EAT: More Details on Cognito

As we reported in last week's Scoop column, there are two restaurants moving into the former home of It's A Beautiful Pizza on Southeast Belmont Street: Hall of Records, a combination record shop and bar, and Cognito, a collaboration between owner Wayne Sabbak, who also owns the property, and chef Jeffrey J. Kingman. Kingman gave us a call to correct an error in our original item (he's spent recent years in the Northeast, not the Northwest) and share some tidbits about his new restaurant.

First, Cognito's going to be a big on live music. Sabbak's background is in production and engineering in the recording industry, and the restaurant will be designed to maximize sound quality. It will also be wired for recording; Kingman says the partners hope to eventually be able to cut CDs of an evening's performance as soon as the show is over for customers to take home.

Kingman signed the Chefs Collaborative Charter Statement of Principles way back in 1993, and has been on board with the local/sustainable/organic thing since the days before every frozen yogurt shop had a statement of values in the front window. For Cognito, he's partnering with Rosemont Century Farm, a 165-year-old family farm in Yamhill County, to provide the restaurant with veggies in a CSA model. "To connect to that history is awesome," Kingman says.

The chef was less eager to talk about the details of the menu, which is still in flux, but will have a Central/South American bent—according to his blog, Kingman's looking at rotisseries.