Published February 7, 2020
Portland's 40 Best Restaurants, Ranked
In the late 2000s, when Andy Ricker was still building his Pok Pok from a chicken shack to a bicoastal restaurant empire, Naomi Pomeroy was charming customers with a new and more communal form of finer dining at Beast and Gabriel Rucker was blowing minds at his turnkey East Burnside bistro, Le Pigeon. The national food media had yet to discover that the Pacific Northwest had more than one city. Anything seemed possible.
Many things were possible. In the decade since, Pok Poks opened (then closed) in New York and Los Angeles, Beast and Le Pigeon each added a sister restaurant, while other hits such as Toro Bravo, Clyde Common and Laurelhurst Market birthed local empires of their own.
Plenty
of great places have opened since, including Portland restaurants in
our top 10, such as Ox, St. Jack, Han Oak, Langbaan, Nodoguro and
Coquine. But, now that every city in America has a scratch-everything
restaurant with pickles on the shelves and a high-end tasting menu in
the back, Portland doesn't feel quite so unique. The city has begun
asking itself some tough questions about its identity, including who
gets to open prominent restaurants, and why. And the national media have
eaten their fill. Last year, Bon Appetit magazine named Portland its
restaurant city of the year. The only problem? They were talking about
the one in Maine.
As
we revisited the 40 restaurants (and dozens besides) that appear in
this year's guide, we kept running into signs of a scene looking to roll
back the clock. Ricker has focused his attention on the dish that made
Pok Pok a sensation, opening three fast-casual wing joints in as many
years. On Tuesdays, Pomeroy can be found cooking a less expensive menu
with room reserved for walk-ins at her celebrated Northeast Portland
restaurant. And last year, Rucker opened a new all-day
cafe/restaurant/bar next door to Le Pigeon with the same anarchic,
anything-goes attitude as his first.
It's
not healthy to spend all your life looking in the rearview mirror. And
indeed, starting next week, we'll start hunting down our favorite new
restaurants of the year, from Nashville-style fried chicken to
wok-fried Indonesian haunts to plant-based chef's counters and
everything in between. But, at least this year, let's celebrate the
glory days. Introducing our latest ranking of Portland's top 40
restaurants for 2019.
Click the link below to see the rankings.
Author: Michael Russell| The Oregonian
