I don’t have the most experience with Portland pubs as of yet, but I have been to RiRa twice. The first time was at the recommendation of our hotel concierge. See, RiRa has this upstairs dining room that is right on the water – lots of windows, fireplace in the corner, lovely.
I had fish and chips ($12) – of course – which were good, but the dish that was extraordinary was the Irish potato cakes with balsamic and sour cream. They were so good that I considered giving Kevin a pitiful look and asking if I could have them all to myself. And that would have been fine because Kevin was delighted with the vegetarian meal he ordered.
Now, RiRa doesn’t offer the world’s great selection for vegetarians, but Kevin doesn’t mind that as long as the vegetarian food they do offer is good, which is rare. But not at RiRa. Kevin ordered and loved the Edenmore Plate ($14): herb polenta, grilled portabella, baby spinach, goat cheese, and roasted peppers.
But I’m actually here to talk about the Pub quiz, which is why we went back to RiRa a second time, rather than another of Portland‘s many, many pubs. It’s a work thing for Kevin, this weekly trip to the RiRa pub quiz, and we’re trying to be social and make friends, so it seemed like the thing to do.
The first thing you need to know is that RiRa’s pub (downstairs from the lovely dining room, but also lovely and quite cozy) gets crowded on pub quiz night. Hindsight advice #1: go very early. You will have trouble parking and you will have trouble finding a seat. Our smarter quiz team members had arrived earlier than us, but had only been able to secure a tiny corner, wedged in between two somewhat disgruntled tables. When one of those tables saw me and Kevin headed toward the corner, they pinched their faces and said, More people?
But they had no need to worry. The waitress had already waylayed us and explained that it would not be possible or acceptable for us to squeeze into that spot. Now, she wasn’t exactly rude, although I did feel a bit like a second grader who had stolen someone’s lunch money. And even though we are writers, not physicists, it was pretty clear that no one’s tush – let alone two of them – was going to fit onto that tiny corner of bench. Our friends had already gotten up to join us – standing – before the waitress’s lecture was over.
We persevered, though, have no fear. We even performed respectably, coming in something like tied for fourth … I think. We lost the tied-for-third tiebreaker so I’m not where that puts us. Kevin and I also ordered burgers – veggie and regular respectively – and he liked his and I wasn’t such a fan of mine. But maybe that had something to do with the standing and no place to eat and lack of ketchup. I’m an embarrasingly, unsophisticatedly big ketchup fan. So, I’d definitely be willing to give RiRa’s burger another try.
In fact, maybe I’ll do that on St. Patrick’s Day, now that I know that RiRa hosts a dive into the freezing Casco Bay for those patrons crazy or drunk enough to participate. Not that I’m planning to dive … I think I’ll get a Guinness and watch from a fireplace-side table upstairs.
From Off 