How Portland's vibrant food culture is helping fuel downtown recovery
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Inside Flock, the ground-floor food hall within the Ritz-Carlton, there are six locally-owned restaurants. Photo: Meira Gebel/Axios
As downtown Portland struggles to regain its prepandemic vibrancy, the city is betting on the region's food scene as a key driver in its recovery efforts.
Why it matters: Several recent food-focused projects, with the help of city investment, could play a big role in bringing necessary foot traffic back to the city's urban core and jumpstarting its sputtering economic engine.
- "So goes our downtown, so goes our region, and really, so goes Oregon," Lisa Abuaf, the interim deputy executive director of Prosper Portland, the city's economic development agency, told Axios.
Between the lines: Prior to the pandemic, downtown Portland's food scene largely catered to office workers. Now, with the prevalence of remote work, office vacancy rates have hit new heights and foot traffic has only increased slightly over the last four years.
- That's where Portland's thriving culinary culture comes in — and has shaped the kinds of projects leaders are investing in for future growth, Abuaf said.
- "Coming out of COVID, we know restaurants are places that people continue to go to in person," she said. "So those businesses have become anchors for our retail and business districts."
State of play: Earlier this month, Flock — the highly-anticipated, albeit long-delayed, food hall located on the ground floor of the Ritz-Carlton hotel — opened and includes six locally-owned restaurants, a brewery, wine bar and bakery.
- Across the street, the forthcoming Darcelle XV Plaza plans to uphold the old O'Bryant Square's significance as the city's "dining room."
- "I feel like this whole block is something that the city really needs," Ryan Moy, owner of Pan Roast, located inside Flock, told the Oregonian.
Flashback: Back in 2023, global tech company Expensify partnered with the city to remake one of Portland's oldest food cart pods adjacent to its headquarters.
- The space quickly turned into a destination, thanks to its roster of big name carts like Tokyo Sando, Stretch the Noodle, Bing Mi and more. It also has an events stage, beer garden, bathrooms, covered patio (that can seat up to 300) and security.
Next in the pipeline is the James Beard Public Market, a project nearly two decades in the making.
- In January, officials announced the $3 million purchase of the historic Ungar Building, located on SW Alder Street, and plan to use the adjacent Selling Building as the market's future site.
Plus: Chef Ryan Roadhouse plans to relocate Nodoguro, his award-winning omakase restaurant, to the mezzanine at Morgan's Alley — right around the corner from the proposed market site and surrounded by hotels.
What we're watching: Abuaf said Portland State University is looking into developing a retail strategy to revitalize its section of downtown, while conversations with Metro about what can be done to bring people into the Lloyd District and surrounding convention center are ongoing.