Summary: Portland Restaurant Openings and Closings, 2025

Welcome to the summary of our coverage of Portland restaurant openings and closings, 2025. Our Portland Restaurant Openings and Closings List is the source (here is the 2025 archive), which we update throughout the year. It’s fun and interesting to look back and get that broader view of just exactly what restaurants did open and close. Here are our thoughts and observations.

Portland Restaurant Openings and Closings, 2025: Some Terminology

Just like last year, when I say “restaurants,” that includes a variety of eating and drinking establishments: restaurants, bars, cafes, food carts and their pods; as well as some markets. And when I say “Portland,” it means the metro area: Portland, of course, as well as the following towns:

Beaverton, Gresham, Hillsboro, Lake Oswego, Milwaukie, Tigard, and Troutdale, as well as Sherwood, Dayton, McMinnville and, and Vancouver, WA.

“Openings” this year means places that are truly new. “Closings” this year are a little less straightforward. Mostly it means “the end” for an establishment, but some places closed with the intention of opening again. This year we added a section called ‘Transitioning/Moves/Re-Openings” that we hope has been helpful.

Again, we did not write about every single opening and closing in the metro area, but we covered a good number. There is always room for improvement.

The 2025 List and Map

As I indicated at the start of this article, here is the archive list of restaurant openings and closings we kept during 2025. We also created a map view of the openings and closings.

Portland Restaurant Openings and Closings, 2025: The Coverage

In 2024, we covered 94 openings and 61 closings; in 2025 we covered 165 openings and 77 closings, plus an additional 28 places that transitioned (there’s an overlap of 2 in the other categories)—for instance, they moved from one place to another, closed to remodel or reimagine; a couple places closed due to fire.  

I believe we increased our coverage of the west side and expanded north and south. Still, a lot happens on the east side in general. You can see on the map that the bulk of activity was between the Willamette River and I-205 west and east, and between NE Killingsworth and SE Powell Blvd north and south.

So what kinds of places did we see a lot of? Those that offered all varieties of “American” food—comfort food, New American, food that emphasized local ingredients; pizza and coffee also were plentiful. Also, a bunch of new food cart pods opened offering myriad cuisines.

As far as the structure of eating and drinking establishments, restaurants were plentiful, and a bunch of pizzerias (a subset of restaurants) and cafes/coffee shops opened.

Interviewing, Access, and Wishes

I also think my interviewing skills got better this past year—as they say, “practice makes better.” I enjoyed these phone calls and meetings, getting to know the people creating and bringing these restaurants, bars, food carts, and markets to life. I can also work on vanquishing more typos, ngl.

There are still some places I wish I had a chance to cover at all, or at least more extensively. Those include Ancestro, Dimo’s Italian Specialties, Hollywood Q, Inɨ́sha, Kau Kau, L’Echelle, Project Matcha, Yums of PDX, and the restaurants from the Silk Road folks. Why were some of these not covered? I think it’s more or less the reasons are threefold:

1. Not reaching out. This is my fault, the proverbial “falling through the cracks” on my end. This is something I’d like to improve in 2026.
2. Not enough bandwidth. It takes lot to run a restaurant and some restaurant owners just don’t have the time to sit down and talk about their business.
3. Not enough interest. And then there are some that simply aren’t interested in speaking to us.

Openings That Were Pretty Great

There were some openings that I found really enhanced my sense of intellectual curiosity and taught me new things.

3 Doors Down. Their return was something to celebrate—the return of one of the restaurants that was part of the early foundation of Portland’s culinary scene. Late in 2024 I had a chance to chat with Matthew Stiles, who was on staff from the early days and clued me into some of the backstory of the closure. I’m really glad 3 Doors Down re-opened this year.

Delta Carts PDX. I had been following this story since 2022, and it was super satisfying to see it come to fruition. It’s a nice addition to the area.

Fantino. Becoming aware of them started with a reader tip, and it was thrilling to figure out that this restaurant was connected to the Kells folks. I got a great shoutout of support on my research and shoe leather reporting skills from Dan at Sebastiano’s, and that really meant a lot to me.

Inɨ́sha. Indigenous fine dining is straight up exciting. How great is it for Portland to have a restaurant like this! I would have loved to have covered it more.

Jollibee. This was a big deal to welcome Oregon’s first Jollibee, a beloved fast food chain from the Philippines. Friends who love the place would wax poetic about the spaghetti, fried chicken, and Peach Mango Pie. While I’m not much of a consumer of fast food chain meals, I’m happy for those who are happy for the chain’s arrival in Oregon. I beelieve (not a typo) they are opening more locations in our state.

Pleasure Mountain. I learned about the Indian cocktail scene, which I was completely ignorant of. It plays into the increased economic power the Indian middle class has. It was a truly fascinating conversation. Sadly, Pleasure Mountain closed at the end of 2025.

Sticky Wicket. This is Portland’s only cricket bar, and I learned in the interview about the increasing interest in cricket in the U.S.

Trung Nguyen Legend Cafe. Another long process, we broke the story in 2024 about this massive Vietnamese coffee brand coming to Portland. They turned a former billiards hall on SE Powell into a really nice space offering up the chain’s popular drinks and food.

Closings

There were some closings that felt like “the end of an era” and some that were varying levels of a gut punch: Kashiwagi, Lollipop Shop, Doc Marie’s, Gnarlys, Paradox Cafe, Fallow’s Rest Wild, Bob’s Red Mill, Ana Bananas, Dame, and Pleasure Mountain.

I was sorry to see Nuvrei close its original Pearl District shop, but the silver lining is that they have a location on SW Harvey Milk, and they maintain a robust wholesale business.

And Jinju, the 2025 James Beard Awards winner for Outstanding Bakery, closed up their North Portland shop and are looking for a new location. I have a feeling they’ll find something great that can accommodate their increased popularity (the lines were epic). I also wish for Flour Market to find a new space, though her wholesale business will continue.

Possibly the most heartbreaking closing this year was that of Reeva, the celebrated pizza truck in Roseway run by Roberto Hernandez Guerrero (formerly of Pizzeria Otto and Andina). He was denied re-entry into the U.S. while working on his residency. He is stuck in Mexico; government bureaucracy is slow; the truck is being sold.

I look forward to covering the city and metro area restaurant scene for another year on this independent, woman-owned-and-operated, homegrown Portland food news outlet. I welcome your tips, as always—please reach out! I read them all.

I’d also like to expand coverage even further toward the western suburbs, Milwaukie to the south and Vancouver to the north, as well as eastward through East Portland to Gresham and Troutdale.

Thank you so much for reading. Here’s to keeping track in 2026!

Updated January 7, 2025 to remove one place that has decided to stay open.