PORTLAND, Ore. — Yaowarat and L'Orange — both restaurants in Southeast Portland — found out with the rest of the country Monday night that they'd been named two of the New York Times' 50 favorites of 2024.
On Thursday, we caught up with them as both prepared for a busy night ahead after receiving the nod.
"It's such an honor," said Eric Nelson, one of the co-owners of Yaowarat. "It's so rad and we're so like, humbled and stoked, and surprised ... Everyone kind of like, all of a sudden, stood up straighter. Everyone was cheering. Everyone felt really proud of where they were working and what they were doing."
And what they're doing here, on Southeast Stark Street in the Montavilla neighborhood, is giving diners an immersive experience — from the décor and design to the dishes.
"We are a restaurant based off of Chinatown in Bangkok. In Bangkok's Chinatown, this strip, called Yaowarat, is actually the largest Chinatown outside of China, and there is generations upon generations upon generations of Chinese people that have immigrated to Thailand.
"What happened is they started cooking for that they missed, they're more comfortable with. That kind of turned into making Thai food with Chinese ingredients or Chinese food with Thai ingredients or Chinese food with Thai technique or Thai food with Chinese technique. That's what you see a lot of here is that kind of idea."
Head west, but stay in Southeast, and you'll find L'Orange in Ladd's Addition, where Joel Stocks is the executive chef and Jeff Vejr does the wine.
"We've worked together off and on for years now, and when we saw this spot, he actually is the one that called me in to check out the space," Stocks said. "It's got really good bones. It's an old building, and it just felt really special. I mean, even just sitting up here, you see all the light, all the kind of views."
The New York Times called the second-story space, inside an old house, a "real charmer." And once there and seated, the chef recommends it all — from small to large plates, perfect for sharing over a glass of wine.
"You can treat it in quite a few ways. A great thing over the last year is how many regulars we get that come in monthly, if not weekly," Stocks said, "It's basically kind of taking influences of the western Mediterranean. So it'd be France, Spain, Italy.
"The chicken liver mousse is my favorite. There's always a chicken liver mousse tart on the menu. We only make a specific number a night, so you got to get in on those earlier reservations to get them."