Ava Gene's Executive Chef Launches Tusk Middle Eastern Restaurant

After a month of rumormongering, Portland Monthly confirms it: The talented team behind the LaMama's pop-up, headed by chef Sam Smith, will take over the former Levant restaurant space on East Burnside.

The new restaurant is named Tusk, apparently after a Fleetwood Mac album, and it will serve a Pacific Northwest take on Middle Eastern food in a youthful setting. Here's another twist: Ava Gene's chef Joshua McFadden serves as creative director for the project, and it will be the first project from his newly minted restaurant group, Submarine Hospitality, founded with New York restaurateur Luke Dirks. Here's what you need to know:

Where:

• 2448 E Burnside, formerly home to Levant, one of 2015's saddest restaurant closings

Projected Opening:

• mid-June 2016

The Players:

• Joshua McFadden, executive chef of Ava Gene's and Roman Candle. McFadden says his role at Tusk is to serve as creative director, and he'll let Smith do the cooking. "It's time for Sam to shine," he says.
  
• Luke Dirks, co-founder of Submarine Hospitality with McFadden and the former managing partner of Happy Cooking Hospitality, a New York restaurant group. Dirks brings years of experience developing restaurants in New York's West Village, and he was born in Vancouver, Canada, and went to school in Salem, Oregon.
• Sam Smith, former chef de cuisine at Ava Gene's and one of the country's preeminent Middle Eastern restaurants, Zahav, in Philadelphia. Smith will serve as chef partner at Tusk.
• Wesley Johnson, former chef at Castagna Cafe and part of the team that opened Zahav
• Tyler Stevens, renowned mixologist with experience at one of the city's cocktail institutions, Teardrop Lounge
• Nora Antene, quickly rising pastry chef with experience at Le Pigeon and a 2014 Eater Young Gun's Semi-Finalist