PORTLAND, Oregon — Katya Suh — social media influencer, mother of two boys and wife to Portland-native and NFL football player Ndamukong Suh — has recently opened Portland's newest cocktail bar.
Katya is paving a new path for herself with the opening of Kaya, located on Northeast Alberta Street. After giving birth to her twin boys, she combined two of her many passions — cocktails and sneakers — into her YouTube show "Kicks and Cocktails." Her passion eventually grew, manifesting into Kaya.
"I’m a huge sneakerhead, and I also love to create cocktails for my friends, so we put together a concept of kicks and cocktails. I like to bring people together creating cocktails," said Katya. "This space became available, and I thought this would be the perfect space for me to create a bar."
Katya says the opening of the bar holds a deeper meaning and shows another side of her outside the stereotypical societal ideals of what it means to be the partner of a professional athlete.
“That is something that is really powerful when we look at women: we are mothers, we are wives, we are partners, we are the caregivers — and for me, this is something that gives back to me and gives back to my soul," said Katya. "I’m able to look and say and show my children that this is what I did.”
The bar will be joining Alberta Alley, home to a variety of eateries. The alley was founded by Ndamukong in late 2020.
“We want to empower our community. This is a space that not only here at Kaya but Alberta Alley as a whole. You have four amazing concepts here: Baes Fried Chicken, Boxer Ramen, Kinnamons — and now — Kaya," said Katya. "For me, the hope and the goal here is that we will be doing events here. We will be bringing our community here. I’m really excited for you guys to see what and how we’re gonna do that.”
Katya plans to host events fixated on not only community empowerment but female empowerment, with intentions of bridging communities.
"I want to bring our community back, for me being a Black-owned bar, Black owned-women owned bar — it’s really important for me to allow for our community to come back," she said.
Katya says the bar will serve a variety of drinks from her signature expresso martini to even a tomato water infused drink.
"It’s a fun dessert espresso martini. We were able to add in different pieces, like Baileys Chocolate Liquor, and we also have some really fun sophisticated spins on a martini," she said. "Spins on an old fashion. Different ways you can still come in and have maybe just your usual drink but done differently. "
Kaya's General Manager, Kyle Sanders and Katya have been working to customize a variety of drinks that aren't only flavorful but eye-catching.
"He is a gem of a creator when it comes to different cocktails and spends time doing different tastings of different flavors, herbs, ways of making our own simple syrups and all that sort of things. It’s healthy but keeps things fun and funky as well," said Katya.
PHOTOS: Drinks at Kaya
In addition to the intention behind the drinks and glassware. Something that you can't miss is the influential artwork — custom crafted by Jordan Barros, a Black artist out of Boston and the son of Celtics alum Dana Barros — all inspired by people who has influenced Katya's journey.
"I just think that when you look at it, you know — you got LL Cool J with the Kangol hats. You got Jay-Z, Biggie, Tupac. They impacted our culture in so many different ways, whether it was Tupac with the bandana ties. You got Grace Jones who broke barriers," said Katya.
Jordan Barros' art pieces for Kaya
The location of the bar holds great influence for one of her biggest supporters — her husband.
“I grew up down the street. It’s an area I was born and raised in. There’s been a lot of gentrification that has happened, so being able to bring back something," said Ndamukong. "And really letting it be BIPOC-owned is very important — bringing our culture into this and obviously Jamaican roots is where the name Kaya comes from as well."
And although he had no hand in the process, he has one request for his wife.
“My only request was to have a drink named after me at some point in time — so we’ll see what she creates for that,” said Ndamukong.