Elephants Delicatessen Is Moving Into the Former Beaverton Bargarten Space

The new store will be full service, with grab-and-go items, a grill, beer and wine, as well as specialty groceries.

Elephants Deli Photo courtesy of Elephants.
By Andi Prewitt

A sprawling Beaverton restaurant recently vacated by Bargarten—part of the legacy of beloved Der Rheinlander—has attracted another long-standing Portland food brand.

Elephants, the business that has been serving deli staples to Portlanders on their lunch breaks since 1979, is taking over the space at 2905 SW Cedar Hills Blvd.

Bargarten Bavarian Social House, which opened in 2018, served its last steins of beer June 26. A month earlier, the operator of that location, as well as the Gustav’s in Clackamas, announced she was retiring in order to focus on her cancer recovery.

Construction has not yet begun on the 4,600-square-foot Cedar Hills Crossing restaurant, but in time the Bavarian lozenges will come down and deli cases will go up, transforming the suburban Oktoberfest oasis into a more practical specialty food store.

When it opens—tentatively in early 2023—the new Elephants will be full service, similar to the flagship location on Northwest 22nd Avenue. That means you can expect all of the brand’s traditional grab-and-go offerings (sandwiches, salads, desserts and a never-ending supply of its famous tomato orange soup), along with a grill serving entrees, wine and beer, and a large area for groceries.

Elephants—which currently has six outposts, including one at Portland International Airport—is expanding its presence in the suburbs even further. By September, it should be welcoming customers into its Lake Oswego shop in the new Mercato Grove development. That site is also quite large, approximately 3,200 square feet, and used to house Big Town Hero and Uptown Beer.

Elephants Deli Photo courtesy of Elephants Deli.

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