A New Pop-Up Brings Vegetable-Heavy Weekend Lunches to Enso Winery [Updated]

A new Portland pop-up is reinvigorating the food scene among Portland’s urban wineries. Gusto, pronounced “gust-oh,” is a new vegetable and seafood-heavy pop-up from chef Kyle Christy, the former head chef at Dame, and Jessie Manning, Dame’s lead server who has worked there since the restaurant opened; together, they’re bringing a new lunch program to Enso Winery.

The duo started with Monday night pop-ups at Teutonic Wine Company’s hot-rod red tasting room, which involved fish sandwiches, chowders, salt cod fritters, and other seafood, as well as vegetable sides alongside the winery’s Germanic-influenced wines. The menu was inspired by Christy’s childhood trips to the coast, and used exclusively Pacific Northwest seafood, mostly Oregon.

Now, after a brief stint at Bar Norman, they’ve brought lunch pop-ups to Enso Winery’s rustic warehouse tasting room space. “I don’t really like brunch food, I like to eat lunch, so I figured I’d just do it myself,” said Christy. “My personal taste: I don’t want to eat a pound a french toast.” To that end, the duo is presenting a three-to-four-plate lunch for $33 with a different menu each week. Often the focus is on fish, but Christy doesn’t want to limit himself: Some weekends will see vegetarian lunches, and others will be based on pork or lamb. Still, each meal will always include a strong vegetable element and a dessert. Example dishes range from lamb meatballs with labneh and strawberries to chocolate and coffee panna cotta with mascarpone.

Manning will head the wine program, creating flights to pair with lunch, and guests will be able to order from Enso’s wines. Gusto at Enso Winery runs Sundays from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m, and will pop up with monthly events at Teutonic.

Update, July 15, 2019, at 11:30 a.m.
This story has been updated to show that Gusto has moved to Enso Winery.

• Gusto [Official]
• Dame [Official]
• Teutonic Wine Company [Official]
• Enso Winery [Official]
• All Previous Enso Winery Coverage [EPDX]