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    Pitxi closed, Fin to Close, Michael Pollan Coming To Portland, and More

    By PDX Food Dude Last Update March 7, 2014 37 Comments

    Fin’s Spicy Octopus, wrapped in kajiki with Orange, olive oil and wasabi tobiko

    According to Karen Brooks, and confirmed by Fin, the popular seafood restaurant will serve its last dinner on Valentine’s Day. According to Brooks, “owner Joan Dumas sold the restaurant and a new owner plans to open his own eatery. Pierce had hoped to buy the restaurant after two years, and he plans to seek funding to open his own place, possibly with some of his Fin comrades”.

     

    [Chef Trent] “Pierce says Fin opened on a slim budget in Dumas’s former Sel Gris space, lost to a fire the previous year. “The sad thing is we’re making money now,” says Pierce. “That’s the bummer. It all boiled down to not enough dining capital.”

    Fin is one of our favorite restaurants, and one of the few to earn and ‘A’ grade in the history of the site. I consider it to be one of the best in Portland. Though its run has been short, it was the brightest new light to shine on the Portland dining scene in some time, and it will be missed.


    Thanks to Paul Gerald for this one: Pitxi (pronounced pea-chee) over on North Lombard closed last week. I never quite figured out this restaurant. First they opened over in the Sandy area, and when that didn’t go well, they moved to Saint Johns. It seemed to me, the food was way too expensive (and highbrow) for either location. It never caught on, and more often than not, was empty when I drove by. Still, I’m sorry to see any business fail. Best of luck to the owners and employees.


    Michael Pollan is giving a lecture at the University of Portland on April 16th. He is, of course, the author of four New York Times bestsellers,Food Rules (2010), In Defense of Food (2008), The Omnivore’s Dilemma (2006) and The Botany of Desire (2001). Tickets are free for students of any college or university, as well as for University of Portland faculty and staff, and will be available to the public for $20 general admission and $25 for reserved seats.


    If you go to Portland Farmers Market, you have probably seen Barb and Fritz Foulke from Freddy Guys Hazelnuts. The New York Times has taken notice, and ran a nice article over the weekend.

    It’s hard to say which is more responsible for Freddy Guys’s success: the nuts — definitely superior in their freshness and flavor — or Barb Foulke herself. Bright, outgoing and tireless, she’s a believer in the exponential power of one-on-one marketing. She knows a good chunk of the 15,000 weekly visitors to the Portland farmers’ market. And she’s up early every morning corresponding and sharing recipes with customers from Maui to Maine before hand-writing their shipping labels. Early acclaim from key Portland chefs like Vitaly Paley and Naomi Pomeroy gave her confidence; today, the award-winning Paley is a close friend. She’s also the rare guest farmer on Martha Stewart’s SiriusXM satellite radio channel who isn’t ruffled by the medium. And she still works as a nurse practitioner two days a week.

    I’ll always call them “filberts”, ’cause that’s what my grandmother called them. You can read the entire article here


     

    Related

    Category: Portland Food and Restaurant News and Discussion. More about Naomi Pomeroy, Vitaly Paley.

    Previous Post: « James Beard in Oregon: Celebration of Oregon’s 20 Master Chefs
    Next Post: Portland’s Branch of Todai Closed »

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. PDX2CDG says

      January 17, 2011 at 8:47 pm

      Too bad about Fin. Fresh innovative seafood. Under appreciated and maybe not enough advertising? Had several great dinners with good service, unfortunately not enough patrons. Sophisticated and artfully presented, get it while you can!

      Reply
    2. delizuz says

      January 17, 2011 at 9:03 pm

      Wow! Terrible news about Fin. Great restaurant and I guess just like Sel Gris glad I had the chance to enjoy a meal there. The really sad thing is there is now NO real seafood restaurant in town… Again.

      Reply
    3. sidemeat says

      January 17, 2011 at 9:25 pm

      Well, another ‘brightest new light’ flames out…
      people speak of a meteoric rise
      watching a falling star
      everyone goes ooh and awe
      at the fire of their destruction
      and heads for burgers and beer when the show is over…
      as to the galaxy St John’s
      The spot where Pitxi died is too large and expansive for the gravity
      Leisure and the Fixin’ To seem to be coalescing well…
      there is a new star rising perhaps in the old Ladybug sphere…
      you couldn’t kill McMenamin’s with a stick…

      Reply
    4. JD says

      January 17, 2011 at 10:07 pm

      The thing about Fin is that it requires a total commitment to their concept of the area of food the focus in on.

      Maybe they should have ramped us up a bit. You know, a couple of slow ball pitches to get us going on the concept, and then, WHAM, the fast ball. It seems like Fin just descended on us fully blown (good concept,) and expected us to absorb its approach.

      Like I said, a bit of coaching and coaxing along the way, some education one or two plates at a time, might have served them well.

      Reply
    5. sidemeat says

      January 17, 2011 at 10:23 pm

      are you suggesting that given a high inside pitch
      Portlanders walk rather than stepping up to the plate?
      that’s not cricket…

      Reply
    6. sustainability_is_not_hype says

      January 17, 2011 at 10:31 pm

      Pollan’s “mostly plants” rule can’t be too popular in “whole animal” PDX.

      Reply
      • JDG says

        January 18, 2011 at 4:33 pm

        What’s contradictory about “whole-animal” and “mostly plants”. “Mostly” does not mean “entirely,” and “whole-animal” doesn’t mean one person eats an entire animal at one sitting.

        Reply
      • sidemeat says

        January 18, 2011 at 6:52 pm

        oh JDG, you late adopter you…
        just a tad behind the curve, not actually hep
        you dig?
        of course you do…
        Whole animal means just that. And if you add hole to whole?
        absolute genius.
        I’m going to show Portland how to dine.
        thank me now, worship me next month, ashcan of history by June.
        Accepting investments this week only
        that’s the way it is
        in the city that takes food to the limit
        to prove to… someone…
        that it IS a city
        Peta will be at the door, but not be at the table.
        habitrail to table
        you heard it here first
        taking whack a mole
        and kicking it up a notch.
        BAM!

        Reply
    7. Scott says

      January 17, 2011 at 11:22 pm

      Sucks about Fin. Whats to come? Another pig heavy bisro restaurant? Portlandd is so amateur.

      Reply
    8. elpato says

      January 18, 2011 at 8:34 am

      Very sad to hear about Fin. Had one of the best meals ever, in Portland or elsewhere, there recently. We found it challenging and thoroughly enjoyable. Very much hope the chef and crew end up with a similar focus at a different location.

      Reply
    9. JandJ says

      January 18, 2011 at 8:44 am

      Damn. FIN was also one of our favorites and did seafood like no one else here In Portland. It’s something this town had needed for a long time. Really sorry to see that they didn’t make it. I really hope Trent does open a new restaurant. He’s definitely one of the more creative chefs in Portland.

      Ten-01, now FIN. Crap… what’s next?

      Reply
      • Guignol says

        January 20, 2011 at 8:06 pm

        Perhaps the Machado empire will soon start to crumble????

        Reply
      • Guignol says

        January 20, 2011 at 8:07 pm

        I must add that Machado’s food is nothing in comparison to the fore-mentioned great restaurants

        Reply
      • Um ... No says

        January 25, 2011 at 1:13 pm

        Come now, there’s nothing wrong with Machado’s restaurants. Don’t be a food snob if you can help it. I’m actually quite fond of Nel Centro – great for lunch downtown.

        Reply
    10. Polarwanderer says

      January 18, 2011 at 9:59 am

      So sad about Fin.  I had three great meals there.

      Reply
    11. themick says

      January 18, 2011 at 1:49 pm

      I hear that the owners of the building want to bring a new concept to the Fin space.  Something new to Portland that will turn the dining scene on it’s head.  It’s going to be a local/sustainable farm-to -table supper club that will specialize in charcuterie burgers wholly made from organ meat and off-cuts of locally raised pigs that are only butchered (by gluten free bakers) after being allowed to die of natural causes.  I think some guy called hebberoy is at the helm.  Apparently everyone eats out of a community cauldron!

      Reply
      • Joisey says

        January 18, 2011 at 7:33 pm

        Look for the Portland Monthly to do an entire issue on that concept soon.

        Reply
      • FoodGroupie says

        January 20, 2011 at 3:18 am

        Yeah, people will flock to that like lemmings.

        Reply
    12. sideline says

      January 18, 2011 at 9:40 pm

      Sounds to me that the owners of fin just wanted to get the insurance check post Sel Gris. A lot of hype for nothing but a fading fin in the water. So they screwed Mondok before and now they screw him. Selfish. I’d stay far away from those owners chefs.

      Reply
      • anna says

        January 21, 2011 at 8:26 am

        you don’t know what you are talking about!

        Reply
      • grapedog says

        January 21, 2011 at 3:35 pm

        Does anyone know much about Joan and her Dumas Restaurant Concepts LLC business? In the Oregonian today, Joan says she’s getting old and tired and wants to move somewhere warm. But, is Fin her only restaurant? Does she have other active restaurants in the Portland area?

        Something smells fishy here (no pun intended)

        Reply
    13. B&B says

      January 19, 2011 at 5:57 pm

      Ten 01, Pitxi and now Fin. The problem is that all we want here in Portland are burgers and beer. We make a big deal out of street food and grunge cooking. We worship restaurants that we think are doing high cuisine. The fact is that so many of the so called best restaurants in Portland have a very similar menu. The moment a restaurant does something different it gets put down and gossiped about. Why is Portland no longer amongst the leading culinary cities? Because something like Bunk is voted as one of the best restaurants. We need to do better than this. Bunk is good but its just a sandwich. Its a shame that an area with such great produce, wine and beauty is so close minded. Keep Portland weird? When everyone has tatoos, rides funky bikes and listens to indie punk…it is the freak that does not. There should be room for all kinds of food!

      Reply
      • sidemeat says

        January 20, 2011 at 6:08 pm

        Why wouldn’t Bunk be a best restaurant?
        anyone can have great lunches every day at Bunk
        or pack their own brown bag of jello shots
        and save up for a challenging meal once a month
        with a $200 pinot and I gotta wear a good shirt too?
        Which is best?

        Reply
      • PDX2CDG says

        January 21, 2011 at 4:49 pm

        AMEN!

        Reply
      • Um ... No says

        January 25, 2011 at 1:20 pm

        Portland’s not among the leading food cities? Hmmm I beg to differ and so does Travel and Leisure, Food & Wine etc. Besides even Fin admits they had started to turn a profit, though I’m sure their food costs were through the roof so your theory doesn’t really … ahem … hold water.

        I will agree the loss of Fin is sad indeed.

        Reply
    14. FoodGroupie says

      January 20, 2011 at 3:13 am

      Very very sad that Fin is closing. My wife and I have taken both in-town and out-of-town guests and always have had great dinners there. The food is different and challenging. And I actually agree with some of the posters here. Why can’t Portland support an interesting sit-down restaurant like this? I’m sure if Trent Pierce opened, “Fin, the Foodcart”, people will flock to it, because it’s foodcart and it’s in Portland so somehow that makes it better.

      Reply
    15. mf says

      January 20, 2011 at 12:00 pm

      i would bet large amounts of grass fed beef that the fin thing has almost nothing to do with their numbers and almost entirely to do with sideline’s comment.

      Reply
      • Irene says

        January 20, 2011 at 5:33 pm

        I don’t get this. Not because I’m not cynical enough, believe me I am. But if you’re going to open a restaurant just to collect an insurance check and then fold, why on earth do something so complicated and original? Why not just open another upscale burger place or an asian street food joint? Like the concept or don’t like it, but it wasn’t exactly textbook, and I can’t imagine it was low-cost. It just doesn’t add up to me.

        Reply
    16. jeff says

      January 20, 2011 at 2:12 pm

      I am very sad and surprised about Fin, especially since it got such good reviews. I have had wonderful meals there on the the best restaurants I have been to in a long time. I keep telling people both in Portland and San Francisco about it. I will be sad to see it go.

      Reply
    17. themick says

      January 22, 2011 at 12:52 pm

      maybe I WAS pronouncing her name right after all!

      Reply
      • JandJ says

        January 22, 2011 at 4:05 pm

        Do you think a personal attack is necessary? Particularly given the lack of real evidence and nothing more than a lot of conjecture? Not funny, just sad.

        Reply
    18. CO says

      January 22, 2011 at 6:15 pm

      JandJ, it’s ok. not every joke made needs to be rebuked with feux-indignation. Also, trust me, from all the word of mouth I have heard about the owners of this space, people seem to be taking it fairly easy on her.

      themick, from one mick to another, let me say….you found the Dumas&Dumas joke in there before I could cobble it together into a witty one liner. well played sir!

      Reply
      • Joisey says

        January 22, 2011 at 10:02 pm

        He’s Dumas kind of people!

        Reply
      • JandJ says

        January 23, 2011 at 9:36 am

        Nothing “faux” about it… just the lowest form of “humor” and all based on hearsay (including your remarks). Glad you thought it was funny… you can join the ranks of jerks who get off on making fun of people’s names. Either way, I’m really saddened by the whole situation and hope the kind of real talent that resided in that kitchen will surface elsewhere in Portland.

        Reply
    19. Mobile Disco says

      January 23, 2011 at 1:49 am

      Its just such a shame :(

      Reply
    20. themick says

      January 23, 2011 at 1:19 pm

      Sorry about the confusion, I thought her name was Jo-Anne!

      Reply
    21. Fmarti says

      February 5, 2011 at 11:14 am

      Pitxi you will be missed. Your food and service had no rivals in Portland. You should have chosen a better area. No one goes to North Portland. Maybe in the Pearl you would have been great, maybe in another city. You certainly were way ahead of the food scene here. Thanks for all the great meals! No Ten 01, No Fin, No Pitxi…makes for a boring scene :(

      Reply

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