Old Salt Marketplace Is Closing at the End of July

Old Salt Marketplace, a meat-focused modern American restaurant, butcher shop, and deli, will be serving its last pork shoulder or deli sandwich at the end of July. The five-year-old restaurant announced in a newsletter that Old Salt will shutter July 31, specifically referring to the high cost of ethical business.

We opened with strong guiding principles: always make sure that we are paying our ranchers and farmers enough that they can afford to eat in our establishment anytime. Pay our staff enough that they can eat off-shift any time. And still keep prices affordable enough that our community can afford to come in and eat as regularly as possible. We have been very proud in holding up those principles. As the market has gotten tougher in Portland for restaurants, and our margins began to get slimmer, we foresaw a time when we may have to sacrifice those guiding principles in order to keep the business viable. Rather than do that, we decided to close on a high note.

When the restaurant first opened, Alex Ganum, Ben Meyer, and Marcus Hoover wanted to focus on American-made products with whole-animal butchery and head-turning cocktails. It quickly made a splash: Since its first year, Old Salt has held a spot on the Oregonian’s Top 40. In its first year, it was Willamette Week’s runner-up for restaurant of the year.

The newsletter assured fans that Grain and Gristle, the companion restaurant to the Old Salt on Prescott, would not be going anywhere, and would likely be carrying some of the marketplace’s more popular items. “I wouldn’t steal the Ham Hocks or those dry-aged steaks away from you,” the piece read.

Those concerned about Mae, which has operated as a pop-up out back of Old Salt since January of 2016, need not worry, as the Southern dinner series is moving to wine-focused restaurant Dame until it opens its own brick-and-mortar. The multi-room restaurant space also housed the popular cake shop Miss Zumstein, which intends to stay open. “It’ll be a change, but we’ll be just fine.” Bill Jones of Miss Zumstein said. “They’ve been good neighbors.”

• Old Salt Marketplace [Official]
• Old Salt Marketplace newsletter
• Introducing Old Salt Marketplace, Now Open on NE 42nd [EPDX]
• Top 40 Restaurants [The O]
• Old Salt: 2014 Restaurant of the Year Runner-Up [WWeek]
• All Old Salt coverage [EPDX]
• All Grain & Gristle coverage [EPDX]
• Miss Zumstein’s Cakes and Desserts Now Open in Old Salt [EPDX]
• Mae Settles in Behind Old Salt Marketplace [EPDX]