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Rotisserie chicken is coming to the westside.
Oregon Culinary Institute co-founder Eric Stromquist is starting a meaty new rotisserie spot in the South Waterfront, with a strong focus on rotisserie chicken served up for both lunch and dinner, seven days a week.
"It's probably early onset dementia that's making me do it," says the 40-year veteran of the Portland food scene, who got his start at Jake's Crawfish. Along with his wife, Lori, he'll be a majority partner in City Rotisserie, which they plan to open in November in the old Muselet wine-bar space at 3730 SW Bond Avenue.
Stromquist is also one of the original founders of Hot Lips pizza, and was president of OCI until 2015.
Stromquist says the idea to start City Rotisserie came to him after he moved to the South Waterfront area, and took note of the baffling lack of food options there.
"We moved down here a year ago after escaping the Pearl District, and noticed it was very underserved by restaurants. There's no grocery store," he says. "You don't find a neighborhood with this kind of density that doesn't have full service restaurants. The empty sidewalk makes me scratch my head."
Stromquist says he feels like the neighborhood needs a good casual, comfort, sit-down spot to serve the people who live there with something other than fast-casual, although he also expects a lot of his business to be take-away fare for professionals.
The main thrust of the menu will be rotisserie chicken served up in quarters, halves and whole birds. Chef and partner Beau Culpepper comes from North Carolina and plans to add "a subtle but distinctly Southern sensibility" to a menu that'll also include spit-roasted lamb, beef, and pork, plus wings, fried chicken on a biscuit and a version of poutine, along with hearty old-school American sides like mac and cheese and mashed potatoes and gravy. Previously, Culpepper had cooked at Lincoln, Clarklewis and Olympia Provisions before coming on as an instructor at OCI.
The other partners are dining room manager Talai Punivai and bar manager Carl Purdy, both most recently at Huber's.
Unsurprisingly for a neighborhood spot in Portland, there'll also be brunch on the weekends, with traditional options alongside a signature hash, three different versions of egg benedict and fried chicken and waffles.