The Portland Years (part 2)

As I mentioned in the earlier Portland post, my first job in Portland was at Zell's, a funky little breakfast/lunch place.  There I met Kelly & Michael (among many other awesome peeps) and along with Michael's friend Ken and my friend Julie, we opened a restaurant.  We decided to call it Wild Abandon because (a) we wanted to change the menu every night so that when you arrived you were taking a chance on something new and (b) because we were certainly headed into something new and unknown ourselves!

None of us had a lot of money but together we scraped enough together to take over the tiny little space formerly occupied by the uber-successful Bistro Montage.  Having eaten there several times (it was a cheap place to eat and just a couple of blocks from my apartment) I was disgusted to see the conditions of the kitchen - see top photo for an example.

The middle picture shows the space in progress and the bottom show a working kitchen (pounds of grease scraped from the wall, all new equipment, etc.).

With minimal experience, we gutted almost the entire restaurant.  I even got a tool belt for the occasion:



Lots of hard work but that doesn't mean there wasn't time to snap some photos for the "Men of Wild Abandon" calendar.



Here's a shot of the dining room when we took it over:


Here it is again (from the opposite angle) after we were done with it:


For my part, I helped with all the front of the house aspects (from hiring and firing to waiting tables and hosting) and some back of the house.  Notably, I was in charge of desserts for a time and then, of course, there's always this:


Everyone took their turn washing dishes.

We met with some early successes.  Here are a couple of reviews:



In the end I spent just a couple of years with the organization.  It got very tiring working 70-80 hours per week with no end in site.  Obviously this is the kind of commitment needed for any new business but I was too young to be tied down so I bowed out.  It was a great experience and I met a very good friend through it (Hi, Darla!) and learned a lot.  Not just about running restaurants and managing people but also about myself.

If you're ever in Portland you can stop by; Wild Abandon is still a going concern and seems to be doing well and the food is as good as ever.  If you go, ask for Michael and tell him David sent you.