Four beloved Portland restaurants have suddenly shuttered their doors, adding to mounting fears that the city’s once-vibrant food scene is sliding into an urban “doom loop” of closures, vacancies, and economic strain.
This mirrors economic issues in the city writ large such as an unemployment rate that’s moved up to 5.4% and issues with housing affordability.
Over just the past several weeks, four distinctly Portland eateries — Epif, Gnarly’s, Hit the Spot Burger, and The Richmond Bar — have all closed or announced plans to close. Each brought its own creative twist to the city’s dining identity, and their disappearances point to growing cracks in Portland’s independent restaurant ecosystem.
Epif, a vegan South American restaurant that operated for roughly a decade in the Kerns neighborhood, served its last pisco cocktail and empanada on September 28 (though they’d originally targeted October 5). Known for its Andean-inspired menu and plant-based twist, Epif’s owners said they were “grateful but exhausted,” citing general business pressures…