John Gorham’s Shalom Y’All Will Replace Taylor Railworks in February 2018

Portland powerhouse chef John Gorham (Toro Bravo, Tasty N Alder) has taken over the Taylor Railworks lease at 117 SE Taylor to open the second location of Shalom Y’All. His partner in business and life, Renee Gorham, tells Eater Shalom Y’All aims to put the fire beneath its Mediterranean-style plates in mid-February 2018.

“It’ll be a full service dining operation open daily for lunch and dinner,” she says, “and fill the dining void in the SE Industrial neighborhood.”

Compared with the tiny, always busy, downtown location, the new Shalom Y’All can seat more than 70 and will have an open kitchen and sizable bar area. The menu will remain rooted in kebabs and hummuses, but it’ll also add some of the most popular plates from the Gorhams’ Mediterranean Exploration Co., including Chreim​e, “a ​Tripolitany ​J​ewish fish stew​,” and baked eggplant​ with ​ground lamb​ and feta​.

Dina Avila/EPDX

Shalom Y’All Southeast is also expanding in the bread department, baking Israeli pita and Yemenite Kubaneh (Renee Gorham describes the latter as “almost a savory croissant, a yeasty pull-apart roll”). Other Israeli street foods will join the menu from a research trip John Gorham, Toro Bravo Inc. executive chef Kasey Mills, and chef Natalie Gullish will take to Israel this winter.

And there’s big news on the booze front: The Gorhams are now distilling their own arak, the Levantine alcohol, with a release party on December 10. Overseeing the Shalom Y’All bar program, Jamal Hassan is designing a drinks list that’ll put arak front and center.

Shalom Y’All has picked up steam since leaving its Pine Street Market digs in January 2017 and reopening on Southwest Alder. Those creative hummuses have now outgrown the tiny venue.

• Shalom Y’All [Official]
• All Previous Shalom Y’All Coverage [EPDX]