Small Bites: City Permits Edition

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Winner Winner Chicken Dinner at Pollo Bravo. Photo credit: Pollo Bravo

Some of you may know that I enjoy perusing city documents to understand better what is going on in this city, especially when it comes to restaurants and real estate (I used to blog about Queens real estate many years ago). Here are some of the more interesting things I’ve come across lately, thanks to publicly-available city documents.

World Cup Coffee and Tea House. This is the little cafe inside Powell’s Books downtown. They’ll be doing what is considered “minor tenant improvement,” which includes changing the seating area and adding a wood-slat ceiling over the reading are of the cafe. 1035 W Burnside Street, Portland

Pollo Bravo. The records say “tenant improvement for new restaurant.” The space used to be home to Garagiste, a wine bar. Looking at the plans submitted to the city, their bulk of their planned work has to do with the technical stuff—electrical, plumbing, mechanical, fire suppression, plus demolition of a non-structural wall partition—and that should make any potential guest feel good in that space. The Pollo Bravo website indicates their move, and as per the folks at Pollo Bravo their planned re-opening will be in mid-December 2021. BTW, their concept sounds delicious:

“Pollo Bravo is inspired by Pollo Rico in Barcelona, the many rotisseries in Sevilla and Valencia, and Chicken Carbon from Executive Chef Josh Scofield’s travels throughout Mexico. Coming soon to North Portland, Pollo Bravo is a fast-casual concept offering Spanish-style rotisserie chicken with dipping sauces & seasonal tapas.” 1225 N Killingsworth, Portland

Rotigo. The interior work will include new kitchen equipment, new finishes, and retail display shelves for to-go food/drink. Rotigo is a “fast-healthy” eatery and will offer sandwiches, salads, vegan sides and rôtisserie chicken. They’ll also have a “thoughtfully curated pantry goods mercantile as well as European-leaning retail wine shop + bar.” You may know this location as a previous home to Hẻm 23 Vietnamese Bar and Grill. I have reached out to them for more details on their impending opening, which they indicate on their website as “Fall 2021.” 1514 NW 23rd Avenue, Portland

Matador. They will open as a first-time tenant in what apparently has been a vacant space in the Peloton Apartments building. They’ll be putting up new walls to create a kitchen, bar and bar dining area, the dining room, an office, restrooms and more. Flooring, ceiling, finishes, etc. will all be new. Matador offers fresh takes on Mexican cuisine, hand-crafted specialty cocktails, and over 130 varieties of tequila at various locations in Portland and the PNW. I have reached out to them for more details about their new location. 4141 N Williams Ave, Portland

Wallflower Coffee Company. This “Community-centric coffeeshop” ran an Indiegogo campaign for funding this past year and landed a spot in SE Portland. According to owners Grace Gellatly and Joel Flores, they are getting close to opening but do not have an exact date yet. 3158 SE Division Street, Portland

Juliett. Juliett is a lounge “celebrating women in aviation” at PDX. You can thank the Lightning Bar Collective for that, which is responsible for a number of popular bars around Portland. For a big spread on the edible/imbibable coming to PDX, check out the recent article in The Oregonian for lots and lots of details on food and drink options at the airport. Aside: As someone who has studied French, it is hard to not type an “e” at the end of “Juliett.” 7000 NE Airport Way, Portland

Two Unknowns. The space in St. Johns that was occupied for years by The Man’s Shop (8511 N Lombard Street) but which closed in 2019 will be developed into restaurant space—and four retail spaces. And at 2800 NE Sandy Blvd there are first-time tenant improvements happening for a new restaurant that will include new food prep area, bar and seating, and accessible restrooms and overall accessible access. The names of these restaurants are not available on the city website yet. If you have any knowledge about either of these spaces, drop me a line.