Miami Chef Opening Brunch Spot in Former Sok Sab Bai Space

The recently shuttered Sok Sab Bai space has a new tenant. Willamette Week reports Miami chef Micah Edelstein, a Top Chef Miami contestant (season 3) and native of South Africa, is moving to Portland and opening a brunch spot called the Feisty Lamb.

We checked in with Edelstein, who recently shuttered neMesis, her popular 4-year-old, 30-seat Miami bistro, to find out what prompted the move and what her plans are. "After selling neMesis in December, my daughter and I commenced a scouting trip around the U.S. and fell in love with Portland," she wrote in an email. "I have always dreamed of having a restaurant in an old house, and thus this space called to me."

Edelstein is known for creating surprising dishes using exotic ingredients and influences from her native South Africa (think kangaroo carpaccio with rooibos-tea-smoked tomato oil).  She says she and her 10-year-old daughter are world travelers who have visited every continent together except for Antarctica, and she'll bring that penchant for global flavors to her "cozy, quirky, brunch spot." She expects to arrive in town some time in mid-April and says, "I will be pushing myself hard to commence a month and a half turn around time  (finger's crossed) for re-imagining, redecorating, and reinvigorating the old Victorian to embrace my new concept." If all goes according to plan, she'll have Feisty Lamb up and running by June.