Chesa will close July 1st, Pono Farm Soul Kitchen July 8th
Surprising Portland restaurant closures to cover. Jose Chesa’s Spanish restaurant Chesa will close July 1st. After critic raves over his Spanish and Catalan restaurant Ataula in NW Portland, Jose expanded to Chesa at 2218 NE Broadway. From our best of Portland list, Michael Zusman said, “at Chesa, the focus is on wonderfully done wood-fire cooked paellas with a suckling pig special that’s pure goodness.”
Portland Monthly, got the details from Jose’s wife and cook Cristina Baez –
It took Ataula a year and a half to find its footing. Chesa was building up, then winter came. Everything just stopped for six weeks. Not a pause; Portland stopped. We never regained that momentum. We’re a small family running multiple businesses. We don’t have big backers. It’s just us. We have to be realistic. We want to close with same grace and passion that we opened.
Two consolations: a180, the excellent Xurros restaurant will remain open, as will Ataula, with its same superb menu of dishes found in Barcelona’s best contemporary Spanish restaurants. It is one of my favorite dining options in Portland. You can hear an excellent episode of Right at the Fork podcast with Jose Chesa here. Chesa is located at 2218 NE Broadway St, Portland, OR 97232.
Eater reports that Pono Farm Soul Kitchen will close July 8th, with brunch already finished. The restaurant opened in 2014, but seems to have struggled from the start. The menu went in so many directions I found it to be a bit unfocused, but the restaurant still seemed to be a good fit for the neighborhood, and I’m surprised it is closing. Pono FArm will be open for regular dinner hours until July 8th. They are located at 4118 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland, OR 97212