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Remember that moment in The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy wakes up in Munchkinland? She opens her eyes to find the bleak gray tones of Kansas transformed into vivid color and scintillating beauty. And she’s wearing the most fabulous shoes. That’s what it felt like in Portland when Zefiro opened on Sept. 14, 1990.
Portland had great restaurants before Zefiro—L’Auberge, Genoa, Cafe des Amis, and Indigine, to name a few. But none had the je ne sais quoi that made the corner spot at Northwest Glisan Street and 21st Avenue feel like you were having the best night of your life, night after night.
“This may be THE place,” wrote WW reviewer Roger Porter in an early review.
Zefiro came about by accident. Bruce Carey and Chris Israel had both worked at the famed Zuni Cafe in San Francisco and were planning a move to Portland (but not to open a restaurant). First, they took a two-month trip to Europe, eating lavishly along the way, particularly at a place in Florence, Italy, called Cibrèo. They wondered: Was Portland ready for a restaurant that would combine exemplary culinary traditions with modern techniques? A seasonal, locally driven, regularly changing menu? And a drive for perfection on the front end?
The answer was a resounding yes, please.
Together with pastry chef Monique Siu, they transformed the glassed-in corner at 21st and Glisan into a restaurant over the rainbow.
There were a lot of things that made Zefiro magical. The honey-toned walls and the copper-topped bar that made everyone look gorgeous. The menu that ranged around the Mediterranean from Tuscany to Morocco to Southern France (and later to Asia). The lush, sophisticated cocktails that added a dash of fun. An eye for detail. And the kind of service that you rarely get anymore.
Carey says they called that quality “being sexy.” Famed chef Joyce Goldstein would taste their food and tell them to make it sexier, which usually meant “put more butter in it,” he says. But nothing is sexier than feeling completely taken care of as you’re about to embark on an incredible experience. That’s what it was like at Zefiro.
Zefiro influenced Portland’s restaurant scene for years to come, paving the way for other ambitious projects like Wildwood, Paley’s Place, and Higgins, which is still going strong on Southwest Broadway.
Zefironians went on to cross-pollinate a dazzling list of innovative restaurants. Carey opened the cocktail bar Saucebox, the upscale Blue Hour, 23Hoyt. He now owns Clarklewis on the eastside waterfront. Israel went on to the sizzling Grüner. Siu would later open the elegant Castagna (now OK Omens). Margot Leonard’s Bima, Andy Ricker’s Pok Pok, John Gorham’s Toro Bravo are restaurants that have sadly closed but were influenced by their owners’ times at the best.
“I hope the pendulum will swing back and people will become more appreciative of fine dining and service,” Carey says. He suggests OK Omens and Le Pigeon as good places to start.
Eat something wonderful: You can still experience the Zefiro Caesar salad at Clarklewis. It also has a great happy hour. Portland’s restaurant scene doesn’t work without regulars.
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