Sel Gris Portland Oregon

Rising kitchen star, Trent Pierce, to open new Portland restaurant Wafu

Before he reached 30, Trent Pierce was on a fast ascent as one of Portland's top young chefs at Fin restaurant. His rise was stunted when Fin's owner, Joan Dumas, closed the seafood restaurant in February after six months.

With the aid of omnipresent back office whiz Kurt Huffman and Kettleman Bagel Co. 's money man, Ben Blank, Pierce's sideline stay will be blissfully brief. His new restaurant, Wafu , is set to open Aug. 22 -- though a soft opening is expected later this week -- on Southeast Division Street.

Pierce, 31, is a 1997 graduate of Gresham's Barlow High School, where he excelled at track. His hope to continue with the sport at the University of Oregon was cut short by a weight-room back injury. Pierce left UO after two years and returned to Portland, where he decided to heed the family tradition and pursue a career as a cook.

His first restaurant job was in 2000 as a banquet cook for McMenamins' Black Rabbit in Troutdale. He spent seven years at Deep in Bend, getting a taste for Japanese cooking. He then spent time at Belly Timber and Foster Burger before taking the opportunity to run the kitchen at Fin.

Pierce spoke recently about Wafu -- which means "Japanese-style" -- along with his cooking past and future. Questions and answers have been edited.

Q: Before we get into Wafu specifically, what is it I hear about your pedigree as a local restaurant guy?

A: I'm the fifth generation of my family in the Portland-area food service business. Some of the places no one's probably heard of, but my great-great-grandmother was a candy maker for Van Duyn's (which opened in 1927) and my grandfather owned The River Queen (a ferry boat-turned-restaurant that closed in 1995, after more than 30 years docked along the Willamette River).

Q: What was the inspiration for Wafu?

A: The concept of a Japanese ramen house was what I first wanted to do at the Fin location, but Joan wasn't interested.

Otto restaurant opens in former Fin/Sel Gris space in Southeast ...

Francis and Kim Stanton's love affair with Oregon began with a simple visit. Then another. And another. Until finally the Michigan restaurateurs decided it was time to quit visiting and move here for good.

They spent the recent New Year's holiday visiting several restaurant sites in Portland. Only one caught their eye: a low-slung brick building in on Hawthorne Blvd.

Problem was, the space was already occupied by seafood restaurant Fin.

"God, this restaurant is perfect," Kim Stanton recalled thinking. "It's little, with an open kitchen, clean lines. We could practically run it ourselves with our kids helping out. Too bad it's not for sale."

Soon after they returned to Michigan, a broker called to tell them it was. Fin had closed unexpectedly and the space was available .

Otto, the restaurant the couple opened this week in the former Fin space, is named for Kim's late father, who was a partner in the Michigan restaurants. (The restaurant has no connection to Otto's Sausage Kitchen in Southeast Portland or in Southwest, and will not be serving specifically German food)
 
Francis Stanton and the couple's teenage son have already moved to Portland , opening Otto and moving into a small home in Northwest with views of the mountains. Kim Stanton will soon leave Michigan, where she and her daughter were closing the family's most recent restaurant, Modern Food and Spirits.

The couple is looking for a larger home, perhaps five acres, where they can grow tomatoes and other produce for their restaurant.

"We're used to harvesting out of our garden and we're used to using things that come into season," Kim Stanton said. "That's partially why we felt Oregon would be such a good fit."

Stanton said the couple isn't worried about moving into the space, which has seen the high-profile closures of Fin and also Sel Gris, The Oregonian's rising star of the year in 2008, in the past two years.

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