— Overlook Restaurant, the 43-year-old Greek staple on Skidmore (and member of the “Portland restaurants with their own Wikipedia page“ club), closes in just under three weeks. Willamette Week reported the news in December, with owners Jim and Jane Sassalos reportedly selling the restaurant, which will likely be bulldozed to make way for a five story apartment complex. Rumblings of the Overlook’s demise aren’t new, particularly given that the Sassaloses had previously commented that they’d happily sell and retire if the right offer was made. Meanwhile, there’s about three weeks left to stop by for an obscenely large cinnamon bun served in the part-lottery machine lounge, part-family restaurant setting. There’s even a Facebook page for Overlook regulars to mourn together.
It was recently announced that the Overlook Restaurant would close on Jan 22nd, 2018. This is very sad news to longtime...
Posted by Displaced Overlook Restaurant patrons on Sunday, December 17, 2017
— Shiny new Portland chainlet Heart Pizza has closed its West End location on SW 13th Avenue. It’s a slightly ominous sign: the fast-casual pizza restaurant (from Micah Camden of Little Big Burger and Blue Star Donuts fame) was only birthed in early 2017, with the West End outlet as the first to start serving up Neapolitan-style pies, closely followed by another two openings. The locations in South Waterfront and near the Lloyd Center are still open as normal.
— Sellwood-Moreland deli and sandwich spot Feastworks closed for business on December 23 after three and a half years. In a statement, owner Ashley Bisagna explained that her family has moved outside of Portland, and the added commute was taking away time to spend with them.
— In case you missed it, Irvington gourmet food and wine store Foster & Dobbs shut up shop at the end of November. In a message posted to the store’s website, the owners note that the lease was up at the end of November and they decided to reevaluate their business model, suggesting that they’ll be back with something new “outside of the retail market”. Could that be a restaurant? They say they want to keep working with specialty food, so that seems plausible. [Portland Food and Drink]
