Original subtitles

♪ tranquil music playing ♪

[birds chirping]

[sighing]

MAYA RUDOLPH: Solitude, bitches.

A moment away from the noise of daily life.

[water babbling]

A chance to be mindful.

Reflective.

To quiet that inner monologue with a gentle, "Shut the [bleep] up,"

and to enjoy the present.

Being alone, especially here in the Pacific Northwest,

allows you to fully appreciate the little things in life.

Sounds.

[liquid pouring]

Smells.

Textures. [crunching]

And obviously... tastes.

♪ lively music playing ♪

All you gotta do is put down your phone, pick up a fork,

and treat yourself to a meal.

♪ "Bad Feeling" by Cobra Man playing ♪

♪ It is a bad, bad, bad feeling ♪

♪ You're tearing me up again ♪

♪ It is a bad, bad, bad feeling ♪

MAYA: Imagine enjoying a meal

without someone asking for a bite of what you ordered.

"Ooh, can I get a bite of that?"

What better place to practice being alone

than in the serene greenery of Oregon?

I mean, just look at that shit.

But if you're still not convinced of the benefits of solitude,

just ask a local.

‐ As we'd say in Portland, like, get over it.

MAYA: Karen Brooks is an award‐winning food writer

based in Portland.

Seriously, she's, like, the food critic in the city.

She's been at it since veal marsala was the "it" dish.

KAREN BROOKS: There's no reason dining alone should have a stigma.

It certainly doesn't in Portland.

It doesn't matter if it's the mayor or your hairdresser.

Everyone here dines alone. Hello!

When you try something yourself,

other kinds of adventures and experiences might open up.

MAYA: And this adventure begins as all adventures do:

with coffee.

KAREN: All things in life for me begin at Courier.

♪ rock music playing ♪

MAYA: Courier Coffee is a Portland institution

that roasts its own coffee, and offers bean delivery by bike.

The owner, Joel, has had dreams to open a coffee shop ever since middle school.

This is Portland, after all.

In addition to java,

Courier sells pastries, like this ooey, gooey, scrum‐diddly‐umptious

chocolate chip cookie. Mm.

I'll take a dozen.

KAREN: Good morning. JOEL: Hello.

KAREN: Joel, I need my chocolate.

I have to have a chocolate chip cookie. DAVID: All right. We can do that.

KAREN: Get me a good one.

DAVID: Okay. I kind of like this one.

‐ Which one's "the one"?

‐ Well, I think this is the right one, because it has a slight indentation

so you know that it's a little less well‐done on the inside.

So, it has that contrast. Like, the perfect level of done‐ness.

This is the one that I would choose for myself.

‐ Let's do it. DAVID: Okay.

KAREN: I have one of the chocolate chip cookies

every day. I eat 'em like vitamins.

That chocolate zings right to my brain,

and I believe

it opens up my mind.

I think I tend to be a lot like some of the chefs

I'm interested in.

Very obsessive.

Down the rabbit hole.

What does a place look like? What is the chef doing?

What's, what's the color of the chef's hair?

[voices overlapping]

Just as they want to make every bite count,

I want to make every word count.

David‐‐ David, they're perfect.

DAVID: Oh, cool. ‐ Perfect, Dave.

MAYA: The day is just beginning for Karen,

who usually rides out her cookie high

with lunch at one of the city's many counter spots,

like this place:

Eem.

KAREN: Eem is surely the world's first

Thai, Texas barbecue, tiki cocktail joint.

It's like the missing link that we didn't know was missing.

I kind of love just drifting in here by myself.

‐ [Eric speaking] KAREN: How are you?

ERIC: Good, good, good. You want a drink?

‐ Um, I'm gonna try a couple different things to drink.

‐ You want boozy or not boozy?

‐ You know me. I want a little of everything. ‐ [laughs]

KAREN: So many people, when they're doing virgin cocktails,

all the fun is gone.

It's like, "Oh, like, put a soda in a glass."

Everything is equalized here.

I love it. And then we've got the little, I don't know,

rat in a truck? I don't know.

MAYA: Uh, look at that. That's perfection.

ERIC: You ready for some food? ‐ Yeah. Ready to eat anytime.

‐ Cool. I'll put your order in. ‐ All right. Awesome.

♪ rock 'n roll music playing ♪

‐ All right, all right. Pork steak and barbecued fried rice.

‐ [crunching] Mm.

It's fast, and furious, and smoky,

and spicy, and slathered in good vibes

and umbrella drinks.

That's a Portland restaurant.

MAYA: One upside of being by yourself is

you're not obliged to share any of those juicy burnt ends,

which Eem bathes in a Thai‐style barbecue sauce.

‐ Mm.

All soups going forward should have

smoked burnt brisket ends from Texas.

MAYA: Anybody can enjoy a solo lunch.

But late meals alone have a tendency to feel...

...scary. [cackling laughter, thunder crashing]

But guess what?

Karen don't care about rollin' up without a plus one.

KAREN: Hello. ‐ Hi.

‐ Evening. Uh, Karen, for, uh, one,

at the chef's counter, please.

‐ It'll be right this way. ‐ All right. Thank you.

♪ rock music playing ♪

MAYA: Han Oak serves home‐style Korean dishes.

Home‐style as in, this is the chef's actual home.

Seriously. That's one of his kids.

‐ [toddler babbling] MAYA: Hi, cutie.

‐ The first time I ever walked in here,

I thought, "Is this a house party?

"Is this a serious food situation?

Is this the new Korean mom and pop place?"

And it turned out it, it was all of 'em.

MAYA: They even have free valet parking.

KAREN: I mean, we are essentially

in Peter and Sun's home.

They literally live on the other side of the wall.

♪

Han Oak exemplifies what makes Portland Portland.

There's a belief here that you can really make anything happen.

Come, come, come on over. Come sit with me for a minute.

‐ Hey, did you order me a cocktail?

‐ I didn't. I didn't, but come have a drink. Sit, sit down.

MAYA: Peter is the owner and chef of Han Oak.

He makes playful and innovative Korean dishes.

Chef Peter and his wife Sun lived the New York City chef's grind for a decade.

But after seeing basically no one balance 100‐hour work weeks with family life,

he peaced out and went back to Portland.

With his wife's help,

he created a concept that had room for both food and family.

KAREN: Mm. That's really yummy.

PETER: Sweet. Are you ready to eat? ‐ We're ready.

PETER: All right, we're bringing out some food.

All right. A few plates of banchan.

‐ All right. Let me just kind of group these around here.

Ooh! I'm going in.

Mm. PETER: We got our snack plate.

KAREN: Snacks! I love snacks! PETER: Yeah, snacks.

Korean fried chicken, with a dusting of the essence of instant ramen.

MAYA: Served with an okonomiyaki, or Japanese pancake,

that's been "waffle‐fied."

KAREN: I love this titanic crunch.

Mm.

I want that dust on everything. Could you put it on a donut, please?

‐ Sure. Yes. KAREN: All right. Okay. Thank you.

‐ All right. And the pork and chive dumplings.

KAREN: Oh, my gosh. Wish me luck here. Mm.

PETER: All right, this is quite the feast here, Karen,

but we do have one last thing. ‐ Mm. This is so delicious.

PETER: The beef noodle soup with the ramen noodles.

KAREN: Oh, my gosh. Mm. Mm. Delicious. Mm.

The soup is just boss.

I love, like, just the chef's counter alone,

like the center of gravity.

I like to eat by myself, and I'm able to feel part of your world.

‐ I mean, that's what the chef's counter kind of has always given us.

Is that, that space to be able to sort of,

hang out. KAREN: Yep.

‐ Do you need a bowl of rice, maybe? No?

‐ Yes. Rice is always good. ‐ Yeah. Okay.

‐ The night is just beginning.

MAYA: Atta girl, Karen. That's the spirit.

MAYA: Washington is brimming with splendors.

Waterfalls.

Mountain‐scapes.

The Space Needle.

And... [echoing]: noodles.

Rich and silky.

Like these soba noodles served with crunchy tempura.

Chef Mutsuko is a master

o f the art of Japanese soba noodle making.

MUTSUKO: This is for 15 portions.

I make about 10 times a day.

The first four times is very meditating.

After that, it's like, meh.

MAYA: Mutsuko is the owner of Kamonegi,

the award‐winning soba joint

serving modern‐meets‐traditional Japanese dishes.

She painstakingly grinds buckwheat from scratch daily,

and uses her grandmother's recipe,

sometimes making tiny recipe adjustments based on weather and temperature.

Then she precisely cuts the dough into thin noodles,

with the coolest‐looking utensil ever made.

It's called a kiri knife.

In Japan, soba is typically enjoyed alone.

‐ Japanese people eat noodles so fast.

Like, in two minutes this is gone.

So, sometimes you don't need company.

But American people enjoy conversation, so it takes longer to consume.

If you talk too much, you can't taste.

MAYA: Words to live by. Less talk, more noodles.

Soba may taste better if you inhale it in two minutes,

but what if you really want to linger and make a night of it?

That's when you hit Addo.

Because shouldn't you splurge on the person that matters most?

ERIC: We get a lot of solo diners here.

Anybody's welcome.

I've been a solo diner at a restaurant before.

It can be pretty awkward.

Sometimes people don't understand what that is.

They're like, "Oh, is your‐‐ Are you waiting for somebody to show up?" You know.

There's just dumb things that you can ask people

that makes them feel more and more like shit.

[laughs]

MAYA: Eric is the chef‐owner of Addo in Seattle.

Whoa! He's also the owner of a giant flame‐thrower.

His creativity makes him a great chef,

and his energy makes him a great host.

ERIC: You know, I played trumpet when I was a little kid,

and one of the things I gravitated towards was improvisation.

So, we don't have recipes here.

You know, it's a day‐by‐day menu.

I write it down by hand.

At the end of the night, we throw it away,

and we start from scratch the next day.

MAYA: Addo can do pretty much anything,

from tasting menus to sandwiches,

to Puerto Rican feasts.

You can come to Addo dozens of times and never have the same experience twice.

ERIC: How are you? DR. SHARON SUH: Good.

‐ Eric. ‐ Sharon.

‐ Nice to meet you. Thanks for hanging out with us.

‐ Thank you.

ERIC: So, there's a counter service that we do here at Addo.

That's, I would say, like, our most experimental.

It's kind of like being in a DJ booth. [laughs]c c

Yes, it's alive.

‐ I know, it's just creeping me out.

ERIC: Tonight, we're gonna be cooking Dungeness crab,

and doing a seven‐course dinner off of that.

We're gonna smoke one.

Uh, we're gonna cook one over Japanese charcoal.

You know, everything from smoke and fire to ice,

to pretty much everything in between.

You know, think about it more than just going, "Here's crab.

Here's some butter. Go at it."

Um, this is, uh, chawanmushi.

It's a Japanese egg custard. And we're gonna start you off like that.

It'll get scallions, a crab base, and a little bit of seaweed.

There's a lot of flavor there. The texture's really nice.

It's like a little hug in a bowl.

WOMAN: Hug in a bowl? ‐ [laughter]

‐ It smells like spring.

WOMAN: That is so good.

MAYA: These women are total strangers,

but tonight, in the Addo universe,

they're each other's plus ones.

‐ I just don't have the time or the energy

to make new friends.

‐ Yeah. Is it, like, on purpose,

or just kind of your‐‐ WOMAN: On purpose.

‐ On purpose. ‐ Introvert.

Anxiety. I don't like small talk.

‐ Yeah. ‐ But coming to a restaurant like this is helpful,

because I can go ahead and sit down and eat by myself.

Or you are so engaging.

‐ I, I feel bad sometimes,

'cause I feel like I'm bothering, you know?

But I don't, 'cause I'm like, hey, you're in my restaurant.

Uh... ‐ [all laughing]

ERIC: Part of the thing we're doing is like,

giving the diner enough time to experience it for themselves.

And it tastes very different, and there's a different texture.

There's a different aesthetic that they're used to.

It shows the flexibility of what that ingredient can be.

MAYA: Eric aims to utilize and honor all parts of the food he prepares,

like crab brain,

which he turns into a custardy sauce for these handmade noodles.

WOMAN: Oh, this one's had a good hair day.

ERIC: Yeah. ‐ [laughter]

MAYA: Tapping into his Puerto Rican roots,

Eric serves dishes like mofongo,

fried mashed plantains and broth,

but topped with a bump of caviar.

‐ [Eric laughing]

WOMAN 1: Wow. WOMAN 2: So good.

ERIC: Good.

So, this is actually truffle ice cream.

‐ The textures, it's amazing.

ERIC: These are the crab legs.

This has a little bit of hickory aroma on there.

‐ I'm having way too much fun with the smoke.

‐ [Eric laughing]

Feel free to put the shells back in here.

Uh, in the shell collection.

But, yeah... ‐ [indistinct chatter]

‐ Wow.

MAYA: Hey. You see that woman over there,

blissed out over crab brain pasta?

That's Dr. Sharon Suh.

And she is in the zone.

Dr. Suh, who's been practicing Buddhism since the mid '90s

and is a professor of Buddhist studies,

stumbled upon mindful eating in a book at the library.

A book led to a monastery,

which led to Dr. Suh becoming a trained mindful eating practitioner.

‐ Mindful eating actually comes from the Buddhist tradition.

It's a form of practice that allows you to

develop a kind of present moment awareness,

so that when we're eating, we're just eating.

It's really about learning how to slow down,

and have the meal be a very sensory experience.

I, of course, look at my food to get a sense of texture,

and colors and combinations,

paying attention just to the beauty of it and the aesthetics of the food itself.

It was silky, it was very delicate.

I check in also with the smell of my food.

Usually I'll pick up my bowl, and I'll, I'll smell it,

and try to get a sense of what flavors are in the meal.

And focus on the sound.

‐ [clinking] ‐ [chopping]

‐ [boiling] ‐ [cracking]

‐ And then I'll eat...

...letting the food linger first before swallowing

and moving on to the next bite.

It's just a really natural way of appreciating the food itself,

and also learning how to appreciate and really think about

all the things that went into making this meal.

Maybe it's the person who cooked the meal.

You know, you end up thinking about all the different ways

that this meal has come to you,

and it also allows you to express gratitude while you're eating.

I didn't really pay a lot of attention to what was going on around me.

I was thinking about what it reminded me of.

And it really did remind me of the sea.

ERIC: How are we doing as far as mindful eating,

and your‐‐ ‐ Oh, just great.

ERIC: Okay. ‐ [all laughing]

‐ My mind is in my mouth. ERIC: Oh, perfect.

MAYA: The crab's mind is also in her mouth, when you think about it.

‐ [laughing] ‐ I'll be back.

ERIC: Awesome. [laughing]

[phone ringing]

[phone ringing]

‐ [people chattering] ‐ [phone ringing]

MEL: [over voicemail] Hey, thanks for calling Reel M'Inn.

We're super busy. Come on down. Have a beer.

Thanks. ‐ [beeping]

MAYA: [on voicemail] Hey, um,

I don't know if you remember me from last night,

but when I saw you, I knew I had to have you.

[echoing]: ...have you... have you...

And I can't stop thinking about you.

[echoing]: ...thinking about you.

Your crispy, juicy thighs,

your greasy golden skin...

I can still smell your hot, meaty grease on my fingers.

All I can do is count down the days

until I can bite into you one more time.

[echoing]: ...time, time, time, time, time, time... [hangs up]

ELECTRONIC VOICE: End of messages.

‐ Everyone loves our chicken. It's our famous chicken.

[laughs]

MAYA: The state calls her Melissa.

Her friends call her Mel.

But most people know her as the woman slinging drinks

and cooking Reel M'Inn's world‐famous famous fried chicken.

A woman who truly does it all.

MEL: It's always one person working.

You are running an entire bar, and cooking chicken,

with the world's smallest little fryer on the planet

that makes all the magic happen.

MAYA: Look at that. Yep. Crisp it up.

Oregon bars are required to sell food according to local liquor laws.

So, it's no surprise that they choose to serve fried chicken.

All of those hot, juicy bits pair nicely with an ice cold beer.

And the grease helps soak up the booze, if you overdo it.

‐ ♪ Aah! ♪

People come here for our chicken, definitely.

It's antibiotic free, it's never frozen,

so we really start with a quality product

that we care about.

And then we just enhance it with some special dust.

And then fry it with love.

[jingling softly]

‐ Wow, it looks good.

‐ There's that for you.

‐ Thank you. ‐ Careful, it's really, really hot.

‐ I will. ‐ Don't burn your face.

‐ I will certainly try not to.

[crunching]

If you were here at night,

this is a madhouse.

[loud chattering]

There's standing room only, there's chicken on every table.

It gets a little wild here.

[chatter, commotion]

These guys work so hard. I mean,

the chicken, morning till dawn, till dusk.

[laughing]

‐ It's one reason why I love working here,

and I love living in Portland

is the people are so kind,

and warm, and friendly.

There you go, dah'ling.

I feel like I found a second family just by meeting all of the regulars.

Everyone has something in common.

You just have to find it.

And I think a lot of the people that come in here solo,

they always know that they can come in here, and...

and find someone to talk to.

[laughs]

You were hungry today. [laughs]

‐ More than I thought. [chuckles]

Aah.

That was satisfying.

MAYA: Mm, mm, mm.

[cawing]

Yeah, it can be rainy in Portland.

Dreary.

Cold.

But that's perfect introspection weather.

[rain pattering]

This is a city where the elements encourage you

to take some time for yourself.

Reflect.

Look inward.

Really think about why you've done what you've done.

Sometimes, you need to go to detention.

MAN: Detention. What did you do to wind up here?

[echoing]: ...here, here, here... [door slams]

Taking responsibility for your bad choices.

Sometimes that reflection is needed.

[echoing]: ...reflection is needed, reflection is needed...

But in this detention,

you're never alone. [echoing]: ...never alone, never alone, never alone...

♪ foreboding music playing ♪

[liquid pouring]

‐ [laughs] Kind of lost track of what I was saying.

I don't know.

MAYA: Detention is a bar in the Kennedy School,

a former Portland elementary school that's been converted into a hotel.

And a hotel bar is basically a free pass to drink by yourself.

But Detention, like all good bars,

fosters camaraderie among drinkers.

The traveler. The regular.

‐ Cheers. [laughs]

MAYA: The therapist.

If you find yourself feeling lonely in the dark northwestern winters,

you might just need to spend some quality time

in a place filled with great conversation,

strong old fashioneds,

and those little maraschino cherries.

‐ This is an amarena cherry.

Sweet Italian cherry.

MAYA: Yeah. That's what I said.

It's a place to be alone, but with others.

MAYA: Even in the vast, unpopulated forests of Oregon,

where you could really let one rip and no one would hear,

there are pockets of civilization.

Like Subtle Lodge.

Just inside this really cool front door...

is a warm fire...

live music...

a bar...

and a bitchin' fish sandwich.

Unlike your classic fish 'n chips,

this trout is breaded with actual potato chips.

Then, it's deep fried and served on a bun

with tartar sauce, pickles,

briny lettuce, and a heap of french fries.

For sustenance.

It's not just a supremely crunchy sandwich.

For this regular, it's a philosophical experience.

[crunches]

SKIP: You know, when I think of food and eating it,

really, it's honoring the life of the fish

by eating it slowly.

It is giving its life

that my life can continue.

Mm.

That's definitely poppin'.

MAYA: This is Skip.

Skip is a poet of the wilderness.

He's also a nature sculptor.

In fact, Subtle Lodge is filled with his work,

which is probably why they named the bar after him.

Skip lives deep in the mountains in Sisters, Oregon,

where he spends a lot of time alone,

carving wood, and meditating.

[gong reverberates]

‐ Om...

MAYA: He scouts the forest for fallen trees,

and turns them into art.

And he's really good at it.

Like... really good.

Ca‐caw!

SKIP: This piece, this is one of my best ever.

It's carved in a burl maple. All of the burls.

And wherever I saw a burl,

I thought, "Man, there's a lot of buffalo in there."

I've been carving now for about 50 years.

So, what you're seeing today

is 50 years of accumulated knowledge

about how to approach wood,

and what I love about wood carving.

MAYA: Skip draws his inspiration from the natural world,

carving the animals he runs with.

Living out here in the woods lets him fully appreciate life,

nature, and of course, food.

SKIP: It takes, you know, the quietness.

It takes being alone,

in order to fully appreciate the gifts that we have offered to us.

It's through the experience of the self

that you understand the world.

What is this all about?

What is this magic that we're living in really about?

You better be able to draw

from some energy outside of yourself, that's bigger than you.

And I see the energy coming from the natural world.

Food is our connectedness to the Earth.

The energy of the food which is supporting me,

is something to really honor.

It takes a moment of reverence,

and that's done privately,

and one on one.

Mm. Mm, this is a good sandwich.

Mm.

You know, there's something to be said about eating alone,

'cause you don't have to be worried too much about manners.

[chuckling]

Here's to it. Let's drink to it.

MAYA: Eat on, Skip. Manners be damned.

♪ country music playing ♪

It's a welcome change, eating alone.

It's a time to look inward.

Or even meet new people.

For some, it's a chance to commune with Mother Nature,

and properly appreciate the sacrifice of one real crunchy fish.

For others, it's a way to escape the constant distraction of the city.

But you don't have to have a reason to eat alone.

Sometimes, it's just nice to have a good meal

with the person who knows you best.

‐ So good.

SKIP: Did you see my tower?

This is the elevator. [chuckles]

Everybody needs a tower, right?

[clanging]

I don't know if it starts again. [chuckling]

♪