SE Portland Is Getting a New Omakase Bar From an Accomplished Sushi Chef

Southeast Portland is getting a new, upscale omakase restaurant. Hinoki comes from chef Sam Saltos and John and Renee Gorham’s restaurant group Toro Bravo, and will be a 12-seat sushi bar focusing on local seafood and curated sake and wine.

Saltos is an Oregon native whose resume includes a stint as Departure’s lead sushi chef, as well as time at New York’s Morimoto, the Michelin-starred Acadia in Chicago, and the famous, Michelin-starred Noma in Copenhagen. Recently he was co-owner of Zilla Sake House, a sake and sushi bar in Northeast Portland.

With Hinoki, Saltos plans to take his experience with sushi and celebrate the seafood of the Pacific Northwest. “I want to focus on fine sushi with local fish,” he says in a press release. “We will still get fish from Japan, but we hope that highlighting local products might encourage more fine sushi bars in Portland to do the same and make local products more accessible from purveyors for all of us.” The service, offered twice a night, four days a week, will consist of a 15-to-20-course omakase program with sake and wine curated by Mindy Cook, beverage director for the restaurant group.

The intimate restaurant will be minimalist in style, with the bar and other parts of the space made from Port Orford cedar. It will be located at 4529 SE Division Street — in between Tasty n Daughters and Stumptown — with an anticipated opening of spring 2020. Before opening, it will have two small preview dinners at Plaza del Toro.

• Toro Bravo Inc. [Official]
• Departure [Official]
• Zilla Sake [Official]
• All Previous Zilla Sake Coverage [EPDX]