New dining: Pho Viet, Boken, Gatsby’s

Tan Vo at his new restaurant

There’s a lot of action on the Central Oregon dining scene as 2011 begins. Here’s a quick look:

Who’s in

Bend has never, to my knowledge, had a Vietnamese restaurant. The wonderful little Saigon Village in Redmond’s Fred Meyer shopping plaza recently closed, but it’s place is now being taken in Bend by Pho Viet & Cafe.

Tan Vo and his wife Tammy, have moved from Portland to open an authentic Vietnamese restaurant in the old Rico’s Tacos building on Business Highway 97. Tan promises he’ll have it up and running on Monday morning, January 17.

I’m anticipating steaming bowls of the incomparable beef-noodle soup known as pho (and pronounced fuh), along with crispy rice-flour crepes and chicken simmered in coconut milk.

Pho Viet will be open 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day; 1326 N.E. 3rd St., Bend, 541-382-2929.

Boken will open by Feb. 9 in the breezeway between Wall and Brooks streets, according to owner and executive chef Justin Cook.

A Japanese izakaya-style drinking-and-eating establishment, Boken will feature small plates from various east and southeast Asian culinary traditions said Cook, who also owns the Kanpai Sushi and Sake Bar on Newport Avenue.

Michael Murphy, a Bend native with extensive Asian culinary experience, will be the chef at the restaurant. It will be open Tuesday through Saturday nights.

Gatsby’s Brasserie Bar, Gavin McMichael’s new venture, is scheduled to open February 11 in the former Marz location in downtown Bend.

McMichael is phasing out the old “global cuisine” menu and transitioning into classic American-style dishes of the 1920s and ’30s, including beef stroganoff and chicken tetrazzine.

New decor will feature red-velvet upholstery with brass trim. 

Meanwhile, Hola!, a well-known Mexican-Peruvian restaurant with two locations in Bend, will be opening a new location in Sunriver in the spring. Executive chef and owner Marcos Rodriguez said Hola! will take over the former Trout House. More to come on that. 

These restaurants opened in Bend in late 2010, many of them replacing former tenants: Letzer’s Deli, Taylor’s Sausage, Common Table, Level 2, Old Mill Brew Werks, M Bar, Brickhouse, Bond Street Grill and Caldera Grille.

Several other restaurants opened earlier in 2010, among them Tart Bistro, Bourbon Street Sea & Soul Food, Amalia’s, Original Kayo’s, Spice Box and Thai Thai.

Who’s out

Of restaurants that have recently departed, I will especially miss Cork, Marz, Giuseppe’s and Tony’s Delicatessen.

Cork was a Bend classic for nine years, a fine-dining restaurant with a superb wine bar. Located at 150 N.W. Oregon Avenue, Cork closed in early June and reopened in September as Common Table.

If nine years was a long time, consider that Peggy Falcaro had Giuseppe’s Italian Restaurant for 25 years. She tried some new ideas to stimulate business, but original recipes for lasagna and other Italian classics served her best. Giuseppe’s closed in November and was promptly replaced by the Caldera Grille.

Marz was a pioneer in global cuisine locally, but it had recently lost its edge to other global restaurants, including Level 2 and the Spork mobile kitchen.

Tony’s Deli, in the Safeway Century Plaza complex on Bend’s west side, was hands down my favorite place in Oregon to get a Philly steak sandwich. Alas. I’ll have to find a new location.

Gavin McMichael, Chef & Entrepreneur

Gavin McMichael

When there’s a rumor about a restaurant purchase in Bend, the one name that’s always front and center is that of Gavin McMichael.

Love him or hate him, it’s time for Central Oregon to get to know the man.

The executive chef and owner of The Blacksmith Restaurant, Bourbon Street Sea & Soul Food and Marz Planetary Bistro — and perhaps another restaurant or two, before you finish reading this blog — is a diligent businessman.

He just may deserve more credit for his entrepreneurial success that some folks are willing to grant him.

McMichael drew immediate raves after he opened The Blacksmith in 2002.  He nurtured a successful catering business and twice remodeled his steakhouse, shaping the concept of “New Ranch” cuisine while adding an extensive lounge business and weekend dance club.  He launched a retail line of culinary spices a year ago.

Then came 2010.  And this year, Gavin, 44, has created a major stir in Bend’s restaurant community.

The rumor hound barked loudly in June, when he assumed the lease on the Old Firehall after the closing of Staccato Italian Restaurant.  He reopened it as the New Orleans-style Bourbon Street in late July.

In September, he bought Marz, which he says he soon will revamp and reopen as a classy 1920s-style diner to be named Deco Bistro, or perhaps Gatsby’s.

Gavin is trying to buy up this town.  How many times have I heard that line in recent months?  But McMichael says it is simply a numbers game.

“I’m just trying to do what’s been done in larger markets for a long time,” the Texas-born chef said.  “Three places are cheaper to run than one.

“This is one of the oldest strategies in the business.  It’s so hard for the owner-operator to make any money on just one restaurant.  It’s much easier to pull a little from several, and to spread the costs and demands of staff and inventory.”

Bourbon Street in the Firehall

With multiple restaurants under his ownership, McMichael said, he can offer some stability to the local food-and-beverage industry.  “You create a stronger environment for the dining demographic,” he said.

“In this town, it seems, if you get too big too fast, you are a public enemy.  But because the economic opportunities were there, I had to act quickly.”

Gavin insists that he did not set out to take over Staccato.  That restaurant was in serious arrears to its landlord; Staccato’s owner had warned her staff of her precarious position, months before the closure.  Until McMichael was approached by building owner John Gilbert, he said, he did not pursue the space.

When he moved into the Firehall, McMichael said, he discovered a house divided.  Some embittered Staccato employees had sabotaged the restaurant they were vacating.  Kitchen appliance cords and electric wires were chopped.  Dining-room tables were gouged.

“I hired as many Staccato employees as I could,” Gavin said.  “But in each job interview, I was forced to ask if they knew anything about the vandalism.”

McMichael said he dealt with similar negativity when he purchased Marz.  “There were forces in the community that didn’t want to give (the new) Marz a chance,” he said.  “That’s one of the reasons we are changing it.”

The new restaurant, he said, will have Art Deco-style decor and a menu of old-time American classics.

McMichael is still open to other restaurant opportunities in Central Oregon.  “I’m just waiting for the right price and location,” he said, noting that he has thought about a Tex-Mex establishment and a Chinese-style restaurant.

“I like to create concepts,” Gavin said.  “I get a lot of calls.  But it has to make sense.

“I’ve got a few things that I’m looking at in the next three to six months.  And in a year or so, I may seriously consider another market with a larger population base.”

Eugene, he said, is a possibility.  In part, that’s because he finds local attitudes frustrating.

“The politics of dining seem to work against our self-interest here,” he said.  “Bend has got to accept the fact that this town is going to grow.

“I’m afraid the town will end up killing the thing it says it wants.  Most critics don’t understand that you have to make money to sustain business.”

Update: The Scoop on ex-Marz

 The Central Oregon restaurant that soon will be known as Gatsby’s Brasserie Bar will have a Roaring ’20s theme, according to Bend restaurateur Gavin McMichael.

“You are going to see a metro Chicago-New York dining place, celebrating the cocktail society of that era,” said McMichael, who purchased Marz, as it has so far been known, in September.

“It will have brass tabletops and lush red-velvet booths, beautiful mirrors, framed windows, a big wood door and an awning out front.

“The menu will feature American classics — dishes like chicken Tetrazzini, first made at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco for an Italian opera singer, Luisa Tetrazzini. We’ll have beef bourguignon and stroganoff, roasted chicken and a classic burger.

“A bistro chalkboard will list our daily blue-plate specials, and I’ll be in the kitchen myself the first couple of months.”

McMichael said the full bar would also specialize in pre-Prohibition era cocktails and liquors.

A projected January 19 opening will depend upon how quickly the new restaurant passes City licensing requirements. For now, it remains Marz open for Wednesday-to-Friday lunch and Wednesday-toSaturday dinner through January 15.

Gatsby’s celebrates the famed F. Scott Fitzgerald novel of the Deco era, The Great Gatsby.

McMichael denied a rumor that he had purchased the El Jimador Mexican restaurant in downtown Bend with the intention of converting it to a Chinese eatery.

“That was just one of many places I’ve been looking at,” he said. “No papers were ever signed. The opportunity didn’t make sense.”

Goodbye Marz, Hello Deco Bistro

If you’re a fan of the Marz Planetary Bistro in downtown Bend, you might want to make plans for one last visit.  By this time next month, it will be a memory.

Owner Gavin McMichael, who purchased the restaurant in September, announced today that he will close Marz shortly after the New Year.  After a brief but thorough renovation, he said, it willl reopen as the Deco Bistro.

The new restaurant, McMichael told me, will feature classic American bistro fare from the Art Deco era of the 1920s.

A local favorite since it was established in 1999, the restaurant has been known for its wide range of globally inspired dishes, from European to Asian and South American.  Such popular local chefs as Jeff Hunt (now at Spork) and Rich Hall (now at Level 2) built their reputations on the sophisticated comfort food, and the relaxed and friendly atmosphere kept locals coming back week after week. 

For now, Marz is open from 5 p.m. to close every day at 163 N.W. Minnesota Ave. in Bend. For a reservation, call 541-389-2025.