Going Out No. 20: OK Omens
New chef. New menu. Same omen.
Welcome! This is the Going Out edition of Riley’s Recs, where I review a restaurant, bar, or activity here in Portland. Every Sunday, I also share Staying In recipe recommendations for your week. Don’t forget to check out pdxrecs.com for even more recommendations and follow RR on Instagram at @rileysrecs. Enjoy!
Meal: Dinner
Price for two including tip: $226
To eat: Kelp cured raw trout, mackerel in celery vinaigrette, raw & marinated vegetables, steak diane, leeks & wild winter mushrooms, and beef fat cruller.
To drink: Dry Lightning Bolt Riesling x2 and Textural Hungarian White x2
Earlier this year, when my brother and I were eating dinner at a well-known restaurant in Austin, he asked for a side of hot sauce. The server replied, “You should try a bite first.”
You should try a bite. Like we were five years old.
Moments like this one perpetuate the idea that restaurants—especially those that climb in entrée price—can be stuffy, unwelcoming places.
Wine bars battle an even stiffer reputation with their history of snobbery and turtlenecks and dusty vintages. But at OK Omens, the wine-focused restaurant on the corner of SE Hawthorne and Poplar, there will be no such condescension.
Playful wine descriptions like “Tastes like slip n sliding naked through a wet cave” and monikers like “Riesling That’s Almost Old Enough to Buy a Cigarette” dispel concerns of uppity staff or intimidating cuisine. There’s nothing as disarming as humor.
The menu, which was recently updated by the restaurant’s new head chef Joseph Papas, is filled with familiar comfort foods that set the tone for the meal. Although the beloved burger has been stripped from the menu (a brave choice to kill your darlings), you’ll find fried chicken, steak fries, pickle plates, and even a cruller donut for dessert.
True, these bar favorites are tucked between more delicate choices like the kelp-cured raw trout, raw beef on tallow toast, and leeks & wild winter mushrooms. But no one would bat an eye if you ordered a plate of fried chicken alongside a 14-year-old pinot noir.
You could probably even ask for hot sauce.
“Restrained and delicate” is how Portland Monthly’s Karen Brooks described OK Omens’ legacy restaurant, Castagna, that occupied the building next door until it closed in 2020. Now OK Omens, which was opened as a casual spin-off, emulates the style it inherited from Castagna even as it transitions chefs and menus.
There’s the mackerel, tiny cuts of fish lined up like barges in a sea of olive oil and vinegar—a dish borrowed from Chef Papas’ time at Sarde in Mexico City. And the steak diane, an expertly cooked slab of meat doused in a deep red pool of cognac, butter, and shallot.
Classic dishes like the pickle plate and bread are elevated with a touch of personality; the vegetables on the pickle plate are charred before pickling, resulting in a bite so delicious that I stole the remaining carrots for myself without asking my dining partner. And the Ken’s Artisan bread is served with a house-made butter infused with a similar smokiness.
OK Omens may have opened as a less serious alternative to fine dining, but it flirts with high-end cuisine. It’s high-low food that’s equally as approachable as it is ambitious.
Everything on the menu reflects Chef Papas’ Portland culinary upbringing— from working at Tusk during the “vegetable renaissance” of the mid 2010s to the hyper-seasonality of Coquine to the nostalgic favorites of Davenport. I find it rewarding and refreshing to see a chef who not only grew up with the same restaurants I did, but who is around my age and making a name for himself.
Wine is everything at OK Omens. Its wine director and co-owner, Brent Braun, was named Food & Wine Magazine's Sommelier of the Year in 2017 and has been nominated for many James Beard awards.
He’s curated a wine list that ranges from naturals to aged pinots. Bottles start at around $60 and go well into the three figures. The whole thing made me Google “somm classes portland” after a recent visit. To see someone be so excellent at their work is contagious.
In that vein, call me emotional but reading a section of the wine list dedicated to a 10+ year old Riesling collection nearly brought a tear to my eye:
“Back in 2014 at Castagna (our now shuttered sister restaurant) I got obsessed with the idea of an aged Riesling list - a list where every wine had at least 10 years of age. One problem...we had no aged Riesling in the cellars. So I started hoarding. And hoarding. And hoarding. Well, gradually, then suddenly, 10 years passed by and it’s now finally time to offer some of our treasures. This list is a starting point. Every year it will be refreshed with a batch of perfectly aged, 10 year old wine from our cellars. Thank you to all the wine lovers who supported us over the last decade - this list is a small gift to you. We wouldn’t be here without you.”
Whether it’s an aged bottle or a pour of sparkling wine, you can’t go wrong with your wine order at OK Omens. But if wine isn’t your thing, there’s a short but pleasing cocktail list that includes drinks like the Penny Poyalty— a hibiscus infused cocktail so tart it will make you pucker—and beer and nonalcoholic options.
Restaurants like OK Omens are in a state of perpetual reinvention. Owners have to balance reactivity (should we put a Dubai chocolate-themed dessert on the menu?) with consistency (we can’t get rid of our gin fizz even if it takes bartenders a full five minutes to make). Not to mention the usual factors like changing economies, seasons, and diner preferences.
One of the ways restaurant groups respond to an ever-changing environment is through diversification. Basically, you open one restaurant for your wealthier, bougier bunch. Another for mid-range diners. And potentially another still for everyday eating. Not to mention adding wine clubs, product distribution, and catering. This personalization helps mitigate risk, weather changing market demands, and increase revenue streams.
Countless examples come to mind: Le Pigeon and Canard; Bread & Ink and Waffle Window; Ken’s Artisan Pizza and Ken’s Artisan Bakery.
OK Omens, too. First came Castagna, then Castagna Cafe. Now, Omens.
But sometimes the child outgrows the parent, as it did here with Castagna. Portland does not seem to have the appetite or the pocket book for fine dining. With establishments like Quaintrelle and Okta closing at a rapid clip, the market is making its preferences clear (
has a great writeup on this).To be fair, OK Omens’ menu, although approachable, is still not affordable for many Portlanders. Expect around $16-28 per plate. But if the price tag is daunting—like it is for many right now—there’s Machetes, the Mexico City inspired pop-up that serves quesadillas and tostadas and operates out of OK Omens every Sunday and Monday night.
Whether you go to OK Omens for happy hour, dinner, or the pop-up, you’ll be sure to stay for a long time. I can’t quite put my finger on what the OK Omens team does that makes you forget the hour. But when I checked by phone after leaving on a recent visit it was somehow 10 p.m. Candles were still glimmering inside as the kitchen wrapped up service. Ready to do it all again the next day. And, hopefully, for another 10 years to come.
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