Why: The Buckets kitchen opened in Ridgefield in September in the former space of Myrtle’s Tea House, which relocated just a few blocks away. Owners Stuart Rowe and Mark Moore also recently rolled out a school-bus-style food truck in Vancouver that serves breakfast and lunch to go. At both locations, the idea is to provide meals commonly served in soup containers, or buckets. Buckets’ mainstays are its biscuits and gravy, chili, soup and sandwiches.
What I tried: I visited Buckets for lunch, setting on the vanilla porter stout chili and the white bean chicken chili. I also tried the toasted four-cheese sandwich with spicy sauce and the Grandpa Bud sandwich.
Both chilis had a soupy consistency. The vanilla porter stout chili contained very tender strips of steak and ground hamburger with onions, red beans and bell pepper in a rich, sweet chili broth that contains vanilla porter stout. I found the chili deeply flavorful. The white bean chicken chili consisted of shredded white-meat chicken, which was also very tender. There were white beans and generously sized pieces of soft onion in a green chili broth, which was both sweet and distinctly flavored. Both types of chili had a comfortable level of spicy heat, with the vanilla porter stout chili at the top end and the white bean chicken chili barely hot.
Of the toasted sandwiches, I enjoyed the Grandpa Bud sandwich most. The word that came to mind was “magical.” It contains peanut butter, cheddar cheese and dill pickle — a most wonderful combination. I recalled a peanut butter hamburger I once tried, and it was not nearly as impressive as this sandwich. The four-cheese contains Muenster, Swiss, fontina and havarti cheeses. The spicy sauce, which is optional, is made with Sriracha, sour cream and lemon juice. This sandwich is sure to please the most discerning grilled cheese aficionado. I thought the spicy sauce was a good add-on and noted it is probably the best taming of Sriracha I have tasted, which kept it from dominating the sandwich.
