Portlanders take home three James Beard Awards

Portlanders took some of the culinary world’s highest honors Monday night at the 36th annual James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards in Chicago.

Nodoguro’s Ryan Roadhouse won Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific, a category he was first nominated for in 2015, shortly after the pop-up-turned-restaurant started. Roadhouse is no stranger to the James Beard Awards garnering a staggering nine semifinalist nominations in the category over the last decade.

Roadhouse started his acceptance speech recounting his first restaurant job working as a bus boy at 17 and ended by thanking the mentors “that came before” including Vitaly Paley and Toshi Kizaki saying, “This medal belongs to you — without you, I would be nowhere [near where] I am today.”

Roadhouse was one of two Portland chefs, along with Thomas Pisha-Duffly of Gado Gado, who made it as a finalist in this year’s category which includes chefs in Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Hawaii.

Portland’s “cocktail bar for whiskey lovers,” Scotch Lodge, also brought home a win for Outstanding Bar, a category that has nominees from around the country.

Scotch Lodge founder Tommy Klaus spent more than two decades at the forefront of Portland’s cocktail scene, behind the bar at iconic spots like Bluehour and St. Jack, before creating beverage programs at Kask, La Moule, and the Multnomah Whiskey Library. He opened Scotch Lodge in 2019 and this is the second year in a row the bar has been nominated.

On Saturday, another Portlander took home a prize at the James Beard Media Awards which “highlight excellence in books, broadcast media, and journalism covering food or drink-related content.” Portland author Erica Berry won in the Personal Essay category with her piece in Orion Magazine called “Intuitive Eating: On poison, pleasure, and trust.”