Bars and restaurants often shutter early in the year. Lease terms end, bills come due, and changing over the calendar has a way of putting things in perspective. But we’ve rarely had a winter like this. As an unusually warm February ended, it felt like an era of Portland dining ended with it.
Expatriate
Expatriate opened in the summer of 2013 as a moody, stylish companion bar to Naomi Pomeroy’s legendary Beast across the street. Owner and bartender Kyle Linden Webster, the late chef’s husband, brought recipes and aesthetics inspired by his world travels to the Concordia neighborhood, as well as a genre-spanning collection of vinyl. The drinks matched the vibes: lush, layered, often drawing inspiration from Southeast and South Asian countries. Early on, Webster anthropomorphized his bar as a “slightly drunken French uncle who just got back from traveling.” Portland Monthly restaurant critic Karen Brooks declared Webster “one of the best bartenders I’ve come across, with an innate feel for balance, surprise, and food-friendly savor.” She wasn’t alone in that sentiment—Expatriate made local and national roundups of Portland’s best bars, and it was a James Beard Award semifinalist for Outstanding Bar Program in 2019 and a finalist the following year.
The cocktail program brought people through the doors, but Expatriate’s glowing reputation owed no small thanks to Pomeroy’s menu. It locked in on staples that became local legends: James Beard’s onion sandwich with sweet butter, wonton nachos with Thai chile cheese sauce, the hot and sour spiced fries that were an homage to the years Pomeroy spent in India. The “American Standard” cheeseburgers came as a pair of thick quarter-pounders with nothing more than ketchup, mustard, American cheese, and onions. They were crowd favorites even when the bar pivoted to a takeout model during COVID. But more than any singular detail, it was the way it all harmonized that made Expatriate a uniquely dreamy and candlelit escape.
Expatriate held on after Beast and its follow-up, Ripe Cooperative, closed in the fallout of the pandemic. It stayed open even after Pomeroy tragically drowned in 2024, a year before L’Échelle, her final project, would open. But on February 10, 2026, a user on the Portland Reddit forum posted a photo of the bar’s front door where a hand-written note read, “Life is just a party, and parties weren’t meant to last. Our privilege, these 4,595 nights. Thank you. Love, KLW et al. [exsilium non permanet]”
A quote from Prince’s classic “1999,” a count of the last 12-and-a-half years, and a Latin phrase that translates to “exile is not permanent.” Speculation spread and headlines ended in question marks as Webster declined media requests. After a few weeks, Expatriate’s website was updated, its language now in the past tense. Under “Time and Place” it reads, “We opened on July 11th 2013. We closed on February 8th 2026. Expatriate was all about balanced cocktails, flavorful snacks, and good music.”…