Breaking NoPo Foodie News: Encanto To Close Doors Saturday Night, Cafe Cubano to Open Monday.

[Byron Beck]

NoPo food lovers just got hit right where it hurts: right in the stomach.
I just got off the phone with Michael Martinez, the really cool owner/chef of one of Oregon's only New Mexican cuisine outlets, Encanto, on North Lombard. He told me tonight, Saturday, Nov. 29, will be the last night for his restaurant. "I think we were a little bit ahead of the curve as far the neighborhood goes," said Martinez. "And the economy sure hasn't helped us either." Martinez, who used to run an incredible kitchen out of the rock club, Satyricon, says he has sold the business to someone named Don Morris who, from what I understand, will reopen the restaurant as Cafe Cubano as soon as Monday. When I asked Martinez what he plans to do next, he says he's going back to college to finish up his teaching degree and "hopes to never be stuck inside a restaurant kitchen ever again."
Photo from Portland Mercury.

[ivy]

Aw geez. That is too bad, I love Chef Martinez's cooking. He is brilliant. I am sorry to see Encanto was so good that PDX never caught on. Your lamb will be missed, Michael.