Pix Pâtisserie is a Portland-based dessert oasis serving up traditional French treats with a creative twist. Harkening back to Americana dreams of Space-Age, Jetsons-style technology where convenience meets automation, Pix Pâtisserie is home to the Pix-O-Matic: a 22-hour-a-day vending machine that serves as the main access point for Pix signature delicacies.
Refrigerated and restocked multiple times a day, the machine dispenses a veritable menagerie of assorted goods from handmade mushroom earrings to awe-inspiring crème brûlée. Highlighting Portland’s culture of the weird and whimsical, this automated bazaar of the bizarre is the best place in town to find a miniature copy of the Declaration of Independence, a traditional French gâteau, a fresh pair of turtle socks and an emergency can of googly eyes all in the same place.
While on the subject of the eccentric and fantastical, Pix Pâtisserie also hosts a classic Zoltar fortune-telling machine, a free souvenir photo “booth” and Can Bar, a watering hole for drinks and rarer varieties of tinned seafood (which are conveniently available in the Pix-O-Matic, as well).
Going Incognito
When pursuing lavish vending machine desserts to pair with an equally inspiring preroll, it’s best to keep things cool and inconspicuous. Appropriately enough, we selected a confection known by its code name: Incognito.
Made with a lemon-based cream cheese mousse, this bright, citrus-forward cheesecake is anything but low-key. Containing a raspberry coulis core at the center, the dessert is topped with a ginger streusel crown and then draped in a thin, candied chocolate shell.
The treat is sheer indulgence with every bite, taking the consumer on an odyssey of flavors and textures: from the satisfying crunch of the chocolate exterior and the velvety fluff of the mousse inside to the tart citrus of the candied lemon and the subtle sweetness of the silken cream cheese interior. Fruit-filled pockets of raspberry jelly and ginger shortbread streusel complement and contradict the rest of the cake. An elevated piece of gourmet art in its own right, the Incognito is a mouthwatering masterpiece — a simple but solid smoke was all we needed to frame it.
Noble Farms is a family-run farm that’s been in business since “The Big Lebowski” was released in theaters.
From out in Eagle Creek, their farm has created a focus on preserving their cut of some long-standing legacy strains they first got ahold of through medical clone trades during the days of Oregon’s Medical Marijuana Program. These strains include Jack Herer, Blue City Diesel and this impressive Blueberry.
In 2001, they traded for a clone of the well-known Oregon Medical Marijuana Program Blueberry, or OMMP Blueberry for short. Over the last 25 years, Noble Farms has nurtured and preserved this cut while working to enhance the traits that have made it so famous.
Their website proudly declares that, to their knowledge, they cannot find another example of this strain and believe themselves to be the last farm still holding the original cut.
When we sparked the joints, everyone in the circle raised an eyebrow and cracked a smile after taking their first hit. Packaged in a duo of smaller prerolls, they were rolled quite well and, most importantly, gave off waves of heavy blueberry smell from right out of the tube. We continued to get those same waves from the dry pull to all throughout ignition.
With this OMMP Blueberry, Oregonians and transplants alike all agreed it delivered exactly what it promised, and its bold, syrupy flavor contrasted nicely with the acidic, citrusy notes of the paired dessert.
From that first bite, your taste buds took a high-speed elevator ride from the bottom of your salivary glands to the top of your tongue. The stark difference but consistently bold flavors worked together to make for an experience that unfolds suddenly in your mouth, like a mail-order mattress.
pixpatisserie.com | pdxbuds.com | pdxbuds.com | @noblefarmsor
