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Three maxims have fueled Portland’s DIY spirit over the last 50 years:
- It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission.
- Rules are made to be broken.
- Life is too short to eat bad food in poor company.
Insurgent chef Naomi Pomeroy lived these ideals. She died in a river tubing accident last summer at the age of 49, but her contributions to the Portland food scene cannot be forgotten.
In the early aughts, Pomeroy and her former romantic and business partner Michael Hebb started a catering company that morphed into an invite-only underground supper club in their backyard. Totally against the rules, of course. Under the umbrella of Ripe Catering, their business grew to include three acclaimed restaurants.
Before Yelp, before Eater, before anyone considered how annoying it would be to post a photo of every morsel they ate, foodies flocked to Portland to check out her innovative cuisine. Perhaps more than anyone else, Pomeroy vaulted Portland into the national spotlight.
Pomeroy was self-taught; she had incredible taste and an unrelenting ambition to make food perfect. She also had steely resilience. In 2006, Hebb told her that the Ripe businesses were toast. He split the next day, leaving her to face disgruntled investors and employees.
Many people would have folded; Pomeroy doubled down. She rebounded in 2007 with Beast, a pocket restaurant that turned out bucket-list meals. Accolades poured in. She was named Food and Wine’s Best New Chef in 2009, won a James Beard Award for Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific in 2014, and appeared as a judge on Top Chef.
When the pandemic shut down Beast, Pomeroy launched the Independent Restaurant Coalition to press for federal relief for restaurants and their employees.
In the months before her accident, Pomeroy cooked up a summer dinner series called Garden Party, creating menus based on what was growing in her garden. She never stopped using her talents in the kitchen to make lasting memories.
Remember Naomi: Pomeroy’s 50th birthday would have been November 30, 2024. Celebrate by getting a cone of something luscious at Cornet Custard, the delicious frozen custard shop she co-founded in May with her regular collaborator Mika Paredes. Or get a table at L’Échelle, the elegant French restaurant she worked on with business partner Luke Dirks. You might order a drink and inventive bar snacks from Expatriate, the bar she co-owned with her husband, Kyle Linden Webster. Or simply cook something amazing for people you love.
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