I recently became aware of a new restaurant called Alma PDX (not to be confused with Alma Chocolates), which will move into the old Masala Lab space when it vacates at the end of January. It looks to be a Balkan and Turkish restaurant, a cuisine that is less common in Portland than a lot of other places.
I’ve updated this article since it was initially published, but I’m still here to share with you the fruits of my additional research on Alma.
Who Is Behind Alma PDX?
According to filed city paperwork, the LLC behind Alma is Merhaba PDX, LLC. “Merhaba” is a standard greeting in Turkish, and in Bosnia. Stephen Chao and his wife Vy have registered this LLC.
Last Wednesday, April 23, I reached out to the folks behind Alma PDX to get an update on the restaurant, but did not get a response. I took a look a few days later over on Instagram to see if there was anything going on there, and I was happy to see they now have a presence—which also gave me additional insight into what to expect from the restaurant, from the chef to the food.
Vedran Jordan
Chef Vedran Jordan is behind the food and will be running the kitchen at Alma PDX. You may know him as the person behind the Balkan Nights pop-up. In Portland, he has also worked at Bamboo Sushi, Laangbaan, Gado Gado, and Oma’s Hideaway—as well as working as a sous chef at ÄNIKS, a progressive dining project from Ryley Eckersley that closed last October, another business Chao has been involved with.
Vedran was born in Sarajevo in Bosnia, and when he was 12 he came to Portland as a refugee. His mother’s name, Alma, is the source of the name of the restaurant (not apples, as I had originally speculated).
A post by Seisuke Knife on a recent Chef Night event connects Vedran’s interest in Balkan and Turkish cuisine: “His culinary voice draws heavily from his Balkan heritage—layering the bold, sapid flavors of Bosnian and Turkish cuisine with precision and creativity honed by working in some of Portland’s finest restaurants. Through his own Balkan Nights pop-up, he brings authentic Turkish cuisine to Portland while maintaining a strong commitment to sustainable, local sourcing.”
A Few Other Details About Alma PDX
While Alma is getting ready to open, Vedran continues to host his Balkan Nights pop-up. In fact, as I write this update, there is one tonight at Landsdowne Social (which operates in the old ÄNIKS space)—get your ticket, while they last. This is a chance to essentially preview the kind of food he’ll be serving at Alma.
That includes:
- Lamb offal kabops (kebab of heart, liver, and neck).
- Chicken kabops (kebabs of chicken wing, gizzard, and heart).
- Tomato čorba (soup).
- Imam Biyali (also known as Imam Bayildi—I first learned of this dish from one of the Moosewood cookbooks, which translated it as “The Imam Fainted”), a classic Ottoman eggplant dish.
- A kampachi crudo is also on the menu, which deviates from the Turkish vibe, though he is using Turkish EVOO. I’m thinking Vedran’s experience at Bamboo Sushi may be behind this.
Tonight they will also serve the food with beer and wines from the Türkiye region, so expect that sort of thing at Alma, too. Chris Mateja is in charge of that; he is also involved with the sports bar, Kooks, another project that Steve Chao is involved in. Alma is looking at a full on-premises liquor license—cocktails, beer, wine.
My personal wish for the Alma menu: burek, ćevapi with ajvar and kamjak, and some kickass lepinja. Classic, and perhaps pedestrian comparatively speaking, but just so, so good. Pljeskavica, too—however, pork may not make its way to the menu, depending on if they choose to be halal (Bosnia, along with Albania, has a significant Muslim population in the part of the Balkan peninsula that was the former Yugoslavia, and of course, Türkiye does, too).
According to additional filed paperwork, look for them to be open Thursdays through Sundays in the evenings (5pm to 10pm).
My Personal Connection to the Balkans
On a personal note, I have a deep love of the Balkans, their music, and their food; the people I’ve known from that part of the world have always been kind to me.
I spent a number of years learning folk dances from the region (and I almost pursued an ethnomusicology degree to study the music and dance of the Rhodope region of Bulgaria). I keenly followed the news in the late 1990s surrounding Kosovo. I had a joyful time visiting Montenegro over a decade ago. I also remember watching the beautiful Sarajevo Olympics as a child, only to get my heart broken in the 1990s when the horrors of the Bosnian War became clear.
On a lighter note, I have many memories eating a various Bosnian restaurants in my old neighborhood (I miss you Cevabdzinica Sarajevo and Djerdan). The food is so good, flavorful, and full of history.
I look forward to seeing what Chef Jordan serves at Alma later this summer.
Alma PDX [projected opening summer 2025]
5237 NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Portland
Alma website | Instagram | Facebook | Yelp
Updated April 29, 2025.
Meg Cotner
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Turkish American here. Elma is the word for apple. Alıyor is the verb for to take, which can be used to offer something or to take it, among other things.
In Turkish, you make a verb negative, by inserting the words ‘mi’ after the start of the verb. Alma winds up sounding like a command to not take something. Turkish verbs are really complicated in this agglutinative Ural-Altaic language.
The name for the LLC is probably for soul in Spanish.
Thank you so much for contributing this knowledge. I had wondered if “alma” meant soul, as that was my first reaction to the name. Merhaba is the LLC. The owner is not willing to talk too much about things right now, but I will contact him again in the not too distant future to get more insight into his naming decision.
Correct that Alma is the original version of the word for apple, later evolved in to Elma.
Looking forward to visiting this place!
A Turkish-American living in PDX