The balance at East Ender will work best if customers learn to reinforce the equilibrium themselves. The French-fancy stuff on the menu pulls you to a mindset of fine dining that is slightly out of step with what the East Ender is trying to do. So make sure someone at your table skips the wine for a $4 draft beer, and skips the entrée for the terrific burger (made with meat ground in-house, with enough beef cheek to keep things incredibly juicy and tender). Do French fine dining and New England casual cuisine present some irreconcilable differences? Perhaps. But as the French say about what it is impossible to reconcile between the masculine and the feminine: vive la différence.
Brian Duff can be reached at bduff@une.edu.
THE EAST ENDER | 47 Middle St, Portland | Mon-Sat 11:30 am-midnight | Visa/MC/Disc | 207.879.7669 | eastenderportland.com
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