Small Bites: Greg Higgins Will Retire, the Elk, Forbidden Fruit, and More

Greg Higgins will retire from creating dishes like these at Higgins.
A few dishes from HIggins: risotto, chicory salad, and Vegan Kabocha croquettes. Photo credit: Higgins.

Greg Higgins will retire. He sent an email out with the announcement: “So, it is with a full and grateful heart that I share my own important milestone with you: I’m planning to retire.” He is looking to sell the restaurant, for “the right steward for Higgins, someone who understands what this place means to our guests and employees, and will carry it forward into its next chapter here in Portland.” He wants the restaurant to continue to thrive.

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Small Bites: Elephants Deli Burns, Mikado, Brunch, and More

Elephant deli burns.
Photo credit: Portland Fire & Rescue.

Painful and tragic: The flagship Elephants Deli burns. There’s plenty of news outlets reporting on this, but I’ll share the news releases (first, second) produced by Portland Fire & Rescue. Essentially:

“At 1am on the morning of March 10, 2026, Portland Fire & Rescue responded to a commercial fire at the Elephant’s Deli at 115 NW 22nd Avenue in NW Portland. This was a fire that was human caused on the exterior of the structure that extended to the interior of the building and into the elevated roof structure resulting in significant fire damage.”

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Oregon City Market Opens Its Doors This Week

The Oregon City Market sign.
The sign is up!

Last week, a Bridgetown Bites reader told me that a new business called the Oregon City Market is opening in the Historic Waterfront District in downtown Oregon City. Their soft opening was yesterday, Tuesday, March 3, there’s a ribbon-cutting today, and they are doing a grand opening celebration this weekend, from Friday March 6 to Sunday March 8.

We wrote a short entry about them in last Friday’s Small Bites, but I was curious to learn more, so I sat down to chat with Jana Daisy-Ensign, one of the market’s owners. Here’s some of what we talked about.

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