Pok pok, portland’s defining restaurant for more than a decade, is no more

Pok Pok, a Thai restaurant that grew from a roast chicken shack in Southeast Portland to a bicoastal restaurant group with locations in New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and a half dozen

Portland neighborhoods, has closed for good, chef-owner Andy Ricker confirmed in a social media post Friday from Thailand, where he now lives. The closure marks the latest major restaurant

to announce it will not reopen after the COVID-19 pandemic, including fellow prominent 2000s openings Toro Bravo and Beast. According to Ricker’s post, before Oregon’s initial shutdown in

March, Pok Pok employed more than 160 people. Arguably Portland’s best-known restaurant, Pok Pok opened on Southeast Division Street in 2005, offering the street food that Ricker, a former

Zefiro bartender and occasional house painter, had fallen in love with while backpacking through Thailand. Those early menus were filled with dishes rarely seen in the United States,

including herb-rubbed roast game hens, fiery grilled meats, clay pot prawns and pork belly, the Vietnamese-style turmeric catfish known as cha ca La Vong, and the chicken-noodle curry khao

soi gai, now far more commonly found on local Thai restaurant menus. Pok Pok was named The Oregonian’s Restaurant of the Year in 2007. Still, one item quickly stood out on Pok Pok’s menu:

Ike’s Vietnamese Fish Sauce Wings, whole wings deep fried and tossed in a sweet, spicy, funky sauce enlivened by garlic water, a pro tip from Pok Pok chef Ike Truong, whose name graced the

dish. “The hope was that I could live in the house, make enough money to shut down and travel in the winter and eventually move to Thailand for 6 months of the year and even further down the

line to live in Thailand full time,” Ricker wrote in a social media post Friday. “But as the universe has taught us in 2020 in a very painful way ... things don’t always go as planned, for

better and worse.” As it so happens, back in 2005, the universe planned for those wings to become a massive hit, popular enough to draw nightly lines to Southeast Portland, help the Whiskey

Soda Lounge go from Pok Pok’s basement bar to its own brick-and-mortar waiting area across the street, and launch a fast-casual spinoff in New York’s Lower East Side. That short-lived wing

shack, dubbed Pok Pok Wing, led the way for a full-on Pok Pok expansion to Brooklyn’s Redhook neighborhood, a restaurant that lasted six years, earned two stars from the New York Times and

one from the Michelin guide before closing in 2018. The New York location was followed in 2015 by a Pok Pok in Los Angeles' Chinatown neighborhood, an ambitious expansion that lasted

only two years, closing in 2017. The restaurant also made inroads at the grocery store, launching a drinking vinegar line, Som, and a brand of imported charcoal, Thaan. More recently, Ricker

refocused his attention on Portland, opening three Pok Pok Wing locations in Northeast, Southeast and Southwest Portland, respectively, as well as a second full Pok Pok in Northwest,

complete with a reservations system (a first) and a 24-seat charcoal-fired Thai clubhouse upstairs. In June, Ricker announced that several Pok Pok locations were unlikely to reopen after the

pandemic. Those included the Pok Pok NW at 1639 N.W. Marshall St., the Pok Pok Wings at 1469 N.E. Prescott St. and 8250 S. Barbur Blvd. as well as the decade-old Whiskey Soda Lounge at 3131

S.E. Division St. But within the restaurant industry, it was an open secret that those satellites were not the only ones on the market. Barbecue food cart Botto BBQ took over the remaining

Pok Pok Wing location at 3120 S.E. Milwaukie Ave. in August (the other two have been taken over by Salem’s rapidly expanding Momiji Sushi chain). And by the end of August, sources including

Gado Gado’s Thomas and Mariah Pisha-Duffly told The Oregonian/OregonLive.com that they had been approached about taking over the original Pok Pok on Southeast Division Street, as well as the

building it sits in. (The Pisha-Dufflys eventually took over the former Whiskey Soda Lounge for their Indonesian barbecue joint, Oma’s Takeaway). “The truth of the matter has that for the

last 5 years it has been a struggle for many reasons,” Ricker wrote. “The onset of the global pandemic made it very clear that the business was not going to be able to survive the economic

reality we are all facing ... When COVID made it all about the bottom line, that was my cue to pull the plug.” For now, the restaurant lives on in Portland through Som, Thaan and a

partnership Ricker struck with Reef Kitchens, a ghost kitchen outfit that sells Pok Pok’s wings from its fleet of food carts parked throughout the Portland area. Read Ricker’s complete

statement here: _It’s Loi Krathong in Thailand, a festival were one floats a small boat made of a slice of banana trunk and decorated with folded banana leaves with a candle on it and other

offerings down the river, carrying away your negative thoughts and transgressions from the year before. It seems like a good time to write this letter and float it out into the world._

_Fifteen years ago, (give or take a week or a few; the exact date is lost in the sands of time) Pok Pok opened on Division street as a shack with a grill out back and a tiny prep kitchen in

the basements of the house next door. My plan at the time was to cook the food that I had been studying for more than 20 years during my stays in Thailand and travels throughout the

surrounding region, for whoever might be interested. The hope was that I could live in the house, make enough money to shut down and travel in the winter and eventually move to Thailand for

6 months of the year and even further down the line to live in Thailand full time. But, as the universe has taught us in 2020 in a very painful way, things don’t always go as planned … for

better and worse._ _Pok Pok has had its share of better and worse over the years, more better than worse. It was amazing when we hit 10 years in business; this is a milestone that is seldom

reached by restaurants and to be going strong then made me feel like maybe 20 years in business was achievable. But the truth of the matter is that for the last 5 years it has been a

struggle for many reasons (other restaurateurs know the list) and the onset of global pandemic made it very clear that the business was not going to be able to survive the economic realities

we are all facing._ _Add to this the fact that as financial and operational difficulties increased, the ability to focus on the raison d’etre of Pok Pok became more and more about numbers,

logistics and putting out fires, less and less about hospitality and vision. I swore when Pok Pok opened that if it ever reached the point where it was all about profit and loss, I would

shut it down and walk away. I have far too much respect and love for the food and culture of Thailand for it to be solely about the commercial aspects of the business. F--- that. So when

Covid made it ALL about the bottom line that was my cue to pull the plug._ _No sense going deeper into debt in order to survive and then spend the next several years focusing on trying to

make money and pay it all back, or to NOT survive and face financial ruin so deep that coming back in any form could never be an option. However, as a chef and small business owner, the

survival instinct is pretty strong. Holding onto hope for some sort of resurrection post Covid was so tempting because that is what we do .. we keep going, no matter what, until it is

impossible to do so (often far too long after it is wise to do so). But I know when I am licked. And I am licked._ _So that’s it: Pok Pok in Portland is no more, dunzo, kaput, pit moth laew;

it is an ex-parrot. All properties we formerly leased have been transferred to new operators or returned to landlords in orderly fashion. The property where the original location of Pok Pok

stands on Division Street is for sale, lock stock and (literal) fish sauce barrel, ready to rumble. I think it would be a good investment for some young chef full of piss and vinegar to

actually own their restaurant as I have (no landlord to negotiate with!) and post-Covid Division Street is going to be cracking again. But I am too old and tired to carry on and, though I

feel like we did our best to foster a good work environment, by baked-in-from-40 years-in-the-industry ideas about how a restaurant should be run need to be reimagined by the_ _In this

unforeseen twist of fate that Covid has wrought, I have achieved a goal set for myself back in 2005, albeit a bit sooner than planned: moving permanently to Thailand to be with my wife and

cats on our little farm in a tiny village outside Chiang Mai where we live a simple life, eating from the garden, battling the weeds and leaves and spending time in the kitchen. Thailand,

though deeply affected economically by the pandemic, is at somewhat of a crossroads culinarily speaking (and otherwise if you watch the news); it is an exciting time to be here to witness

younger Thai chefs moving their cuisine into the 21st century with skill, care and a sense of history. To be here for it, watching and peripherally involved, is both a joy and an honor._

_Over all I am very proud of what was accomplished at Pok Pok and how we may have contributed to the conversation about the food of Thailand in Portland and elsewhere. If there are any

regrets, they are mostly around the fact that (pre-Covid) we employed more than 160 souls who we had to lay off as the businesses closed. Many had been with Pok Pok for years, made friends,

met their partners, started families, bought houses from their income, supported relatives in faraway places, left their blood, sweat and tears on the floor. Many others passed through over

the years. To them I owe a debt of gratitude and wish them best of luck, health and happiness in the future and hope they are proud of what they earned, accomplished, learned and passed on

to others while in our employ._ _To the people of Portland, thank you for the years of support and custom. I will miss you and the city. To my fellow restaurant industry professionals, sus u

khrap (keep fighting)! See you on the other side._ -- Michael Russell, [email protected], @tdmrussell