Rhinestone Brunch Launches This Month in Portland

Rhinestone brunch launches this Sunday, January 18!

This past weekend I was invited to stop in at Rhinestone to check out their upcoming brunch service at their new-ish brick and mortar. It was a chance to taste a variety of dishes and offer feedback before they opened it to the broader public. My friend Annie and I tried a handful of things and we enjoyed them quite a bit.

Some Rhinestone Background

Rhinestone started out as a pop-up, showing up at places like Deadshot and Too Soon, garnering a very positive response from those who attended. They identify as having a “cow-punk theme” and their food concept is “a take on elevated southwest-fast-food.” The press release that came out when they got their permanent space on SE Clinton and 21st used the word “stoked” and as someone who lived in the California beach towns of Ventura and Oxnard for many years, I am here for that kind of talk.

Rhinestone was founded by industry veterans chef Graham Chaney (previously Executive Chef of Stammisch) and bar and cocktail expert Trevor Thorpe (House of Blues, Interurban, Fireside Lounge). Their experience ranges from fine dining to casual counter/bar service scenarios.

On the Rhinestone website, it describes their vision: “To deliver bold flavors and high quality through menus that remain approachable and fun for all.” I believe they have delivered on this for their brunch.

Rhinestone Brunch: Food and Drink

They offer both boozy and NA cocktails, and a nice selection of flavorful brunch plates.

Rhinestone Brunch Dishes

Their brunch dishes incorporate influences from Mexican cuisine—a burrito, Southwest hash, bistek—and Southeastern American cuisine—biscuits and gravy—as well as a basic breakfast and some avocado toast. They make as much as they can in-house, which includes their tasty sourdough english muffins, biscuits, and sourdough bread.

And then there are the potatoes, which are chopped more or less uniformly there at Rhinestone (AKA not pre-chopped from frozen), and very small/smol, which were really fun to eat. I mean, just look at their beauty! They are about a centimeter in diameter.

We tried a few things: Chilaquiles Verde, Huevos Con Wienies, and the Churro Waffle; Trevor came by and gifted us a plate of the Southwest Bene, too.

We tried the Chilaquiles Verde first.

This was probably my favorite thing of the morning. The verde sauce was piquant and exactly what I’m looking for in this type of sauce. It wasn’t very spicy, but packed a lot of flavor. The egg had a nice crispiness to its edges, and they did not overdo it with the crema. Nice side of creamy avocado, too.

The Huevos con Wienies really caught my eye because I hadn’t ever considered incorporating hot dogs into breakfast (despite my love of breakfast sausage). Apparently the chef grew up eating this mix. It’s a sliced fried hot dog, Hatch chiles, scrambled eggs, a little crema, and potatoes on the side. This was very easy to eat and I loved the fun concept.

Then we tried the benedict.

The foundation is one of their english muffins, which had a nice tang from the sourdough fermentation. then it’s topped with carnitas, poached eggs, chili hollandaise, with their potatoes on the side. I love creamy chili sauces, so this had my number right away. The carnitas were in great shape, with some crispy bits. The egg added additional richness, but the tangy muffin and hollandaise sauce balanced it all out.

On the sweet side of things, there was the churro waffle.

This was probably my second favorite dish of the meal. The waffles were so light and had a similar crunch that curros have. The whipped cream was the real deal and the caramelized bananas were a nice addition. Chocolate sauce was chocolatey but not overly sweet. This was a delight.

They also have some sides, including avocados, some breakfast meat sides, an egg, toast, salsa & guac, chorizo gravy, and their Rhinestone Potatoes.

Rhinestone Brunch Drinks

As someone who likes cocktails but doesn’t drink, I zeroed in on the mocktails. Originally I wanted to try the Boomslang mocktail (DHOS Gin Free, pandan, citrus, yuzu vanilla soy foam) but their nitro setup wasn’t up and running yet. So, I tried the Out of Step instead (DHOS Gin Free & Orange, guava, and acid pineapple).

The fresh mint was an unexpected and nice addition, and I loved the level of tartness in this drink. Trevor mentioned that of the dry spirits they use for mocktails, this DHOS NA gin offers a lot.

We also had drip coffee from Puff, that was good and strong to my liking.

As for the boozy brunch cocktails, there’s a Bloody Mary and a Mimosa, drinks like the Get Blasted (Aviation Gin, Doctor Bird, Midori, coconut, guanabana, citrus & soda) and Rhinestone Cowboy (Dickel Rye, passionfruit and acid adjusted pineapple, montenegro & salted vanilla egg white foam), JELLO shots, and scoots, among others.

Here are a couple of shots of the space. Clockwise from top left: the back room, booths in front, Yippee Ki-Yay (name plate at the bottom continues with “Motherfucker. RIP Hans Gruber 1948-1988”), and a shot of the bar. Click to enlarge.

They’ll offer brunch on Sundays only, from 10am to 3pm. Again, their first day of brunch service is this Sunday, January 18. No reservations, first come, first served.

Rhinestone Brunch starts January 18, 2026
2100 SE Clinton Street, Portland
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