Skip to main content
Straight off Highway 43 south of Portland, in Multnomah County’s unincorporated suburb of Dunthorpe, lies fast-casual restaurateur Micah Camden’s latest business venture.
Camden made his name with elevated fast food: Little Big Burger, Blue Star Donuts, SuperDeluxe. But in the two years since he retired from the restaurant business, Camden’s life has taken on a slower pace. He’s helping run an in-home toddler care and preschool called Pinecone Childcare, founded by his wife, Dr. Khuyen Camden.
Now, he’s something of a private chef to 47 children who on each day of attendance get breakfast, lunch, an afternoon smoothie, a second snack, and a take-home treat known to families as “Micah’s muffins.” When they’re old enough, he guides them individually on some kitchen basics. In one video Camden showed WW, a 3-year-old chops a small carrot into thirds with a substantial knife. (“I blanched them first,” Camden prefaces.)
The 47 children at Pinecone (half the kids attend full time, the other half choose between two- and three-day-a-week plans) have access to a half acre of land in a posh enclave where in-home centers are a rarity. Full-week tuition will run a family $2,500 a month, well above the average cost of care in Multnomah County. There’s a one-time enrollment fee of $475 and a tuition deposit of $1,000, which rolls over annually.
That price tag comes with a lengthy list of amenities. Pinecone’s sandbox is filled with sand from the Oregon Dunes. The apple orchard delivered a crop to last four months. The home itself is 4,570 square feet, purchased by Camden for $1.5 million in 2020. There’s a tropical fish tank on the lower level, and beaded chains to help older kids learn multiplication. Kids graduate to different personal objects assigned to them as they age: Plastic cups get swapped for glass, knobs get smaller to fine-tune motor skills, and even the chairs get a little bigger.
Micah swears the foray into preschool was not the result of a market opportunity, but personal passion. Khuyen says she and her husband have been trying for a child, which spurred the idea. “We have been thinking and talking a lot about raising a family,” she says. “Everybody says that it takes a village. So we decided to build one, one that’s really centered around community.”
When that idea gained traction, Micah says the couple repurposed their house. In a tour of the property, he showed how his “man cave” had been replaced by spaces for tiny tots. “My TV was there, my couch was here,” he said, gesturing around. Khuyen, Micah recalls, told him to turn his video game room into a day care. “I remember saying, your living room is next!” he says.
Intentions aside, it turns out there’s serious demand for child care in Dunthorpe, a place described a year ago by Forbes as “Portland’s prime hideout for those seeking both privacy and prestige.” Parents are willing to fork out substantial sums, even when there are other, cheaper options. Pinecone, which opened its doors in November 2024, already has a waitlist. A second location for infants and toddlers has opened a three-minute drive away. (That home is 7,110 square feet and has a $3.5 million market value. The couple lives on the upper floors.) The Camdens say they expect that location’s 16 slots will be filled by March, and they plan to open another 16 slots after that.
The county’s Preschool for All program has disrupted the market for many preschool providers, some of whom have said they feel there are two paths forward for their businesses: Join Preschool for All or close down. Yet the county has continuously built in an assumption that Preschool for All will have a 77.5% participation rate—meaning it will capture most, but not all, children who may access its services.
In some ways, it raises the question of who could turn down free preschool. The Camdens may have found the answer.
Pinecone has a loyal fan base of parents. Those who spoke to WW said they were drawn to the school’s curriculum and bounty of outdoor space. But on tours, they were quick to notice the little things—like yellow rubber boots for each kid, and knit beanies or sun hats depending on the weather.
“It definitely does feel above and beyond what is the sort of normal standard of care,” said a parent of a 2-year-old at the school who asked for anonymity because her company requires authorization for interviews. “It is definitely a privilege, I very much recognize that. And so we just try to take as much advantage of that as we can.”
Jessica Janakes Beem moved back to Portland in December 2024 with her young son. She says she left a largely remote job in Medford, her hometown, where her parents could also watch her son. Finding the correct care she could trust was therefore a “big, big thing” for her and her family.
At the time, her husband’s job had him up in Alaska. Embarking on a solo parenting stint, Janakes Beem says the considered approach Pinecone took to her son’s care was worth the price tag. Knowing she could send him to school with just the clothes on his back and something for nap time was a huge relief. And entrusting his care to the hands of total strangers was tough for her, so she says the fact that she doesn’t worry about him while at work is worth it.
“My husband and I make decent money, and $2,500 a month is hard. We make sacrifices for that,” she says. “And it doesn’t matter what happens in our lives. We’re not pulling him from his community.”
In early chats with family and friends, Camden says he frequently noted how desperate parents were to just have more support with their preschool regimen. The aforementioned “Micah’s muffins” came about after some parents noted their children grew hungry on the drive home from preschool and would throw fits. That muffin “saves them a rush trip to a fast food chain,” he says. Those small considerations were highlights for parents WW spoke to.
The last time Camden mixed baked goods, it was for Kinnamons, the gourmet cinnamon roll chain he co-founded with former NFL star Ndamukong Suh. (The pair sold the brand to a national investor for an undisclosed sum last March.) Camden made a fortune by founding a series of fast-casual restaurants during the Portlandia boom. Some, like Baes Fried Chicken, were hits. Others were short-lived: The chickpea ice cream shop Little Bean did not catch on. Camden made no apologies. His brash manner and unapologetic capitalism won him admirers and detractors (“Burger King,” WW, Oct. 24, 2018).
While the preschool’s perks could also raise eyebrows, Janakes Beem says they also have produced real results for her 3-year-old son, part of the staff’s intention. He was potty-trained there (on a toddler-size toilet) and can set the table while she cooks. His training with certain toys has taught him to balance the water jug out of his fridge. The list goes on.
As it turns out, Pinecone has also been able to attract staff who can focus on teaching because the rest is taken care of. They have help managing facilities and setting up meals, says Khuyen, and other team members take care of toilet training and helping kids put on their shoes.
Micah first met Pinecone director Vivian Aubrey at a “little wine lunch” he hosted for the Oregon Montessori Association. (Montessori is one of three preschool teaching philosophies Pinecone has built on, the others being Waldorf and Reggio Emilia.) Aubrey, who has worked in Montessori for 30 years, says the school of thought focuses on educational and social curriculum for childhood development but is at times rigid, so blending it with an emphasis on nature (Waldorf) and group learning (Reggio Emilia) merges the best of all worlds.
“As we were looking into what the best way is for us to prepare children for life and school, there were parts of all of these that seemed especially essential,” Aubrey says. “Why not be able to put all of them together?”
That small in-home preschools at lower prices have struggled as Preschool for All has posed serious competition is no big secret. So Pinecone’s success as a higher-end school raises a question for the future of private child care in Portland: If most families turn to free child care, will something of a tiered system unintentionally develop for those who can afford to put their kids elsewhere?
It’s too early to answer that question. But as the county moves forward with a bold experiment in equity, some parents have decided to splurge.
“It’s unbelievable how many trade-offs you have to really think through, whether that’s the cost of something, whether that’s your choice of where you want your kid to go,” says the parent of the 2-year-old, who notes that child care is one of her top expenses. “It sort of feels like there’s no good answer, and it’s hard. We’re very lucky to be able to make this particular choice for our family.”
