Portobello serves Northwest vegan craft cookery with a Mediterranean bent in an upscale yet casual environment.

Is this your first restaurant?

No. My first restaurant opened in 2002 in Jacksonville, Florida, and was far from being vegan.

When did Portobello open?

Portobello opened in January 2009.

Do you want to have more than one restaurant?

I would love the opportunity to explore some other concepts. I hope to open other restaurants, perhaps in other parts of the country, in the future.

What’s your favorite dish on the menu?

That’s a hard one. I think I consistently turn to the gnocchi. While we change up the gnocchi with the seasons, those pillowy little dumplings, which I love, stay the same.

What’s your most popular appetizer?

I’d say our beet tartare is our most popular. Though our mushroom frites and our cashew cheese–stuffed sweety peps are close seconds.

What’s the most popular entrée on the menu?

I think the gnocchi is the most popular, with ravioli coming in a close second.

What’s your most popular dessert?

Probably our take on tiramisu. It’s been on the menu since day one, and it’s the only dish that hasn’t changed at all since opening.

What do you feel is special about your restaurant?

We offer a unique take on vegan cuisine. We certainly aren’t a health-food restaurant. We’re strictly in it to show folks that they don’t have to eat animals or animal products to enjoy a decadent meal.

How often do you change your menu items? Do you have daily or weekly specials?

We reprint our menu nightly with at least one or two changes. We’re (happily) at the mercy of the local farms that we source from.

Do you have gluten-free, soy-free, and sugar-free options on your menu?

Our menu is virtually soy-free and we offer many gluten-free options. Both are clearly indicated on the menu. We don’t offer any sugar-free desserts, per se. We use evaporated cane juice, agave syrup, and maple to sweeten our desserts.

What do you do to reduce your environmental impact?

We compost all food scraps, which is actually very easy to do in Portland, Oregon, as our waste management provider picks up our compost and processes it. We also recycle everything we can. There is a Dumpster for most recycling, one can for glass, one can for garbage, and six cans for compost. Most of our employees arrive to work by bicycle, and we employ a work bike for neighborhood pickups and deliveries.

What are the most important lessons you’ve learned as owner or chef of this restaurant?

Listen. Listen to your customers and listen to your staff. Make changes where necessary. Never worry about being right, just about being better.

What led you to want to open a vegan restaurant, and/or what led you to the vegan diet yourself?

I had an epiphany while at my old restaurant, where I served foie gras, veal, etc. I realized I needed to make a change. The changes came gradually, and I eventually closed my restaurant down. I felt something inside that told me that I needed to stop and look at what I was doing, how it was affecting the animals caught up in this horrible system, and the impact it had on the health of the environment and my clientele. I moved to Portland, Oregon, sold my car, got on a bike, went vegan, and never looked back.

In the time since your restaurant first opened, how has the plant-based food movement changed? Do you find more demand now for vegan food?

There is an incredible increase not only in demand, but in the wonderful array of products available. I don’t know if my palate has adjusted, but it seems that the products available to us today are a far cry from the vegan products of yesteryear. Cheese is a big one, with the advent of artisanal vegan cheeses. The analogue meats, too, are incredible, though we don’t serve them at Portobello.

Since your restaurant first opened, has your view of what constitutes healthy or delicious foods changed? Have you changed the types of foods you offer?

I have removed a ton of soy from the menu. You’ll find it on the cheese plate with the Chao Cheese and in the tiramisu. Otherwise, it’s gone. A lot of my customers were concerned with overconsuming soy. And we also used to employ more convenience products, like sausages and chik’n when we first opened. We pride ourselves on making all of those types of things in-house now. We have much more of an emphasis on getting vegetables into the mix, rather than relying on mock meats and grains.

Where do you see the plant-based food movement going in coming years?

I think that we’ll see more and more omnivorous restaurants offering vegan options. It’s sort of bittersweet. I’m happy that folks might eat more vegan food, and that vegans can find things to eat out in the marketplace, but it saddens me that we [as a community will] continue to be complicit in the aiding of business that contribute to the slaughter of animals. I would like to see more exclusively vegan restaurants, but that’s a hard sell outside of major metropolitan areas that can support such establishments.

Butternut Gnocchi with Brussels Leaves, Butternut Velouté, Pepitas, and Pumpkin Seed Oil

Serves 4

4 tablespoons toasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds)

1 tablespoon olive oil

20 Brussels sprouts

Butternut Velouté (recipe follows)

2 tablespoons grapeseed oil

Butternut-Potato Gnocchi (recipe follows)

1 clove garlic, minced

Salt and pepper, to taste

8 leaves fresh sage, chopped

4 teaspoons pumpkin seed oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spread pepitas on a cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Toss to coat evenly. Sprinkle with salt evenly. Toast in the oven for 7 minutes. Remove and let cool. Store in a sealed container until needed.

Clean the Brussels sprouts, paring off their stems and removing any blemished outer leaves in the process. In a bowl, peel the outer leaves, leaf by leaf, as far down as you can go. You’ll end up with several tiny Brussels sprout cores, which you can use in another recipe. Set the Brussels leaves aside for this dish. Heat up the Butternut Velouté in a saucepot, stirring often and taking care not to burn it. Place a sauté pan on the stove and heat it up on medium-high. Add the grapeseed oil to the sauté pan. Add the gnocchi in the pan carefully. Pan-fry them to a golden brown on both sides. When you flip the gnocchi the first time, add the raw Brussels leaves to the pan. Toss the gnocchi and leaves together. Add the minced garlic and continue to sauté, tossing often to ensure even cooking. Add a ladle of the butternut sauce to the pan and toss to coat evenly. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

To plate, place a ladleful of sauce on each plate. Use the back of the bowl of the ladle to swirl the sauce evenly into a large circle on the plates. Carefully spoon the gnocchi and Brussels sprouts leaves into the center of each plate. Sprinkle the plates with pepitas and sage. Drizzle with roasted pumpkin seed oil and serve.

Butternut-Potato Gnocchi

Serves 4

4 cups large chunks butternut squash, peeled and seeded

5 cups large chunks peeled russet potatoes

2 cups unbleached fine wheat flour, plus more for dusting

⅓ cup Ener-G Egg Replacer

¼ clove whole nutmeg, freshly grated

½ tablespoon finely ground sea salt

4 tablespoons olive oil

Equipment needed: stovetop steamer, potato ricer, and flour sieve

Put a steamer pot on the stove with water and bring up to a boil. Put a large pot of salted water on the stove on high to blanch the gnocchi later. Place the butternut squash and potatoes in the steamer, and steam until fork-tender, approximately 30 minutes.

When fork tender, remove from the steamer and pass the potatoes and butternut through a potato ricer onto a clean, wooden surface, preferably a maple-top table or large cutting board. Sieve the flour and Ener-G Egg Replacer over the top of the potatoes and butternut. Rasp the nutmeg over the top of the flour. Sprinkle the salt all around on top. Create a well in the top of the mound of ingredients and pour the oil inside. Using a dough cutter, pastry cutter, or large cleaver, chop all the ingredients together, trying not to work the dough too much. When the dough is as homogenous as possible using the cutter, start to gather it together with your hands (taking care not to burn yourself if the dough is still hot). Knead lightly.

The dough should be smooth and may be slightly softer than a plain potato gnocchi dough. Dust with flour as needed to keep the dough from getting too sticky. Portion the dough into 4 pieces and scrape your table or board nice and clean. Dust a little flour on your work surface and, using both hands, roll one of the dough portions out in a long snake, about ½" thick. Dust enough so it doesn’t stick, but not too much where it slides around on the table. Cut the snake into individual gnocchi.

Put together an ice bath in a bowl of 1 part ice, 2 parts cold water, and keep it near the pot. Check on the pot of salted water, making sure the pot is only simmering and not at a full boil, and drop about a third of the gnocchi into the pot. When the gnocchi are floating on the top, remove them with a slotted spoon and drop in the ice-water bath to stop their cooking. When done, remove the gnocchi from the ice bath and place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Continue to cook the gnocchi in batches. These can be made a day in advance if wrapped with plastic wrap.

Butternut Velouté

Serves 4

2 tablespoons grapeseed oil

1 medium yellow onion, peeled and chopped

Pinch salt, plus more to taste

1 large butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into mediumsize chunks

1 clove garlic, smashed

6 cups vegetable stock

1 cinnamon stick

1 bay leaf

1 star anise seed

Freshly grated nutmeg, to taste

Place a saucepot on the stove over medium heat, adding the oil. Add the onion to the pot along with a pinch of salt. Slowly cook the onion in the oil, stirring often, until translucent. Add the butternut squash and garlic, stirring well to integrate. Add the vegetable stock to the pot. If the squash is not covered with liquid, add enough to water to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Add the cinnamon, bay leaf, and star anise to the pot. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until the butternut is totally tender. Remove the pot from the heat. Remove the bay leaf, star anise, and cinnamon stick from the pot and discard. Ladle the mix into a blender, making sure to only fill the blender halfway. Blend until smooth and pour into a container you will store the sauce in. Continue until all of the butternut sauce is blended. Adjust the seasoning with the salt and nutmeg.