Chef Agir Restaurant and Bar Opened in Northeast Portland

As I mentioned in late June, Chef Agir Restaurant and Bar, a new Kurdish/Turkish restaurant, would be opening in Portland. And that time has come—their soft opening was yesterday. They offer Kurdish/Turkish food and drink in the space on NE Fremont Street that most recently was home to En Vida.

I met with Ferda Evans, one of the persons behind the restaurant, and learned about what to expect from Chef Agir.

Chef Agir

I have mentioned elsewhere that “agir” means “fire” in Kurdish, but it is also the middle name of the chef, Selman Agir Ertas. He has more than 15 years of experience as a chef in Istanbul, and has been here in Portland for three years. Prior to that he was in Pittsburgh.

“I am looking forward to bringing my passion about cooking to Portland cuisine,” he said. “We want to create a space where we bring our unique experience and diverse culture in one place where people from all backgrounds feel welcomed.”

Food and Drink at Chef Agir

Two things really stuck out in my conversation with Ferda: the presence of tantuni, a dish I’d never encountered before, on the menu; and the importance of tea drinking in Turkey.

Tantuni, the Specialty

Ferda explained to me that one of Chef Agir’s specialties is the aforementioned tantuni. It’s a type of street food with origins in the city of Mersin, which is in southern Turkey on the Mediterranean coast (just above the northeastern tip of Cyprus). It’s made with julienne-cut beef (which, Ferda says, makes it easier to digest) with tomatoes and onions, and seasoned with sumac. In Turkey they often serve it wrapped in lavash.

At the restaurant, you’ll find tantuni in a sandwich roll, in a lavash wrap, or a lettuce wrap. There are two additional treatments:

• Yogurt Tantuni: Beef atop pieces of lavash and topped with yogurt.
• Iskender Tantuni: Like the above, but with the addition of Iskender sauce (a tomato-based sauce with butter).

Vegan Tantuni

Chef Agir offers a meatless tantuni that also happens to be vegan. It’s made with oyster mushrooms, again with tomatoes and onions, and seasoned with sumac. It will be served like the beef tantuni sandwich—in a sandwich roll, a lavash wrap, or a lettuce wrap.

Ferda said, “You should definitely try a tantuni sandwich if you’re a sandwich person. They’re so good!” The yogurt tantuni and the sandwich tantuni are her favorites.

Other Food Options

Another heavy hitter on the food menu is the Chef’s Special. It’s cubed beef on top of chargrilled eggplant, with garlic yogurt and tomato sauce over bread.

The appetizers also sound good:

• Ezme, a kind of crushed dip/salad/spread, made with tomatoes, pepper, onion, pomegranate, and pepper paste.
• Tarator, which is lightly sautéed carrots mixed with yogurt and olive oil.
• Muhammara, made with roasted red peppers, walnuts, and bread crumbs.
• Eggplant salad, which is basically roasted eggplant, garlic, and olive oil.
• Note: You can get all four in a sampler plate.

It was nice to see menemen on the menu, which is a soft scrambled egg dish with onions, peppers, and tomatoes, served with bread. They offer a vegan version without eggs.

They are also offering Chi Kofte (Çiğ köfte) on the weekends. Originally made with meat, this version is a vegan kofte made with bulgur wheat, onion, tomato paste, pepper paste, and Urfa pepper. The dish has origins in Urfa in southeastern Turkey, not far from the Syrian border.

You’ll also find some Italian dishes on the menu: beef carbonara, chicken fettuccini, and beef bolognese. This is because for a time, Chef Agir worked at an Italian restaurant in Turkey. He is also doing wings, which are grilled and served with tomatoes, onion, and rice.

Dessert

Kunefe is on the menu, which I was happy to see, It involves kadayif, sweet cheese, and a sweet syrup. I have so many memories of getting this sweet treat at the Jordanian pastry shop Laziza that was in my old neighborhood.

Look also for kadayif served with walnuts and sweet syrup, and gullach (Güllaç)—sheets of corn dough soaked in sweetened milk and served with seasonal fruit. It’s popular during Ramadan but they eat it year-round in Turkey.

Maras (Maraş) ice cream is also on the menu. This is a traditional Turkish ice cream that is chewy and stretchy, and sometimes can be eaten with a knife and fork. This is due to the presence of salep (the tuber of an orchid, ground up) and mastic, which is a plant resin.

Drinking

They have a full liquor license, so the sky’s the limit for their bar program. Look for cocktails, wine, and beer, as well as some NA options—one in particular that sounds good is their homemade lemonade with strawberries. But for those who like raki—an anise-flavored spirit popular in Turkey, the Caucasus region, and nearby Turkic countries—you are in luck, as they offer it here.

And there will be plenty of tea and Turkish coffee! While we were chatting, we were served a nice cup of hot tea, sugar on the side. We ate it with a serving of warm kunefe, pictured earlier. The kunefe looked a little different from what I’m used to, which is a kind of bright orange-red top layer, but it was quite tasty.

The tea was hot (“We don’t want it to cool down,” she said) and little hard to handle at first, but after waiting a little bit, the glass cup was easy to hold. I added a little sugar, but some people drink it unsweetened. In Turkey, people drink tea all day, so it is an integral part of the culture.

The Space at Chef Agir

When they first got the space, the walls held a different color scheme than they preferred, so they did a bunch of painting and lightened up the walls. There are lots of windows, so in the daytime it is flooded with natural light.

They have tables and chairs and a bar, with about 46 seats in total. They plan for tablecloths on the tables, rather than the tabletops exposed, giving it a more finished look. The prompted me to ask Ferda if they see themselves as having more of a cafe type of vibe or a fine dining restaurant scene, and she said it’s somewhere in the middle.

She sees that reflected in the menu pricing, too. “I would like people to feel like they don’t need to spend a fortune here,” she said. She also sees this restaurant as a place to relax, have some tea, dessert. Or an evening of drinking raki with some appetizers.

Community

Ferda mentioned that they hope the restaurant will be a place that the Turkish community feels at home. “Our goal is for people to feel welcome here,” she said. Hospitality is very important in Kurdish culture.

“And I think people who come here will see some part of our culture in the way we serve our food,” she said. “And how we meet people. Hopefully they will have good experience.”

They opened on Tuesday, July 8. This soft opening is going on now while Ferda is in Turkey. When she returns, they will have their grand opening party. Normal hours are currently 11am to 10pm, but that could change as they get familiar with the needs of their guests. Also look for live music to happen sometime down the line.

Wishing Ferda, Chef Agir, and the rest of the team all the best as they bring their cuisine to Portland!

Chef Agir Restaurant and Bar [soft opened July 8, 2025]
1303 NE Fremont Street, Portland
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