When Carey Caldwell headed west from Massachusetts in a 1976 VW bus more than 30 years ago, he was looking for a place to go to school, eventually landing in Eugene at the University of Oregon. But his ultimate destination, in a sense, was a little farther north, in Sellwood. A college buddy was from there, and on trips to Portland the two would stay in the neighborhood and eat at Gino’s, Marc Accuardi’s then-new Italian restaurant and bar on SE 13th Avenue.
How it started: When Caldwell moved to Portland in the mid-’00s, he didn’t intend to land right by Gino’s. But Lewis & Clark, where he was going to law school, had a shuttle that stopped at the Sellwood New Seasons. It just made sense that he and wife Katrina Caldwell, an immigration attorney, would live two blocks away and be regulars. “We started going earnestly in ’06,” says Carey, now a civil litigation attorney, “and ‘earnestly’ being multiple days a week. Dinner, mostly. A lot of happy hours.” And a lot of leftovers of Grandma Jean’s, penne in a Sunday gravy with pork ribs, beef, and pepperoni.
Next gen: Marc Accuardi, whose family started Old Town Pizza in the 1970s, and wife Deb named Gino’s after their son (who now owns the place). The Caldwells didn’t name their son after the restaurant, but they do say Aidan Caldwell “kind of grew up there.” Aidan, now 12 and a big fan of Gino’s cherry-studded Shirley Temples, doesn’t remember his first trip there, as he was only six weeks old. “They fawned over him,” his dad remembers. A server took the baby for a walk, and the new parents got to savor a meal on their own…