Eater Names Portland’s Erizo One of the Best New Restaurants in the United States

Pacific Northwestern seafood destination Erizo continues to rake in the Eater acclaim. Months after its head chef and owner became an Eater Young Gun, the sustainable fine dining spot landed a place on Eater’s list of the best new restaurants in the United States.

Chef Jacob Harth opened Erizo in February, leaving the restaurant next door — Spanish stunner Bar Casa Vale — to pursue radically sustainable fine dining. He and chef de cuisine Nicholas Van Eck began serving seafood platters consisting of not only Oregon-local fish, but species that are overpopulating local bays, reefs, and ocean. Various bycatch — or seafood accidentally caught by fishing boats — find spots on weekly menus, as well as shellfish and seaweed harvested by Harth himself.

Eater’s Meghan McCarron described Erizo as “the first to bring Portland’s DIY approach to fishing in a meaningful way,” finding the restaurant not only politically interesting but culinarily noteworthy:

A dish of chopped-up local horse clam is fresh and sweet; the clam is abundant, but there is no commercial market for it, so the restaurant harvests their portion themselves. The geoduck is harvested by the Quinault tribe, who have the right to forage this luxury ingredient in the Pacific Northwest. Both arrived as part of the meal’s showstopper, a massive shellfish tray, which puts all others to shame for both beauty and inventiveness. By the time the final savory course — a colossal halibut collar with a soft pillow of parkerhouse rolls — arrives, sustainability doesn’t just sound like a worthwhile compromise.

Erizo is one of 16 restaurants to make the list, including Tacos 1986 and Nightshade in Los Angeles, Atomix and Kopitiam in New York, and Call Your Mother in Washington D.C. The full list went live earlier this morning.

• Erizo [Official]
• The 16 Best New Restaurants in America [Eater]
• Portland Chef Jacob Harth Hits The 2019 Eater Young Guns List [EPDX]
• Previous Erizo coverage [EPDX]