Say When Opens Today in Northwest Portland

A new restaurant and bar called Say When opens today, offering “blue collar French food and drink.” It’s from the same folks who brought you Sit Tite in the Arbor Lodge neighborhood, which offers “blue-collar East Coast Italian fare.” I had a chance to chat with co-owner BJ Smith over the weekend to hear more about Say When, and here is what I learned.

Who Is Behind Say When

Say When has three owners: BJ Smith, Paul Francis, and Robert Thomas.

Robert owned Swift Lounge on NE Broadway for a long time. “I’ve known Robert for, I think, 25 years,” said BJ. “He was a chef in New York for a really long time, and we just met through the industry. He’s like a family member to me at this point.”

Paul worked for Robert at Swift Lounge as his bar manager for about a decade. “He shifted from the fine dining restaurant world to bars around the same time I opened Smokehouse 21, so around 2010, 2011.”

BJ has worked in kitchens for most of his adult life. In NYC he was at places like Le Bernardin and Gotham Bar & Grill. In Los Angeles he worked at Citrus. Here in Portland he was at Paley’s Place, The Original, Smokehouse Tavern/Smokehouse 21 (which later became Kim Jong Grillin’), Delores, and of course, Sit Tite.

BJ and Foundations in Food

BJ has gained extensive experience and success working in kitchens at restaurants on both coasts (see above). Additionally, he was on “Top Chef” and met Guy Fieri on Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” a decade ago.

So had he always wanted to be involved in food? “Yes, my whole life,” he remarked. “I went to culinary school when I was in high school. I grew up in Reno, Nevada—the school system in Nevada is insanely good because of casinos that pay for all of the education there. I went to a vocational school.

“In my junior year of high school, instead of going to my home high school, I went to culinary school for the first half of my day and then finished my day at my home high school. 

“And then in my senior year, I was an assistant teacher. So I went to my home high school for the first half of the day and then finished my day at the culinary school. And then I won the United States Culinary Olympics when I was 18. I got a full-ride scholarship and came to Portland, went to Western Culinary Institute, and graduated from there in 1996. Literally, this is all I wanted to do.”

Additionally, his parents owned restaurants in South Bend, Indiana, where he was originally from. He also was influenced by his grandmother, a Polish immigrant, who taught him about their food culture. That experience was foundational for him.

“It’s something I’ve always had a connection to, which is why I opened Delores, the Polish restaurant,” he said. I have fond memories of going to Delores during Dumpling Week and enjoying the potato and cheese pierogis. I miss that place.

French Food

‘[French food] is my life’s passion,” said BJ. “I really want to make French food, and make French food that’s affordable. A little bit more blue collar in terms of not really the fancier side of things. That’s just been kind of our plan for the last year.”

He also mentioned that along with a love of French food, he naturally and readily implements French techniques—and he grew up cooking in the French brigade system in kitchens. “I worked at a lot of French restaurants in New York, so it’s the foundation of my cooking. For lack of a better term, it just kind of feels like home to me. Even when I was doing barbecue, I was still applying French cooking techniques. It’s just really what I know and is kind of my happy place.”

Say When: What’s in a Name?

When I asked about the story behind the name, BJ replied, “My partner, Paul, came up with the name, and I don’t know how he came up with it. But probably like a year ago, he said, “I have a great name for our next place!” and I knew that I really missed making French food. 

The Say When Location

Say When is located in a building on the corner of NW 21st and NW Everett. The corner space was home to Cha Cha Cha for a number of years, but the space they are in used to be home to the bar Lightning Will, a little further back on 21st Avenue.  

“We luckily found this space—I think it’s perfect for what we’re doing,” said BJ. “It’s the largest space in the building.” And that means 4,400 square feet.

“We basically have a 100 feet of bar/restaurant in the front,” explained BJ. “And then in the back, there’s a lounge, two pool tables, and seven pinball games. I mean, it’s a massive space, but I think that’s exactly what we were looking for. “

He brought up the winning combination at Sit Tite as an example of what works for them. “I think part of our success at Sit Tite is that there’s a little something for everyone,” he explained.” You can go in and shoot pool, you can go in and play pinball, you can come in and get dinner, you can just pop in for a drink. And I think what’s really brought us a lot of success is having multiple things to do there.”

“We have big groups come in and they’re all doing different things but still hanging out,” he added. “So we wanted to just keep the momentum of that.”

The Space That Almost Wasn’t

While they have been super excited about this space and are so happy to be able to realize their dreams in it, getting there wasn’t all smooth sailing. “I mean, to be totally frank with you, there was a minute where we weren’t sure if it was going to happen,” he said.

They were negotiating with the landlord, and talking to their broker, feeling bummed out at the chance it might fall though and they’d have to find another space. They believed strongly that this was the right space for Say When.

“So luckily, things worked out,” he explained. “And I’d driven past that place so many times! My first restaurant that I opened in Portland is a half a block away. So it feels really great to be back in that neighborhood where I’m able to open my next dream project.”

Blue Collar Food at Say When

Now back to that “blue collar” detail. While Sit Tite offers blue collar Italian-American food, Say When offers blue collar French food and drink. So I asked, “What is your concept of blue collar? We know what blue collar is here in the United States., but how do you connect that with French food?”

He replied, “I think it’s just an everyday food, not a special occasion food.”

He continued, “This is like everyday brasserie French food. You know, my wife and I were France last year, and this is just common everyday food. It’s not something that you would go out for your birthday—-that’s truffles and foie gras. 

“It’s just a really good sandwich, really good salads, French onion soup, just not necessarily food you would have at home but food that you would go out to eat on more of a daily basis.”

The Say When Vibe

As far as the look and feel, BJ and his wife basically designed the interior. “We’re not rich, we don’t have investors,” explained BJ. “This is all very bootstrapped and funded by us. I literally painted the whole place by myself. And we have artwork from our home.”

He continued, “It’s very beautiful in the front, and it has a little bit more of a simple French aesthetic. And then the back, my partner described it as ‘your cool uncle’s basement.’ We have wood paneling and a bunch of artwork from friends in town.

“So many people have pitched in just in terms of helping us to make this place look really beautiful. It’s full of Portland art and artists, and I’m over the moon excited about how good it looks, considering the fact that there’s been three or four of us in there every day for the last couple of months making this thing happen—you can really sense that.”

The Say When Menu

I had a chance to see an early version of the menu but that has changed and “evolved quite a bit,” in his words. “I really wanted to focus more on a burger than a French Dip. It was kind of one or the other. Eventually I’ll probably do both, but right now I’ve honed things down a little bit. I added some oysters, I added some chicken liver paté, some salmon rillettes, and some stuff that’s a little bit more shareable.”

I asked him if he had a favorite thing on the menu, and he said it was just too soon for that kind of thing. He recently started dialing in all of their recipes, so he’ll take a wait and see attitude about faves.

“Any answer I give you today would probably be different tomorrow,” he remarked. “I’m just really excited about all of it! I mean, I love oysters—just the simplicity of an oyster—and the French onion soup is unbelievably good. The burger is outstanding.”

Here is the food menu (click to enlarge):

Sourcing

They’ve been working with as many friends and neighbors as they can, too. That means bread from Ken’s Artisan Bakery, meats from Revel Meat Co, oysters are coming direct from their producer in Puget Sound. To them, it feels really special.

And working directly with producers means they can keep some of their costs down. “When you get things directly from the farmers and ranchers and people that make the things, it’s actually less expensive for high quality ingredients” he explained. “Oysters come in—I place my order, he goes and gets them, puts them in a truck, and drives them down. So they’re actually more affordable for me to get them from him, which is why I’m able to charge less money for it. So it’s not just better product, it’s actually less expensive.”

He added, “I’ve always been really ingredient-driven, and I think I’m just really excited to be working with all my friends again.”

To Drink

As for drinking, they have cocktails, beer, and wine. On the wine front, he said,  “I have a wine cellar that I’m bringing wine over from, so we also have a reserve list.”

He has mad respect for Paul and his work behind the bar. “He has come up with a really fun drink program, ” he said. There is also an NA section that includes some NA beer, sodas, and espresso and tonic, and a faux Negroni and Mojito (AKA Nojito). Inclusion of this is meaningful to BJ: “I’m not a drinker, and my wife doesn’t drink at all. So NA is kind of a thing.” I also told him about the great NA Prosecco by Mionetto I had at Hearth & Vine the other day.

Here is the drink menu (click to enlarge):

A Neighborhood Spot

They aim for Say When to be a neighborhood spot, a place where you can bring your kids with you (unlike at Sit Tite, which is 21+, Say When will allow minors until 9pm). “One of the biggest things about this is that my wife and son and I live right up the street—we’ve lived in Northwest Portland for a really long time—and there’s just not a place that we can walk to for everyday food that’s not crazy expensive,” said BJ.

“I think we are our target demographic!” he exclaimed. “You know, families that live in the area. And there’s a lot of service industry people who also live in the area that we’d love to see for after work and stuff like that. So we really want this to be a long-term neighborhood establishment.”

I mentioned that this idea of a great neighborhood spot is something I’ve heard more and more over the past couple of years. Quinn Matthewstearn talked about it when we were discussing Side Eye. Vy Chao wants Vya to be a great neighborhood restaurant. BJ mentioned Laverne’s in this vein.

“We want a place for people to come and just enjoy the space, hang out—and come every day if they want to,” said BJ.

Good Energy

He, like many in this city, is ready to be done with vestiges of the COVID pandemic and wants to create good energy and positivity—places for people to have fun (this echoes some of the recent thoughts of Brian Woolley at The Nines Hotel). “I think it’s really good for Portland,” he said. “These things are happening and I’m really happy to be a part of getting our city back in order. And the neighborhood is booming!”

He says the neighborhood is way busier now than it was when he was operating a restaurant there years ago. “People are out. People are happy. I see a lot of smiles, and it feels really good in the neighborhood,” he remarked.

Opening Say When

Say When opens today at 4pm. To start, their hours will be 4pm to midnight every day, except for Friday Saturday, when they are open until 2pm.

After some time, they’ll assess whether or not it works for them to be open for lunch or brunch. “For now, we’re just going to focus on the times we know that people will be out and about,” remarked BJ.

This all sounds like a great addition to the Portland food and drink scene. I’m looking forward to stopping in. Wishing BJ, Paul, Robert, and their staff all the best as they open their doors to the public this afternoon!

Say When [opening April 20, 2026]
305 NW 21st Avenue, Portland
Say When website | Instagram