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Portland added another three medals to its trove of food-award loot at this year’s James Beard Awards, taking honors at both the Media and Chef and Restaurant Awards. The medallions, emblazoned with the city’s patron saint gourmande James Beard’s face, are one of the highest annual honors in American food and drink.
Tommy Klus, founder of the east side speakeasy Scotch Lodge, accepted the national award for Outstanding Bar at Monday night’s Chef and Restaurant Awards ceremony at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Nodoguro chef Ryan Roadhouse, taking home his first award after being steadily nominated for his inventive Japanese tasting menus since 2015, won in the regional Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific category.
At Saturday’s Media Award ceremony, Portland’s Erica Berry (author of the 2023 nonfiction book Wolfish) won in the Personal Essay category for “Intuitive Eating: On Poison, Pleasure, and Trust,” a piece published in the nature-focused quarterly Orion Magazine.
Thomas Pisha-Duffly, of Indonesian-Chinese restaurants Gado Gado and Oma’s Hideaway, was also a finalist for the Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific Award.
Launched in 1991, the Beard Awards have expanded categories and areas of focus over the past 36 years, growing to keep pace as cultural shifts reshape and redefine what important and influential restaurants look like. Today, it spotlights bars, restaurants, chefs, cafes, writers, podcasters, filmmakers, and on and on. The Outstanding Bar award launched in 2025, for example.
“In an industry facing real challenges, this kind of acknowledgment can open doors, reinvigorate teams, and make a meaningful difference to a business or professional’s future,” Elizabeth Falkner, Awards Committee Chair and James Beard Foundation Trustee, said in a release.
