This Oregon Restaurant Does Southern-Style Biscuits Well Enough To Impress Guy Fieri

Biscuits are an artform, and one of the South's most beloved culinary contributions. And you can find some of the best Southern-style biscuits outside of the South. Pine State Biscuits is Portland Oregon's premier Southern comfort spot serving up biscuits that made it onto Guy Fieri's show "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives," impressing Fieri and dazzling millions of viewers at the mere sight of them.

Pine State Biscuits is the creation of three North Carolina-natives, Kevin Atchley, Walt Alexander, and Brian Snyder who wanted to bring the cuisine of their home state to the Northwest. They spent months of trial and error to come up with the very best biscuit recipe before testing out their creation at the Portland Farmer's Market. Their farmer's market stand attracted throngs of customers, waiting in hour-long lines to get a taste of their glorious biscuits. Their popularity at the farmer's market led to the opening of the first brick and mortar Pine State Biscuit restaurant in 2008. Fieri visited in 2009 for the sixth season of "Diners Drive-Ins and Dives," to try Pine State Biscuit's signature sandwich, the Reggie Deluxe, featuring fried chicken, bacon, cheese, gravy, lettuce tomato, and a fried egg. This towering biscuit sandwich not only blew Fieri away, but also earned a spot on our list of the most iconic sandwiches in every state. Televised exposure along with popularity amongst Portlanders led Pine State Biscuits to open a second location in Portland in 2010. Now Pine State Biscuits has six locations.

Quickly becoming an institution in Portland, Pine State Biscuits is undoubtedly one of the best Southern food restaurants outside of the South. The Reggie Deluxe's popularity with Fieri and local customers alike not only proves just how good the biscuits are, but it also puts Pine State Biscuits on the map as having one of the best fried chicken and biscuit sandwiches in the U.S.. But impossibly tall biscuit sandwiches aren't the only menu items that Pine State Biscuits are known for. Southern classics like shrimp and grits, chicken fried steak, and brisket sandwiches are top sellers, too. Pine State Biscuits also serves one of the best brunches in Portland, offering fluffy pancakes, gourmet pop tarts, bourbon caramel cinnamon rolls, and biscuit beignets.

While we may never know the recipe to Pine State Biscuit's famous biscuits, we have some insight into what makes a good biscuit. For truly Southern biscuits, you need to use While Lily self-rising flour, a type of flour made from soft winter wheat. Soft wheat flour has a lower protein content than all-purpose flour which is what makes biscuits so fluffy and tender. Try using soft flour in our recipe for Southern-style biscuits to see if it really is the ultimate defining ingredient. Of course, butter is nearly as important, and one of the key tips to perfect homemade biscuits is using cold butter to incorporate into your biscuit dough. You should butter your biscuits after baking them, too.