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Opening date: Sept. 19
Location: 2500 SE Clinton St., in the former Savoy Tavern, just five blocks from the original St. Jack.
From: Aaron Barnett, Tommy Klus, Cameron Addy, and Kurt Huffman.
The place: Apparently when the lesser Francophone nations get drunk, they really want some shells. And, like, waffles. La Moule has taken up the Canadian-Belgian moules bar tradition with a mussels and waffles and beer bar. In a disco vein. "I don't know why," chef-owner Barnett tells WW, "but when I think mussels bars, I just think this really dirty '70s vibe." The menu sports Thai mussels and mussels with the toppings of a Chicago hot dog, plus quail, a burger and Belgian snack stoemp.
Opening date: September 21
Location: 5716 SE 92nd Ave., in the former Ararat Bakery in Lents.
From: Pints brewery, with brewer Alan Taylor, who trained in Germany and was a brewer at Full Sail
The place: This is the biggest thing to hit Lents in a long, long time—literally. The brewpub is 15,000 square feet, with 200 seats, a kids' play area, an open ceiling looking up at the second floor, German style pints including Lents Lager Bavarian Helles, and German-influenced pub fare. After drinking fine, fine beer, go play with the Belmont Goats.
Opening date: September 27 (grand opening October 1)
Location: 4641 NE Fremont Street, where the Alameda cafe closed this year after 30 years.
From: Erika Reagor, of Hawthorne food cart Thrive
The place: In her new counter-service spot, Reagor is continuing her food cart's focus on salads and seasonal, multi-ethnic, gluten-free rice or quinoa bowls with a whole mess of different proteins including tempeh, chicken and hangar steak. She's added some family-size share plates, and will be using the large Alameda Cafe space, in part, as a commissary kitchen for her catering business. The room seats 55.
Epif Restaurant & Pisco Lounge
Opening: Anytime. It's been in the works most of the year, but lately it's coming into focus.
Location: 404 NE 28th Ave., in a tiny new building next to Red Flag and Stammtisch.
From: Native Chilean Jose "Pepe" Arancibia and Nicolle Dirks, with fellow Chilean chef Daniel Vargas.
The place: A restaurant devoted to "delicious and creative vegetarian food and Pisco-focused drinks inspired by the Andes region of South America." They served American food in Valparaiso, Chile, for six years. Now they'll serve Chilean-Argentine food in Portland. Decor will include old church pews and repurposed skateboards.
Opening date: October 19
From: Matthew de Gruyter, who's had a location open in Bend, Ore., for about a year.
Location: 4121 SE Hawthorne Blvd., where the Pita Pit once was.
The place: Vegan, sustainable fast food, with repurposed wood and zero-VOC paint and a Stealth Ultra High Efficiency Toilet. The burger patties are made with a grab-bag of possible bases: clean protein, black bean, quinoa, tofu or tempeh. Expect also french fries, tempeh bacon, vegan hot dogs, and so, so much kale.
Opening: Late October
Location: 110 SE Washington Ave.
From: Steven Smith teamaker, whose operations are now headed by Tony Tellin, the right-hand buyer and tea selector of late, beloved tea icon Steven Smith, who passed away this year.
The place: Having outgrown its cozy little teashop next to Olympia Provisions Northwest, Steven Smith will open a massive 13,000 square foot tasting room and tea-making space next to Olympia Provisions Southeast. Most of this space will go to tea-making—the tasting room won't be huge, but its 20 seats mark, like, a 400% expansion over the little spot on Northwest Thurman.
Opening date: November 1
Location: 4214 N. Mississippi Ave., across from the Mississippi Marketplace food cart pod in the former Beer City Bottle Shop
From: San Diego refugees Maylin Chavez and Melissa Mayer, who've been hosting pop-ups since mid-2014.
The place: A champagne and cocktail bar with an upscale oyster bar, not to mention clams, mussels, crab and shrimp. Think fancy: Their oysters at Feast had little flowers in them, which was both interesting and a little distracting. Expect Sunday brunches with bubbly, and a lot of focus on serving the service industry.
Opening date: November
Location: 7783 SW Capitol Highway, in Multnomah Village
From: Mark Doxtader, who's made Tastebud bakery into a farmer's market staple.
The place: Tastebud had a commissary kitchen and irregular restaurant in Brooklyn two years ago; Doxtader expects the new Multnomah Village spot to be open more reliably, serving up Tastebud's trademark bagels, roast chicken, excellent char-crusted pizza and also some breakfast items. All will be cooked out of a big-ass Mognaini wood-fired oven.
Opening date: Due for November, but it's been massively delayed since an anticipated mid-summer opening.
Location: 930 SE Sandy Blvd, in a huge multifloor space that will include a rooftop deck with seats for 80.
From: "The Lightning Bar Collective." I.e., Jake Carey and John Janulis and others behind Dig a Pony, Bye and Bye, Jackknife, Sweet Hereafter and Victoria Bar.
The place: A sports bar that doesn't look like a sports bar, arranged on the model of a high-school basketball court. Screens will descend and re-ascend, depending on whether anything of note is playing. Expect a vintage-looking world, a dancefloor, tacos, a loud sound system and plenty of cocktails.
Opening: Autumn 2015
Location: 2145-55 NW Raleigh St., next door to the new Slabtown New Seasons and less than two blocks from the original Besaw's
From: Cana Flug, who owned Besaw's in the original location for ten years of its 112-year run.
The place: It'll be Besaw's again, but in a new spot with a better kitchen, complete with garden and chef Michael Uhnak and most of the service staff. The Solo Club, slotted for next door, was the name for Besaw's during the Prohibition years. Expect drinks. The builidng down the street—where Besaw's once was—will still be called the Besaw building.
Opening date: No date set, but they've been stumping for Autumn.
Location: 133 SW Pine St.
From: Feast organizer Mike Thelin, plus a bunch of developers.
The place: A downtown food court inside a "creative" office building. but with much nicer things than any mall that isn't Union Way. Or if you prefer, think of it as a cart pod gone indoors. Either way, Marukin ramen from Japan, Olympia Provisions hot dogs, a Hopworks pretzels and beer spot and a toast spot from Ken's Artisan are all expected, among nine mini-restaurants. Most intriguingly perhaps, PaaDee's Earl Ninsom will fund a French-Asian fusion spot called Common Law, chefed by ex-Paley's chef Patrick McKee. It'll feature sashimi, braised oxtail and beef tongue banh mi.
Arrosto and Providore Fine Foods
Opening: December
Location: 2340 NE Sandy Blvd., in a formerly abandoned storefront next to the Ocean food mini-mall.
From: The folk at Pastaworks, Lyf Gildersleeve of Flying Fish Company, and others.
The place: Providore will be a sort of eastside City Market, combining Pastaworks with other vendors like Gildersleeve. Arrosto will follow the Evoe model, offering up meat and wine from the Pastaworks store, plus rotisserie chicken done Italian style. (Arrosto means "roasted" in Italian.)
Opening date: Late November
Location: On the backside of the Ocean food complex at Northeast 24th Avenue and Glisan Street
From: New York emigre hot dog chefs Peter Cho and Johnny Leach, who've been running hot dog pop ups off and on throughout 2015
The place: Cho and Leach have been mum about what their exact plans are for their new spot. They've been cooking foie gras and kimchi dogs around Portland as Stray Dogs, and cooked up Korean-style birds as Stray Bird at KitchenCru. But the funny little building on the backside of the Ocean will serve… something.
180 and Chesa
Opening: December
Location: 2200 NE Broadway, in the same space as the short-lived second location of 3,600 Skyline Burgers
From: Jose Chesa and Christina Baez of Ataula.
The place: Chesa apparently likes to put Spanish restaurants near where excellent Spanish food has once been. Blocks from where Collosso once served up fine tapas to a late-night crowd, Chesa will serve paella to restaurant-starved Broadway. In the same building, he plans a chocolate and churros bar. Both foods are in his wheelhouse. And tellingly, neither cuisine is daunting to the shopping-mall and Irvington crowd that has allowed Prime Rib and Chocolate Cake to exist in this universe.
Hat Yai
Opening: Anticipated by end of 2015
Location: 1605 NE Killingsworth St.
From: Langbaan and PaaDee chef-owner Earl Ninsom and St. Jack bartender Alan Akwai
The place: Conceived as sort of a pressure-valve on ridiculously overbooked Langbaan, Ninsom's new Hat Yai is named after the deep-southern-Thai hometown of Langbaan chef Duangduean Tattaruji, and will feature roti and fried chicken, along with a drink program bar manager Akwai writes will be "as simple and as perfect as taking a cooler of beers to the beach."
Opening: Anticipated by end of 2015
Location: 5028 Northeast 42nd Avenue in Cully, at the former site of Magoo's, the only bar in Portland to refuse to serve anyone under the age of thirty.
From: Bunk Sandwiches' Tommy Habetz and former Water Ave. coffee roaster Brandon Smyth
The place: Pizza. From Bunk. Simple 18-inch pies with toppings like "sausage" and "meatball," alongside white clam and porchetta pizzas.
Opening: December
Location: 2333 NE Fremont St., in the brand-new brick Lyon Building that was built to look like it was, like, a hundred years old.
From: Former Abu Dhabi bike and pedestrian planner Mike Lynch
The place: Lynch, a Texan who lived in the Middle East for years, plans a 50-deep, world-spanning wine menu that'll include regions oftion neglected in these parts, at least thirteen of which will be high-class pours by the glass thanks to the swanky Le Cruvinet dispensing and preserving system he's installing. The bar will also serve beer and wine-bar food.
Americano
Opening date: By end of 2015
Location: 2625 E. Burnside St.—inside Burnside 26, home to the city's most notorious apartment advertisement, which featured boho yuppies Luke and Jess.
From: Hale Pele's Blair Reynolds and Coco Donuts' Ian Christopher
The place: Cafe by day, bar by night, in a space designed by the people behind Bent Brick and Little Bird. All will be high-dollar-cutting-edge-artisanal-mixologist-baristatown. But no volcanos or waterfalls.
Willow
Opening date: TBD
Location: TBD
From: Chefs Doug Weiler and John Pickett, who've been holding Willow Sunday night pop-up dinners at Bluehour
The place: Weiler and Pickett have announced brick-and-mortar plans for their seasonal-focused, Cascadian modernist cuisine, but as of yet they've given neither place nor time. Their tasting menus are affairs of smoked cod, foie gras with mint and buckwheat, and wagyu beef with mustard, plus Korean-style ssam dinners.
Willamette Week