News that City Rotisserie will be opening in the old Muselet space in the South Waterfront.
Here’s the press release –
Scheduled to open early November in Portland’s booming South Waterfront, City Rotisserie will be a casual, full-service, neighborhood restaurant and bar offering savory roasted meats, flavorful side dishes, classic cocktails, beer and wine. City Rotisserie should be a welcome addition to a neighborhood that is now home to thousands of Portlanders, the destination for thousands of OHSU students, patients and professionals, a magnet for local and out-of-town visitors, and currently underserved by just a handful of fast-casual food options and no grocery store.
City Rotisserie will be open for lunch and dinner seven days a week, with happy hour daily from 3-6pm, and weekend brunch from 10am-2pm.
The focus of the lunch and dinner menu will be rotisserie chicken, sold in quarters, halves and whole birds, with delicious takes on traditional side dishes like mashed potatoes and gravy, mac and cheese, coleslaw, potato salad, and fresh vegetables. Daily chalkboard specials will feature spit-roasted lamb, beef or pork. The happy hour menu will be a collection of favorites including chicken wings with choice of sauce, barbecue chicken or chicken salad sliders, fried chicken on a biscuit, and our own take on poutine. Weekend brunch diners will have their choice of three different benedicts, fried chicken and waffles, the classic breakfast, and our signature City Rotisserie hash. The beverages served at City Rotisserie will be a perfect compliment to the menu featuring classic cocktails, affordable wines by the glass or bottle, a nice selection of tap and bottled beer or cider, and the usual suspect lineup of non-alcoholic options.
In short, City Rotisserie will serve up traditional American comfort food with a slight Southern drawl. Our ingredients will be fresh and local whenever possible and the preparations confident and consistent. Above all, City Rotisserie will be a place where people can come to hang out in a warm and comfortable environment, eat great food, and be served by friendly people who are grateful they came in.
Executive Chef and Partner, Beau Culpepper, has spent the past seven years as a Chef Instructor and Program Director at Oregon Culinary Institute. Prior to that he rattled the pots and pans at a few of Portland’s best restaurants including Lincoln, Clarklewis, and Olympic Provisions. A North Carolina native, Chef Beau brings a subtle but distinctly Southern sensibility to his cooking and the City Rotisserie menu.
Dining Room Manager and Partner, Talai Punivai, is a native Pacific Islander with a long career in high-end customer service including five years as a server and host at Alan Wong’s restaurant in Honolulu and another eight years as a product specialist at Neiman-Marcus. For the past four years he has served as Dining Room Manager and Maitre D’ at the historic Huber’s Restaurant here in Portland. Talai was born with hospitality in his blood and makes everyone who walks into his dining room feel welcome and cared for.
Bar Manager and Partner, Carl Purdy, is a country boy who spent seven years running a blueberry farm and then earned a degree in environmental engineering, but found his true calling during the past 12 years while serving, bartending and managing at Huber’s Restaurant. Aside from dazzling customers with his well-honed Spanish Coffee skills, Carl exudes an engaging personality and has that unique ability to make everyone at his bar feel special without ever neglecting even the smallest detail of the job.
Majority Partners, Eric and Lori Stromquist are the driving force behind City Rotisserie. A Portland native, Eric has been around the restaurant scene here for the past 40 years starting as a server at Jake’s Crawfish in the late ’70s and early ’80s. He was one of the original founders of Hot Lips Pizza in 1985, and also co-owned Zeebento in the early ’90s. He then spent almost a decade as an instructor and administrator at Western Culinary Institute before leaving to co-found Oregon Culinary Institute with Brian Wilke in 2006, and served as President there until 2015. Lori is also a Portland native. She worked for several high-profile advertising agencies in the ’70s and ’80s and is an accomplished graphic designer with large clients in telecom and education as well as many smaller independent businesses on her resume. Eric will have oversight of City Rotisserie operations and Lori will act as the marketing director.
Architectural Partner, Harrison “Tripp” Royce, rounds out the team. Tripp has over 40 years of experience as a registered architect who co-founded and ran the successful SRM architecture and marketing firm, counting as clients several restaurants and food-service operations. Tripp and Eric co-owned Zeebento restaurant in the early ’90s and went on team up and complete six major projects for Western Culinary Institute and Oregon Culinary Institute. Together with Portland designer, Alyx Chung, Tripp will strike the perfect balance between classic and modern, and creative and casual, that will define the City Rotisserie space.
City Rotisserie will be at 3730 SW Bond Avenue in the South Waterfront of Portland
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