Incoming and Outgoing: Restaurant Guide 2014

Very New or Not Yet Open

1. Bend-based Pono Farm Soul Kitchen opened a Portland restaurant in July, serving beef-heavy Japanese fare from a family that owns both the farm and the table.

1. Hotel Rose restaurant Bottle & Kitchen opened in June.

1. John Gorham’s Mediterranean Exploration Company is exactly what it sounds like, a restaurant in the former Riffle space exploring Arabic and Mediterranean flavors. It opened in late July.

1. Paramount Hotel eatery Swank opened in July with talented culinary escape artist Daniel Mondok (recently of Food in Bloom, Block & Tackle, Paulee, June and Sel Gris), who proved yet again unable to stay put; he left within two months, before the restaurant received its first full review.

1. Chongqing Huo Guo hot pot restaurant opened in August in the old Purple Onion space in Southeast.

1. The owners of Bamboo Sushi just opened Bamboo Izakaya on Northeast Alberta Street.

1. Annette Yang of the now-closed San Francisco landmark Nettie’s Crab Shack will open an Arabic-Mediterranean spot called Le Vieux. It will open in November in the former Noisette space in Northwest.

1. Laura Rhoman—formerly of Slappy Cakes and several high-end Southern restaurants—will open a restaurant called Muscadine with a menu that wanders each month to a different section of the South in the space previously home to the beloved bar Tiga.

1. Long-running Japanese pop-up Nodoguro will move into the Hawthorne Pastaworks space occupied by the Kevin Gibson-founded sandwich spot Evoe, which is expected to close at the end of October.

1. Portland International Airport will get Mo’s Seafood, an outpost of Montavilla Southern dinner house Country Cat, and a new sausage-centric project called Clutch from former Riffle chef Ken Norris in 2015.

1. Beaverton’s under-construction Timberland Town Center will have an outpost of Japanese chain Kukai Ramen & Izakaya. They will be neighbors with Norris’ second Clutch location.

1. Broder’s Peter Bro plans to open a burger counter called All-Way in the downtown spot once occupied by the half-century-old lunch counter Red Coach Restaurant, which closed in April.

1. The best macaron maker in town, Farina, is opening a full-scale bakery at the former Otto on Southeast Hawthorne.

The Year's Notable Closures

1. Longtime Northwest 21st Avenue culinary institution—and sterling beer bar—Wildwood closed in February.

1. Boxer Sushi closed in September, announcing its chef wanted to spend time with his family.

1. Always doomed Quartet, which took over the tony South Waterfront space originally inhabited by the legendary bellyflop Lucier, finally shuttered in March.

1. Downtown spot Leo’s Non-Smoking Coffee Shop closed in February after 30 years of dirt-cheap coffee. It was replaced by the Dime Store.

1. Forty-year-old bar Produce Row closed in September, giving its employees two days’ notice.

1. Pearl District Italian eatery Fratelli closed after 15 years last November, when chef-owner Paul Klitsie opened a restaurant in Vancouver.

1. Also closed in January, Old Town’s Gilt Glub was famous for late hours and as the set of the Portlandia chicken sketch.

1. Shenzhen Seafood Restaurant, an 82nd Avenue eatery with a large picture menu of Northern Chinese specialties, closed in June, making way for Macau Chinese Seafood.

1. SubRosa, a Southeast Clinton Street Italian restaurant and bruncherie closed in April.

1. Mellow Mushroom pizza closed in April in the Pearl District, and will be replaced by a brewpub from Bend’s 10 Barrel Brewing in 2015.

1. Esparza’s Tex-Mex restaurant, The Oregonian’s 1992 Restaurant of the Year, closed in January. The Southeast space is now occupied by the Blue Goose.

1. The rebooted Genoa, on Southeast Belmont since 1971, closed in April. Talented chef Jake Martin is now at the Fireside.

1. Fong Chong, one of the last two remaining dim sum spots in Portland’s historic Chinatown, quietly closed in May.

1. Sellwood’s Eleni’s Estiatorio closed in January, leaving the dining-deprived neighborhood with one less option.

1. Both locations of Saint Cupcake closed last December then reopened in June.

1. Oswaldo Bibiano’s upscale Mexican restaurant Mextiza closed in July. The North Portland space is slated to become a family-style restaurant called New American later this year.

1. The family that had run Fujin Chinese restaurant for 24 years was not allowed to renew its lease last December; a Blue Star Donuts location moved in instead

1. The fanciest restaurant in town, Noisette, self-described as “fine-dining oasis in Portland’s sea of casual gastronomie” closed in July. Chef Tony Demes has retired.
2.  The Directory: Our 100 Favorite Restaurants in PortlandBy Neighborhood: Southeast | North/Northeast | Westside | Suburbs  2014 Restaurant of the Year: Kachka Top Five: Old Salt, Ataula, American Local, ExpatriateCounter Service Spots: Latin | Asian | Italian | Sandwiches | Burgers Wine Bars | Beer Lists | Veg-Friendly | Gluten-free | Elsewhere in Oregon 

WWeek 2015