Fancy Feasting Downtown Eugene has three new eatery offerings. BY ADRIENNE VAN DER VALK Anyone mourning the disappearance of Quizno's from the Fifth Street Public Market food plaza should stop reading right now. There's a new sheriff in town, and his name is Asado (Spanish for "roasted" or "well done"). Rounding out the smorgasbord of food-court flavors provided by Marche Café, Café Glendi, Casablanca and Chelsea Grill and Bar, Asado offers quality, inexpensive Latin food with vegetarian and organic options, six kinds of salsa spanning four degrees of heat (represented by a stylish little flame scale) as well as beer and fresh sangria. For about the same price as a combo meal at Quizno's, you can indulge whatever happens to be your preference in tacos (choice of filling, tortilla type and sauce) or for a little more you can sink your teeth into a sizeable sandwich and sample one of the many available sides (tangy cole slaws or potato dishes, for example, also available to go). Asado is the newest addition to the flavorful family of restaurant success stories that brought Red Agave and El Vaquero to the downtown Eugene dining scene. While it may not offer quite the variety or the level of culinary sophistication as its tonier older brothers, Asado delivers in the same high quality tradition and proves that fast food can be healthy, stylish and delicious. One flight down, another branch of the Fifth Street Market family is establishing a new niche for itself: Marché Provisions. It is hard to know exactly what to call Provisions; it's not a store, nor is it exactly a restaurant. It is a combination coffee shop-bakery-ice cream parlor-pizzeria-deli-cheese shop where you can nibble on any number of lovely scrumptious goodies or browse through a dozen heavenly varieties of balsamic vinegar or cocktail napkins suited for any kind of party you might wish to throw. Provisions stocks the finer things, yes, but its open layout and basic presentation (not to mention its proximity to Rhythm and Blooms) offer a relaxing shopping atmosphere that inspires selective alternatives rather than expensive overload designed to make you feel like everything in your kitchen is inadequate (think Real Simple versus Martha Stewart Living). And if you do start to feel worried that your balsamic vinegar isn't good enough, there's on-site ice cream to ease your worried mind. Last but not least is a new upscale libation station called Midtown Wine Store and Bar, carved out of a cozy corner of Midtown Marketplace (formerly Triomphe) and featuring select menu items from Bel Ami. Run by experienced wine steward Tim Shimmel (formerly of The Excelsior), the bar is impressively stocked with wines to take home and enjoy with that lovely loaf of bread from Provisions — or you can choose something to open and sample atop a barstool with some steamers or an order of bruschetta. Midtown features different flights for one's tasting pleasure and plans to offer various themes, specials and discounts depending on the season or the arrival of a particularly exciting new vintage. The elegance of the atmosphere should not be mistaken for exclusivity; while Shimmel is certainly intimately knowledgeable about his trade, he's also a friendly and accessible server who puts his customers first, making Midtown that rare combination of class and more class.
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