Honesty, how can you not pay attention to a restaurant with that name?
I had a fun talk with Dan Cogan, the owner of the soon-to-open Batter. Follow their Facebook page for updates. We bonded over pancakes and peanut butter and the lack of fun interesting restaurants on the westside as defined by west of Sylvan Hill.
What is a Batter?
It’s an all day (7am-midnight) pancake, waffle, and crepe place with both sweet and savory styles, as well as a full bar.
How did you come up with this idea which I think is absolutely genius?
I love pancakes for almost any occasion and wonder why more restaurants to cater to us.
Exactly! I have wondered for awhile why Slappy Cakes isn’t open past 2pm and thought they would kill it if they were open late, and here you are!
I know exactly how you feel. To me, pancakes and late night, you just can’t beat it. For me, it was hitting the Hot Cake House after a show or something. But with us you can have a pancake and drink instead of just one or the other.
What are a couple of your favorites on your menu?
My current favorite is the Creole Shrimp. It’s on a nice cornmeal waffle and it’s a take on shrimp and grits. My favorite breakfasty item is the Bacon Waffle, one of my favorite combinations.
A late night food for me is Mac and Cheese, I see you have and Mac and Cheese Crepes.
I would claim that as one of my favorites but I’ve been testing so many different recipes that I could probably hold off for a little while.
My friends make fun of me any time I order pancakes because they know the following question is coming, “Do you have peanut butter?”
Yeah, yeah, we’re blending our own peanut butter. I’ve been a peanut butter fiend since college.
What beverages are you going to serve?
We’ll have a full bar, local beers and liquor. I love the local breweries and distilleries that we have around us. And we’ll have some fun and playful stuff. We’ll have a slushie machine, a premixed adult one and one for kids. Portland Roasting has been great in training us and has some fantastic blends that we’ll be offering. Also for mornings we’ll have great drinks like mimosas and Bloody Mary’s.
Besides the peanut butter, what else are you making in-house?
We’re curing our own bacon and salmon. We’re making our own gins which is fun because we get to be creative. I don’t know why more places don’t make their own gin.
I know you’re commuting from the west side. Why are there so few fun, great, and interesting restaurants on the westside?
It seems that people on the west side will go downtown and the east side, but those people won’t go to Beaverton or further out. Getting the 20-somethings to go out there isn’t likely.
You said you had other restaurant ideas. If all goes well do you open more Batters or trying the other ideas?
I would like to open more Batters but I would like to try the other ideas. This whole process is organic. Batter works where we are but other locations we looked at wouldn’t have worked for Batter. So the location actually set which restaurant idea I would have went with.
What’s a bar that you love in Oregon?
My favorite bar was Taylor’s in Eugene. A lot of great blues musicians have passed through there. You could go with friends or alone and it was great.
Question via Twitter: What makes your buttermilk pancakes stand out?
We are planning on using locally farmed “Bulgarian” Buttermilk. “Bulgarian” Buttermilk is a richer, more tangy form of buttermilk with a higher fat content. It is just a style of how it is processed, it’s still local, not from Bulgaria. It’s also rbST free.
Lastly, do you think you will ever be over pancakes now that you have a restaurant opening?
It hasn’t happened yet and I can eat it so many different ways.