Lunch Program | March

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Pre-registration required. No walk-ups.

Portland Dining: The Recipe for Success

In honor of Portland dining month, CREW’s March luncheon will host three local restaurateurs who have all made their mark on the Portland restaurant scene. Please join us for a panel discussion including;

• Kurt Huffman of Chefs Table, parent company to such Portland favorites such as Grassa, Lardo, and Loyal Legion
• Cathy Whims of longtime favorite Nostrana and Oven and Shaker
• Jim Hall owner of Independent Restaurant Concepts, which includes North 45, Produce Row Café, and Paddy’s Bar and Grill

The panel will focus on the trends and challenges of the Portland culinary scene, including a special focus on the importance of the right real estate location and negotiating leases in the ever changing commercial market. Each restaurateur will share his or her personal challenges with building and maintaining successful restaurant brands in one of the hottest culinary cities in the US.

Kurt Huffman is a Portland boy, born and raised.   The seed of his passion for restaurant business began at Huffman’s first cooking class, when he was 10 years old. Four years later, he was working as a dishwasher and grill cook at Fat City Café in Multnomah Village. He went on to study at UC Berkeley, but at 25 he found himself in Scotland, balancing rugby and a good amount of beer drinking with a master’s degree in law from the University of Glasgow. He had beer in mind when a French friend asked him to collaborate on a business in Lyon, France. They settled on a brewery, “because it’s such an obvious thing to do at 25.” It turned into a gastropub called Ninkasi. By the time Huffman left France, there were five locations.

He returned to his hometown of Portland and founded ChefStable in 2008, with the mission to open culinary concepts geared toward the vision of individual chefs. From there the business has grown mostly by word of mouth and continues to get bigger everyday. Chefs Table now includes such names as Grassa, Lardo, and Loyal Legion to name a few.

Cathy Whim, a six-time James Beard Award finalist, opened Nostrana with her partner David West in 2005. Prior to establishing Nostrana, she was co-owner of Portland’s pioneering Italian restaurant, Genoa. Since then, she has helped open Oven & Shaker. In the course of her professional career, Cathy has studied with Marcella and Victor Hazan at their home in Venice, and Madeleine Kamman at the School for American Chefs. A never-ending curiosity takes Cathy to Italy often, where she continues to make new friendships and enjoy the complex flavors evoked by simple cooking.

Jim Hall is the chief executive officer of Independent Restaurant Concepts (IRC) an owner an owner-operated hospitality consultancy that contracts with, and manages a collective of Portland area restaurants which to name a few include, North 45 Pub, Paddy’s Bar and Grill, Produce Row and Circa 33.  Principle owners, Jim Hall and Josh Johnston, got their start in 2006 with their first property, North 45, and have since expanded the portfolio to eight brick and mortar properties as well as an offsite catering company and consulting arm. Prior to his involvement in IRC Jim was Operatiosn Manager for Vigor, LLC a leader in shipbuilding, ship repair, and fabrication.