaurant proper: “crawfish, andouille, we have grits and beans.”

Faulkner’s been looking for an opportunity to do a late-night breakfast since she opened her kitchen three and a half years ago — but the Deering Avenue location (don’t worry; it’s not closing) was just too small, she says. The Union Station space (open 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Thursday, and 11 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday and Saturday) offers more than just your average Huey P. Long. Since it’s connected to a nightclub, show up before 1 a.m., and have a PBR with breakfast.

Patrons familiar with Bayou’s Deering Avenue location — with its mis-matched tables and chairs, kitschy knickknacks, no right angles, and a mountain of various half-empty hot sauce bottles — will be a little bit surprised at the St. John Street eatery. Built in an disused private billiard room, “It’s the total opposite,” says Faulkner. “It looks like a gentleman’s club. It’s got dark, shiny wooden bookcases with encyclopedias. You think you’re going to look over and see some guy with a snifter of brandy.”

The décor’s not the only change. So far (it’s been open four weeks), the clientele is a bit different as well. “For me personally,” laughs Faulkner, “it’s pretty bizarre taking orders from people who’re drunk as opposed to people who are hung over.”