Frontera Sur Will Open Soon in Portland

Some of the dishes you might find at Frontera Sur in Portland Oregon. — Photo credit: Frontera Sur.

A new restaurant will open in the old RX Coffee space—also known as the old Zell’s location—on SE Morrison. Called Frontera Sur, they offer Mexican and Guatemalan food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Prior Occupants: Zells, RX (plus Morty’s)

For over 40 years, this location was home to Zell’s, which offered breakfast and lunch. They closed in May 2023, and RX Coffee opened later that summer. They closed in December 2024.

Morty’s Cafe was going to open but they were unable to make that happen. And that brings us to Frontera Sur.

Frontera Sur and Harney Street Cafe

The restaurant is owned by Carolina and Alex Hernandez, who are the same people who run the Harney Street Cafe in Sellwood. But these two restaurants are very different from each other, according to Kevin, the restaurant’s GM.

Harney Street offers mostly American-style dishes like corned beef hash, granola, a Denver omelette, and a Portland Scramble, along with a few Mexican and Mexican-American dishes like chilaquiles, breakfast tacos, and migas. Harney Street also is open only for breakfast and lunch, whereas Frontera Sur will open for dinner, too.

The owners named the restaurant “Frontera Sur”—which means “southern border”—because the southern border of Mexico meets Guatemala.

The Frontera Sur Menu

The menu is split into two parts: Breakfast and Dinner. However, breakfast hours move into traditional lunch hours—8am to 2:30pm.

Breakfast/Lunch

As I mentioned earlier, they are serving both Mexican and Guatemalen food. For breakfast, you’ll find that mixed with some traditional American brunch items, like challah french toast, Belgian waffles, buttermilk pancakes, and eggs benedict.

However, even these straight-up American dishes have a creative, Latin American twist. For instance, they offer a Chorizo Avocado Benedict with house chorizo, avocado, and chipotle hollandaise, as well as a Chicken Mole Benedict with shredded chicken topped with homemade mole.

Other interesting breakfast items include (copy is from the menu):

Buttermilk Pancakes con Cajeta y Mazapan: Two fluffy, house-made pancakes topped with whipped cream, peanut mazapán, and drizzled with cajeta dulce de leche, all finished with powdered sugar.
Tres Leches Waffle: Homemade Belgian waffles topped with fresh strawberries, tres leches sauce, and vanilla whipped cream.
Avocado Tostada: Crispy corn tostada topped with smashed avocado and two soft-poached eggs. Garnished with pico de gallo and served with a side of fresh-cut fruit.
Tamalito con Huevos: Chuchito (Guatemalan-style tamales), choose from meat or vegetarian, served with two eggs any style, black beans, crema, queso fresco, and salsa.
Chilaquiles Verdes: Tortilla chips in salsa verde, served with two eggs any style and a side of black beans. Topped with avocado, queso fresco, crema, cilantro, red onions, and bolillo bread.
Beef Birria Omelettes: Three-egg omelette filled with slow-cooked birria and queso fresco, topped with cilantro, red onions, and jalapeños. Served with potatoes, black beans, and bolillo bread.

Dinner

After breakfast/lunch hours end, the dinner menu kicks in and the last I heard from the GM is that 10:30pm is what they are aiming for as far as a closing time.

Some of the Dinner items you’ll find on the menu include:

Enchiladas Guatemaltecas: Three tostadas topped with shredded cabbage, carrots, black beans, queso fresco, crema, and salsa.
Gorditas: Three corn gorditas filled with carnitas, birria, and rajas, topped with lettuce, queso fresco, crema, and salsa.
Guatemalan Street-Style Pollo Frito: Fried dark meat chicken served with French fries, topped with ketchup, mayonnaise, and mild green sauce. Comes with coleslaw and corn tortillas.
Churrasco Guatemalteco: Grilled carne asada served with rice, black beans, chorizo, queso fresco, corn tortillas, guacamole, and salsa.
Kak ik: Traditional Mayan turkey stew served with rice and corn tortillas
Pollo en Jocón: Bone-in chicken in a traditional green tomatillo and cilantro-based Jocón sauce. Served with rice and corn tortillas.

Frontera Sur joins a small group of restaurants serving Guatemalan food in Portland, and I am happy to see them offer these tasty dishes. And for breakfast/lunch I can really see them offering some competition to Javi’s Breakfast Cafe over on NE Sandy Blvd. It’s great to have choices.