Silver Linings

The woes of Portland created fresh opportunities for Black-owned start-ups.

- Tony Perrottet

THE BACKSTORY OF Kann, a wood-fired Haitian restaurant, is not your typical rise-from-the-ashes tale. Gregory Gourdet, a chef whose parents immigrated from Haiti to Queens, New York, in the 1960s, started out with a two-day pop-up in the summer of 2020, when Portland was locked down from COVID and embroiled in Black Lives Matter protests.

His Caribbean-meets-Pacific Northwest cuisine immediately found a following. Four months later, Kann (entrées $21-$60) traded its digs at a grilled-chicken restaurant for the Redd, a "food campus" in Portland's Central Eastside, where patrons dined on dishes like butterfish crudo with watermelon shaved ice. Soon after, Gourdet landed an elegant permanent home on Southeast Ash Street. A stream of accolades have since rolled in, including best new restaurant awards from both the James Beard Foundation and Esquire.

Kann's ascent stands out as a bright spot in a city that has recently gone through some dark patches. Four years ago, this quirky and progressive town, famously satirized by the TV show Portlandia, was designated an "anarchist jurisdiction" by the Trump Administration after three months of protests. When the dust settled, the city found itself mired in another crisis: a fentanyl epidemic that led Oregon leaders to declare a state of emergency. Retailers like REI shuttered stores, camps for the unhoused sprung up, and real estate values sank.

But an unexpected silver lining has emerged.

Restaurants, bookshops, and other stores owned by people of color have begun thriving, helped by public support, more affordable rents, and patronage from city and nonprofit agencies. It is a remarkable shift for a city with a complex racial history. As recently as 2016, Portland was dubbed the "whitest city in America" by the Atlantic. Now that image is finally changing, as entrepreneurs like Gourdet help lead Portland's revitalization.