Fermenter, the plant-based deli, luncheonette and “fermentation emporium” named among Portland’s best new restaurants the year it opened, will close at the end of March, chef Aaron Adams confirmed.
According to a social media post announcing the closure, a new concept is already being planned for the space, meaning “we don’t have to break up the crew,” Adams wrote. The Fermenter brand will live on through products and classes.
First opened five years ago, Fermenter began as a sort-of vegan deli, producing sauerkraut, pickles and black bean tempeh in a narrow space open just a few hours a day for lunch. Impressed by the restaurant’s $23 three-course tasting menu, The Oregonian/OregonLive named Fermenter one of Portland’s best new restaurants of 2019.
During the pandemic, Adams moved the restaurant around the corner to the former Roost space. The original is now home to newcomer Muse Cheeesecakes.
Last month, Adams opened Astera, a new fixed-price restaurant next door to Fermenter that seeks to revive the finer dining model he pivoted away after closing his Farm Spirit in 2020.
On recent visits, Fermenter — which now offers dinner most days — has seemed busy, with fans gathering beneath a neon “Vegetables Will Be Slaughtered” sign for kale salads, house root beer kombucha and shio koji-marinated black lentil-millet tempeh burgers. But according to Adams, the business model required a “ton of labor with a limit to perceived value.”
“When you just buy all the ingredients (for a hamburger) it’s fairly economical due to the nature of industrialization and your labor is very reasonable when you don’t scratch make it,” Adams wrote. “Start growing the tempeh patty yourself and add: Koji, Shio Koji, miso, pickles, etcétera and it starts adding up. But customers won’t line up for a $20 burger. Slap anything between two slices of bread and the perceived max price plummets.”
According to Adams, Fermenter’s streamlined menu, with sandwiches and burgers outselling specials, had grown “boring” while never being particularly profitable.
“We want to make food we’re passionate about,” Adams wrote.
Further reading:
Portland’s best new restaurants of 2019
Visit Fermenter for lunch daily and dinner Monday-Saturday between now and March 31 at 1403 S.E. Belmont St., 971-229-1465, fermenterpdx.com
— Michael Russell; [email protected]
