On a recent weekday, chef and Big’s Chicken co-owner Ben Bettinger scooped blackened Fresno chile peppers from a rotary roaster outside the restaurant in downtown Beaverton. Inside, a crowd of customers lunched on chicken sandwiches sauced in the peppers.

Also on Southwest Watson Avenue, a short line formed at the sidewalk window of The Whole Bowl. Close by, others slaked their thirst at Loyal Legion, a bar with 72 beers on tap.

It was a scene that would not be out of place in Portland’s trendy commercial corridors. But it was in Beaverton, the Washington County suburb perhaps best known as the home of Nike‘s corporate headquarters.

Downtown Beaverton in 2022 looks very much like Portland circa 2019.

In addition to the three aforementioned businesses, Great Notion Brewing, Ex Novo Brewing, The Sudra, Afuri Izakaya, Salt & Straw and Top Burmese were born in Portland and expanded into Beaverton. Another, Breakside Brewery, is in permitting to open a Beaverton location.

When the pandemic hit, suburban real estate saw an uptick in popularity as urban areas were hit with rising vacancies and lower rents. Businesses such as restaurants followed their customers by opening in Beaverton, Hillsboro, Lake Oswego and other suburbs.

In Beaverton, the trends were sharpened by recruitment efforts and grants from the city government. Restaurateurs said they were lured by opportunity – fewer competitors and a large employment base led by Nike and Intel – and a red-carpet welcome from the city.

“At the time, it just seemed like a pretty untapped area,” said Bettinger, co-owner of Your Neighborhood Restaurant Group, which owns Big’s Chicken, Laurelhurst Market, Ate-Oh-Ate and other restaurants.

Big’s Chicken opened first on Northeast Glisan Street in Portland in 2017 before expanding to Beaverton in August 2018. The business was aided by a Beaverton storefront improvement grant that paid for a neon sign made by Ramsay Signs in Portland’s Holgate neighborhood.

“Every step of the way, the city (of Beaverton) was there to support us,” Bettinger said. “It’s not like you feel in Portland sometimes.”

Beaverton’s efforts to lure restaurants began about six years ago, said Michael Williams, economic development manager for the city. In meetings with Washington County’s top employers, the business officials told city staff that Beaverton needed more to do to attract top talent.

“They wanted it to have more restaurants and food carts and breweries,” he said.

The city of Beaverton offered matching grants for tenant improvements to convert non-restaurant spaces into restaurants. The city spent approximately $1.5 million on 30 grants, which flowed from federal funds.

“It’s been wildly successful,” Williams said. “I think we had a good strategy and we had good timing – a little luck, too.”

Loyal Legion overcame competition from other interested parties to lease a historic former bank building at the high-profile intersection of Southwest Farmington Road and Watson Avenue. The beer hall was planned before the pandemic, but didn’t open until November 2021.

“We moved on this space once it became available,” General Manager Adam Keefe said.

Both Bettinger and Keefe mentioned unprompted that Beaverton diners, accustomed to table service, had some trouble getting used to counter service. Eateries have increasingly moved to counter service to save on labor costs.

The boom in Beaverton’s restaurant sector is inextricably tied up with other social and economic trends. Population growth in Washington County has outpaced that of Multnomah County and the state. Washington County grew 0.8 percent from July 2020 to July 2021 to 605,036 residents, according to Census data collected by the Portland State University Population Research Center.

Beaverton opened the 43,000-square-foot, $55 million Patricia Reser Center for the Arts in February. The cultural showpiece is near The Round, where government offices and a MAX light-rail stop come together. A food cart pod, BG Food Cartel, is a short walk away. The cart pod includes some food carts that left Portland for the suburb, including The Frying Scotsman, a fish-and-chips cart that was displaced by construction of the Block 216 Ritz-Carlton tower.

“Now we’re hoping it will bring high-density housing near the MAX stops and maybe an office or two, because offices are looking for amenitized spaces,” he said. “It’ll be tax base for the city, and I think the residents are liking the choices they have.”

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As the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic stretch into their sixth month, an increasing number of Portland’s locally owned restaurants and shops are closing locations permanently. In some instances, new tenants are moving into those spaces in some of the city’s hippest neighborhoods; however, other times those spaces are remaining vacant.

That’s putting pressure on landlords, who are broadly reluctant to evict tenants during a pandemic, when demand for space is low.

Restaurants in particular have been hit hard. Pok Pok Wing, Tasty n Alder, Blue Star Donuts, Abyssinian Kitchen and Stella Taco have closed locations permanently. Some others have survived by offering takeout and delivery. Indoor dining, while allowed under Gov. Kate Brown’s phase II order, has been less popular.

Brewpubs have begun to show signs of stress too: Base Camp Brewing and Grixsen Brewing closed in recent weeks.

Stella Taco opened its second location, on Southeast Division Street, in 2016. After the original location closed last summer, the second location closed last month. Nearby, Whiskey Soda Lounge, a bar that was part of the Pok Pok empire, closed as well.

“The financial challenges facing Stella and the other businesses on Division Street are representative of the challenges faced by retailers,” said Stan Amy, a Portland investor who is part of the ownership group that owns Stella Taco’s former building at 3050 S.E. Division St.

Amy also has ownership interest in the commercial building on the southwest corner of Northeast 24th Avenue and Fremont Street that holds Garden Fever, Lucca and other businesses. At one point, the owners were collecting only 10 percent of the usual rent there because some tenants simply couldn’t pay. Amy said it doesn’t make sense to evict businesses for nonpayment during the COVID-19 crisis.

“It’s a matter of self-interest,” he said. “It is not in a landlord’s interest … and it’s certainly not in the interest of the community, to evict a viable business.”

Amy said he takes a long-term view of doing everything possible to keep tenants in place.

“The tenants are the cash-flow engine that makes all of the real estate work,” he said. “It’s absolutely in our interest as landlords and community members to have healthy neighborhood commerce, and therefore we need to take a long-term point of view, and that’s what we’ve advocated with our tenants.”

There are signs that restaurant spaces in Portland’s neighborhood commercial corridors remain desirable even as some eateries go out of business. Stella Taco’s former location on Division Street was soon leased by another taqueria, Tight Tacos. Across the street, Whiskey Soda Lounge’s former space is gaining a new business: Oma’s Takeaway by Gado Gado.

And Pok Pok Wing’s former location on Milwaukie Avenue is being prepared for a barbecue restaurant, The Oregonian reported.

If there’s a silver lining to the closures, it’s that the vacancies could open up opportunities for new businesses, real estate professionals said.

“I’m optimistic about the entrepreneurship and the opportunities that will exist for folks,” said Peter Andrews, executive vice president of brokerage at Melvin Mark.

Still, the churn seems to be increasing as the pandemic stretches on.

“What we know is our particularly retail tenants that need foot traffic are incredibly impacted,” Andrews said. “Landlords are doing what they can to keep them, and being proactive, but this is going so long.”

Ethos Development‘s food-cart tenants have done fairly well with takeout during the pandemic, according to Paul Del Vecchio, the firm’s founding principal.

“I wouldn’t say it’s awesome, but we’re treading water,” he said.

Brick-and-mortar restaurant space, Del Vecchio said, is “a really bad place to be right now” for landlords.

Some are questioning why the federal government isn’t doing more to help landlords. While unemployed workers were given an extra $600 a month, landlords have received no help with their mortgages.

Amy supports United for Relief, a campaign by local property owners, developers and lenders to encourage government relief for commercial mortgages.

“Federal inaction is going to tank the economic recovery – not just in the state but across the nation,” he said.

Amy said he’s fortunate to be able to work with tenants on rent.

“For every property owner who’s in a position to reduce or waive rent, there are dozens who do not have the ability to do so,” he said. “This is an economic ecosystem problem. … It’s really important that we have system-wide solutions, and the only people who can offer that is the government.”

As local businesses close, Amy said he’s concerned well-capitalized chains backed by Wall Street will move in.

“Yes, I think that the character of our community is at risk,” he said.

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Earlier this week, I had the chance to walk down Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard to the latest food-cart-turned-restaurant, .

The restaurant, which opened just a few weeks ago, moved into a vacant building that was used as a breakfast diner for years.

I always thought the location of the property – on 12^th Avenue, across from the food carts – would be perfect for a late-night spot, so I’m happy to see Lardo, which makes delicious pork sandwiches until midnight most nights, move in.

From what I saw leading up to the move, quite a bit of interior construction work went into the building, including the addition of a new bar area. Perhaps the smartest thing the restaurant’s owners did, though, was to convert the building’s former parking lot into an outdoor seating area. During the summer, I’m sure that will get quite a bit of use.

More and more local food cart owners are moving into restaurant spaces and, from what I’ve seen, they’ve resulted in varying degrees of success. It’s a trend I hope to look into further in the upcoming weeks.

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, the Southeast Portland restaurant that bills itself as the “first certified, sustainable sushi restaurant in the world,” celebrated the opening of its second location on Saturday, this one on Northwest 23rd Avenue.

The restaurant is the second high-profile restaurant to open in the same building. The 1911-built Esquire Nob Hill Theatre is also home to the almost too popular Salt & Straw ice cream joint, which opened there in April.

The Bamboo Sushi renovation really transformed the second half of the building, most recently , what architect Ben Hufford called a “very small sort of miserable space.”

Hufford, a partner at , explained the restaurant design at the weekend press event. His speech came after most of the room had consumed two drinks and a flight of four sakes, and I’m pretty sure it included a jab at a critical table.

“To actually see people come into the space,” he said, “and hear good things and bad things – to hear that feedback when you don’t know who I am and I’m behind you when you’re discussing it – is really fantastic. That’s what’s fun.”

Hufford modeled the restaurant after the Southeast location, but he reinvented that restaurant’s four rooms and installed a larger bar. He also took advantage of the former theater’s high ceilings by including more volume in a room he called “the ballroom,” where whimsical LED lighting was hung by spindly wires.

Design Department has also designed the bars and on the east side. Hufford explained his preference for a design-build process in restaurant renovations.

“If you try to design it ahead of time,” he said, “you’ll get it wrong unless you’re really, really, really good. And even if you get it right, you’ll change it along the way.”

I also have to mention – even though this isn’t a blog for restaurant reviews (except burgers) – that the sushi at Bamboo Sushi is some of the best in the city. Go have some and check out the new space.

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is performing a shell renovation of two commercial spaces in the former Dow Columbia building on Southeast Division Street for a new pizza restaurant and bar. The 2,300-square-foot combined space will be home to Cibo, a new venture from owner Marco Frattaroli. Work on the shell began in late February and is expected to last two months.

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A former home furnishing design center on Northwest 21st Avenue is being converted to an Irish brewpub and restaurant. is performing a full renovation for the owners of in downtown Portland.  According to a land use review filed with the Bureau of Development Services in February, the project was designed by Portland-based Enfuego Design. The new Kells Brew Pub is slated to open later this month.

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For more than 30 years, the has endured.

Owners Connie and Robert “Pudgy” Hunt built the sports tavern out of an abandoned building in 1978, when only a handful of other restaurants and bars existed in Southeast Portland. They’ve since overcome economic downturns, competition from newer bars and Robert’s severe motorcycle accident three years ago.

But it wasn’t until last September, when the tavern suffered immense damage in a devastating grease fire, that the family decided to start over.

“As with every hospitality business, we had been spending a lot of time wondering what the trends are and how are we going to keep up,” Connie said. “But after the fire, we sat down as a family and said, ‘Let’s take this opportunity to go back to who we are.’ ”

The Hunts, along with their two sons, Kevin and David, closed the business and got to work. The fire, which occurred on the Hunts’ wedding anniversary, activated the fire-suppression system, covering the entire saloon in a thick blanket of grime; virtually every inch of the interior had to be scrubbed. Even worse, the fire was difficult to extinguish because the suppression foam mixed with the grease; consequently, all kitchen equipment needed to be replaced.

“I thought the whole place was going to go up in flames,” said Kevin Hunt, who was in the bar when the fire erupted. “We were lucky: The firefighters have their Halloween party here every year, so they got here really quick.”

When the saloon reopened in November, the place looked like new. The kitchen was state of the art, the carpet was removed to expose the bar’s original 1896 Douglas fir floor and Connie had, in her opinion, converted the menu back to its original integrity.

Just as importantly, the Hunt family was reunited. David, the older brother, returned to the business. And Robert and Connie, after taking significant time off following Robert’s motorcycle accident, were back doing what they love: greeting their regulars with smiles.

The reopening did not come without a price, however. The Hunts had to completely cash out their retirement fund. And although business has started to pick up lately now that the Trail Blazers’ NBA season is under way, Connie and Robert are banking on the completion of the Portland Streetcar Loop to bring in more revenue. As it is, the saloon is barely getting by.

“This is like an expensive hobby right now. I tell my husband, ‘If I wanted an expensive hobby, I would have gotten a horse,” Connie said. “It would have been more economical for us to lock the door, put a ‘closed’ sign on it and just wait to sell it.”

The Hunts question whether the city is looking out for its small businesses. According to Connie, various regulations imposed by the city have made the restart process more difficult.

“Just as we’re cashing our retirement funds to make this thing continue, I’m getting hit with 14 percent in water increase fees directed specifically at hospitality, with other regulations coming our way that are going to cost us an enormous amount of money,” she said. “When are the bureaucrats of the city going to make their investment so small businesses like our family’s can survive?”

The East Bank Saloon is known for being one of the city’s original sports bars, where Portlanders have gone for decades to hear tales about Robert, a high school basketball legend, playing overseas and to see his gold medals hanging on the walls.

“We’ve been here for the good times and the bad,” Robert said. “Our lawyer met his wife here; people just have a connection (to it).”

For the Hunts, their connections to the saloon and to each other are now stronger than ever. So, in their eyes, the risk has already paid off.

“It’s just that old saying that sometimes good things can come from the bad,” Connie said. “We turned something negative into something very positive.”

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is performing a quick tenant improvement on a bagel restaurant in Beaverton for . The former Noah’s Bagels is being converted to an Einstein Bros. Bagels, and a complete interior renovation includes new carpet and tile flooring, lighting, kitchen equipment and dining tables. Demolition on the site began last week, and the new restaurant is slated to open Dec. 14. TS Construction Management is simultaneously converting another Noah’s Bagels in Hillsboro.

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General contractor is converting a former Chili’s restaurant in Beaverton to the second location of McMinnville-based .  Besides adding new commercial kitchen equipment, a new bar, reception, and dining area, a 2,100-square-foot, two-story addition is being constructed to house a dining and banquet area on the building’s east side.  The building’s north elevation will see a 1,248-square-foot addition to house a food preparation area on the first floor and offices on the second, and a large covered outdoor dining space will be added to the building’s south end.  The remodel was designed by , and work is due to be complete by January.

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The odds were against her, but Kim Malek wanted to open her new ice cream shop in time to catch some of the summer rush.

Malek believed the growing arts district on Northeast Alberta Street would be the perfect home base for , which offers unique, locally sourced ice cream. But a remodel of the Acme Glass Building on Northeast Alberta at 21st Avenue would not be done until the end of summer.

So while one general contractor handled the overall remodel of the building, Malek hired her own crew to finish her space quicker. But that solution stacked a whole new set of odds against Malek and her project team.

“The project was fraught with inherent challenges,” project manager Kevin Guinn said.

Crews working for the developer, 21 Alberta LLC, were still gutting and remodeling the rest of the Acme Glass Building, and Malek sought a four-week turnaround from Hammer and Hand.

The Salt and Straw shop accounts for only about one-fourth of the ground-floor retail space. Normally, the major renovation would be finished first, and then individual tenants could add finishes. But because of the timing involved, the Hammer and Hand team worked in an unsecured Salt and Straw space for most of the project.

During construction, Malek was down the street selling her ice cream out of a custom-built cart. Nate Celko, the developer behind the Acme Glass Building, let the Salt and Straw cart park on the patio of another of his properties – the Alberta Central complex between 17th and 18th avenues. Although Malek said the interim cart setup was a “blessing in disguise,” her eye was still on the Acme Glass Building.

“It’s easy to imagine two teams of construction folks in there, pointing fingers about who’s there at what time, and on top of that I was insisting on this unreasonable timeline,” Malek said.

But lead carpenter Stephanie Lynch worked closely with the 21 Alberta LLC crew and Celko to coordinate work schedules. Hammer and Hand ended up building the demising wall to prepare for finishes.

“Communication with the developer was important every single day,” Lynch said. “We both had our agendas and we just had to do our best to take care of each other and make it all flow smoothly.”

The finishes that Hammer and Hand rushed to install were not run-of-the-mill. Malek wanted Salt and Straw to feel “as if it had been there forever,” so the shop includes wood from the bleachers of Lewis and Clark College’s original athletic stadium, salvaged Multnomah County Library shelving, and materials from a 100-year-old barn and a deconstructed high school.

Salt and Straw’s early debut in the Acme Glass Building, on Aug. 12, paid off.

“(August) 13th is still our record day – the line was all the way down the street,” Malek said. “It was the best marketing anyone could ask for. I owe a lot to everyone.”

The overall building renovation is nearly completed and will result in the availability of about 5,000 square feet of retail and creative office space. Another mixed-use project is planned for the adjacent property, and retailers have already expressed interest in leases even though construction will not begin until November, according to broker Kathleen Healy.

“It’s really unusual to get offers at this point in the process,” she said.

Healy is managing the retail space on the ground floors of both the Acme Glass Building and the adjacent 20:20 property, which is expected to be completed in summer 2012. Interest is continuing to grow for spaces in both buildings, she said.

Benco is negotiating a lease with a widely known Portland chef who wants to open a restaurant in the space next to Salt and Straw. Healy declined to identify the chef, because a deal hasn’t been finalized. Also, a business that sells medical-related items may reserve retail space in the 20:20 before ground is even broken for the building.

“I’m over the moon,” Malek said. “My business depends on foot traffic and a thriving community. I’ve heard hints about pretty amazing tenants negotiating leases, and this could really become a destination for Portlanders to come out for the night.”

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