Naomi & Michael Hebberoy IMAGE: STEPHEN VOSS

The rumors are true: Michael Hebberoy has left ripe, the indie Portland restaurant empire he created with his wife, Naomi, that includes the nationally acclaimed Family Supper as well as the restaurants clarklewis and the Gotham Bldg. Tavern. Early Thursday afternoon, Naomi Hebberoy confirmed that the pair, who have been separated since last September, are divorcing. The split is, in her words, "super amicable," and she told WW that Michael has given her all the shares and control of the company. "He is no longer a part of ripe, Gotham Bldg. Tavern, Family Supper or clarklewis," she says. Michael Hebberoy could not be reached to confirm Naomi's comments.

"Michael been a great voice, vision and force for cultural change, but that has also provided us with many distractions, and we are in the business of running restaurants," Naomi told WW in a frank phone interview, referring to ripe projects in the works as diverse as a manifesto/cookbook titled Kill the Restaurant and Gotham Bldg Tavern's own brand of gin. "There were too many balls in the air, and he just kind of cracked. He's taking a break ... he will be out of town indefinitely."

Although rumors of the pair's separation had already reached WW back in late December, this is the first time that any media outlet has reported that either member of the restaurant power couple would actually be leaving. Just last September, W magazine was calling the pair "rebel restaurateurs" and "the young prince and princess of the Pacific Northwest food scene."

Naomi agrees with the widely held belief that Michael was the "idea person" behind ripe, while she was the "worker person" who kept their projects running. Naomi assured WW that the change in ownership will not dramatically affect the day-to-day operations of ripe's restaurants, although she did confirm that Gotham Bldg. Tavern will stop serving breakfast as of today (Thursday, April 27). And how will it affect her personally, as a chef? She says she'll still cook the occasional Family Supper but other than that, her plate is full.

"I'm the manager of three restaurants and the mother of a five-year-old.... I've got shit to do," she chuckled. "[ripe is] is going to have to make some changes, and we need to be more focused. Most importantly I need to let people know that the company is going to be fine."

In an effort to substantiate Naomi's claims, WW also attempted to contact Michael by email. But messages to Hebberoy's ripe email account already bounce back with a prophetic error message: "No such user here."

NOTE: This story published to the web on 4/27/2006