Why Portland Is Experiencing a Restaurant Apocalypse
Spread at Grassa restaurant. All photos courtesy of Dina Avila

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Food

Why Portland Is Experiencing a Restaurant Apocalypse

In the last two weeks, there have been seven restaurant closures in Portland, Oregon. We spoke with Kurt Huffman of ChefStable to find out what the hell is going on there, and how Portland can prevent a potential restaurant apocalypse.

If you've ever visited Portland, Oregon, you've undoubtedly considered moving there after stuffing yourself silly during a meal at one of Kurt Huffman's restaurants.

He is the founder of ChefStable, Portland's most prolific restaurant group with 18 restaurants within the metro area under its belt, including Ox, Oven and Shaker, and Lardo. But despite being named "America's Best Food City" by The Washington Post, the burgeoning restaurant scene in the picturesque West Coast city where young people move to retire is apparently not as cheery as it may seem.

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Huffman recently voiced his concern about the staggering number of recent restaurant closures in Portland—in addition to mentioning how surprised he was that so many well-known restaurants have been calling him for help—during a short interview on Right at the Fork podcast. MUNCHIES caught up with Huffman this week to find out what the hell is going on over there, and how Portland can prevent a potential restaurant apocalypse.

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Spread at Hamlet

MUNCHIES: Hi, Kurt. Why do you think restaurants in Portland are struggling so much right now? Kurt Huffman: I think about this a lot. What I talked about in the podcast was a reflection of how many phone calls I've been getting from restaurants recently. Part of what I do is that I come in and help save restaurants. A lot of people think my restaurant company has a lot of money and that we are the white knights who come in and save a restaurant, but we don't—we just build new ones out of the existing ones.

I've seen a lot of obscure and unrefined places here, but they are becoming popular because Portlanders are willing to eat their food and enjoy things like a Japanese zombie porn theme.

There is a restaurant frenzy in Portland right now. These restaurants tend to have a riskier profile than [those in] other major cities because Portlanders are willing to take a lot more risks than other towns with their concepts. This has to do with how much less money it costs to do things in Portland. Let's take a liquor license: It costs less than $500 in Portland to get one, and the only people who can't get them are convicted felons. Anybody else can, unless you have more than two or three DUIs. It just takes 60 days, too.

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Some of the people who are moving to Portland to try to open up a restaurant have some of the most impressive resumes I have ever seen, working around the world with some of the most reputable chefs. Yet they are struggling too to get off the ground, too. This is crazy.

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Spread at P.R.E.A.M.

Also, another thing that must be considered is that people here are OK with just getting by with their restaurants. People here love the art of the restaurant. I can't believe how many restaurants are at the break-even point—or not even at that point—and are still around in this town. I've seen a lot of obscure and unrefined places here, but they are becoming popular because Portlanders are willing to eat their food and enjoy things like a Japanese zombie porn theme. Portlanders seem to really embrace the grubbiest of experiences.

Portland's food scene is based off [the] passion to be incredible in whatever the concept is. So there is no space for mediocre food here, because people here know what's up with shit on a plate, and there is not that much non-disposable income to go around like in other cities.

Simply put, there are a lot of restaurants here [that] don't make a lot of money. People come in from New York and quote me numbers like, "God, you must be doing $8-10 million at this spot." And I'm like, "What?! Are you crazy? My best spot does $3 million and I think we are hitting it out of the ballpark." Nobody seems to be interested in making crazy money here, including my company.

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Chicken at Coopers Hall

Portland has also managed to keep the accountant out of the kitchen. Gabriel Rucker is a perfect example of that. There is foie gras everywhere on his menu. That would give restaurant accountants a heart attack. Nobody here charges more than 25-percent food costs.

Ultimately, there are a lot of people who are just experimenting with their restaurants and don't know how to properly train their staff, or aren't prepared, or don't understand how hard it is going to be, or that are undercapitalized. As a result, there a lot of people who are setting themselves up for a hard fall. Then again, I only really know Portland. I think it is going to be a hard six months. In the last two weeks, there have been seven restaurant closures. I really feel for them and it makes me very nervous and panicky.

So this isn't the fault of Californians who are coming in and ruining everything? Everybody here blames California for everything here, but it is just silly regionalism. California is to blame for nothing. I don't think that at all. Californians have been critical to Portland's economy, actually.

The people who succeed in this business are one kind only: the people who work really, really fucking hard.

What do these desperate phone calls from restaurants sound like? Everybody's proud in this industry, so the beginning of the conversation is always awkward, but it is basically a call for help each time. It usually starts off with something like, "Hey, would you mind coming into dinner and checking things out and seeing our numbers?" It's a real existential pain to not have butts on the seats of restaurants, because people's houses are on the line.

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When your restaurant is failing, it's not like the stock market crashing, where all of a sudden you don't have money. You are bleeding every month until you are dead.

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Spread at La Moule

How are your own restaurants doing? I would say half of them are surviving and about a quarter of them are doing well, but by that I mean that we are paying back our investors. None of the owners are taking any draws; we are cash-flow neutral. The weakness in my business model is always that I have about as many places that are struggling as I do home runs, so it cancels each other out. I gave myself ten years to feel like I established a brand. It's been eight years and we are here, so I'm pretty happy.

I love doing this and I love my business partners. It is exciting and I hope that I can figure out a way of [making] a long career out of this. I'm also about to have my first little girl, so maybe my philosophy will change, since I will have to start saving up for her college fund now. At some point, I have to start thinking about retirement, too.

What qualities do you think a successful restaurant must have in order to stay afloat in Portland? The food can't just be good anymore; it has to be good and interesting. The Portland restaurant scene is maturing—both its diners and industry. Nobody is willing to put up with garbage anymore, so I always look for that before anything else.

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Spread at Restaurant St. Jack

What tips do you have for aspiring restauranteurs and chefs who wish to open up a restaurant in Portland? One: Be patient. Two: If you think this is going to lead to you having a cookbook in two years, you are probably not cut out for the pain and suffering that this industry imposes on you. If you get into restaurants as a lifestyle choice, you are in the wrong business. The people who succeed in this business are one kind only: the people who work really, really fucking hard.

There are no exceptions to this. That's why immigrants have always been such an important contributor to the American restaurant scene, because this is an industry that is built on pure hard work and they are hard workers.

If you are not passionate about working hard, then you will be out really soon.

Thank you for speaking with me.