On December 14th, Montavilla businesses along NE Glisan Street are again hosting a special holiday event full of activities, discounts, and unique offerings. The Saturday Winter Wassail event spans the day during each location’s operating hours, with a street-wide celebration from 5 to 8 p.m. People should check the shops’ social media or the event page for specific extended hours and updates.
Some event highlights include Wreath Making Classes at Citrine Bloom, Wine Tasting at Replicant, and dried citrus ornament making at Sparrow Salon from 5 to 8 p.m. Event organizers describe it as a business celebration of the season when customers can feel comfortable walking NE Glisan with the added light from the storefronts open into the evening.
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The Secret Pizza Society opened its vegan restaurant on NE Glisan Street in 2019. The owners recently reopened the shop after a week-long interior update that has become an annual event to refresh the front-of-house experience and give staff time off. As the team wraps up its fifth year serving customers from the Montavilla storefront, they also mark a decade of creating unconventional plant-based pizzas that don’t break the bank.
JR Holland and Bryce Hooper started this business as a pizza wholesale and catering company nearly a decade ago. They met as line cooks preparing brunch at the Road Runner Cafe and became friends. Holland has always worked in food service, starting at McDonald’s when he was 15. That career followed him to Portland, where he worked in bakeries and, eventually, pizza restaurants. “I worked at It’s A Beautiful Pizza, which is no longer there. That was on Belmont; I did dough for them. I worked at Apizza Scholls for three years, made dough for them,” recalled Holland. That experience and a desire to build a business that would support his friends and growing family led Holland and Hooper to take a risk on a new venture. “Apizza Scholls, for all its flaws, was a well-run business, so I just thought pizza was the logical conclusion,” said Holland when describing how they decided what they would cook.
The partners did not want to mimic the pizza options already available to Portlanders. While still planning their menu, they would work on recipes and try to find a standout approach. “Bryce and I, while making brunch, just sat there and crafted ideas. We would try and come up with a different way to do pizza because there’s a hundred pizza joints. They are all good to varying degrees and basically do the same thing. You know your meat supreme, your veggie supreme, this, that, and the other,” explained Holland. They both enjoyed a vegan diet with varying levels of commitment and wanted to rethink how a plant-based pizza could surpass its traditional counterpart. The foundation of that approach was not to just replace dairy cheese with a vegan version and find meat alternatives. They looked to other dishes and flavors to create a product that was not just pretending to be something else. “You know, it’s funny because at least two or three of our pizzas are [based on] scrambles that we used to make for the brunch joint,” remarked Holland.
They started small without a dedicated location. “We used to make take-and-bake pizzas for bars and venues. We did a few VegFests as a good way to get our name out there and build a customer base before we open the doors,” recalled Holland. “Revolution Hall was a big help to us. That was our first big account. We used to make tons of take-and-bake pizzas for them, allowing us to quit our jobs.” Needing kitchen space for the business, they found space in North Portland under the North Star Ballroom. Papa G’s Vegan Organics made tofu alongside Portland Fresh and Shoofly Vegan Bakery in that space. Holland recalled tight quarters in the subterranean commercial kitchen, but they made it work for each of these growing Portland brands until the building sold. JR Holland knew Michael Freeston, whose company, Grocery Getter Organic, was about to close its warehouse space at the 7201 NE Glisan Street storefront. The displaced vegan collective decided to relocate to Montavilla and share the former Grocery Getter space.
Holland and Hooper took over Papa G’s Vegan Organics, running the restaurant on SE Division Street and its tofu business. Eventually, Shoofly Vegan Bakery needed to expand into a bigger storefront, which opened up space for customers on NE Glisan. The partners had always wanted to grow the pizza business into a restaurant. They opened the Secret Pizza Society on March 31st, 2019. The name is an adaptation of their company’s original name, GSMP, which stands for Great & Secret Motion Pizza. It is an homage to Clive Barker’s The Great and Secret Show and a celebration of film. The name officially morphed when they had a small space below the Chapel Theatre in Milwaukie, Oregon. Holland recalled people referring to it as a little secret pizza shop in the basement of the theater, and the owners thought that the Secret Pizza Society would sound like a band or a vigilante unit of superheroes.”
Secret Pizza Society had its first anniversary at the start of COVID. They were able to make pizza takeout work with dining restrictions but ended up closing Papa G’s restaurant. They transferred the tofu business to one of their employees, who still makes it at the NE Glisan Street location. JR Holland gave Papa G’s deli case to another business owner who recently closed his location and offered to return the case. That prompted Holland and Hooper to close the shop this October and rework the front counter to include the deli case. They also replaced the mechanical system for their walk-in refrigerator, rearranged dining-room seating, and made other adjustments before reopening last week.
The small storefront still hosts Portland Fresh’s production kitchen, and Holland says having his friends working together is one of his favorite parts of running Secret Pizza Society. “When people say ‘don’t hire your friends,’ I say ‘balderdash.’ Everyone that works here is a longtime friend of mine.” He feels that this is what makes this such a great place for customers to visit. People enjoy coming to work there, and they reflect that joy in how they interact with people. JR Holland is proud of the food they make for people, noting that it is a destination spot for vegans and pizza fans across Portland. He attributes that to the fresh ingredients and their competitive pricing. “You don’t have to spend $30 for an organic vegan pizza. I’ve done the research and looked at every pizza shop not named Domino’s or Pizza Hut. Our pizzas are easily the cheapest ten-inch personal pizza,” said Holland. They are open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays. On weekends, they open from 1 to 10 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 9 p.m. Sunday. The plant-based menu offers unique flavors that please vegans and carnivores equally. You can also order their pizzas at the Replicant bar down the street.
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A new approach to wine service is taking root inside the Futura Cafe at 7201 NE Glisan Street. For the past six weekend evenings, Eno Wine has taken over the popular Montavilla coffee house and created a new experience in the neighborhood. Opening after the baristas head home on Fridays and Saturdays, Caroline and Matthew Tache swap out mugs for stemware. Each week features a new collection of wines, allowing patrons to experience a distinctive flight of six selections, wine by the glass, or a sharable bottle. Currently open from 5 to 10 p.m. on just two evenings, the owners will expand to Wednesday through Sunday later this year.
Matthew and Caroline Tache began Eno Wine inside the Collective Oregon Eateries (CORE) dining hall. That trial location failed to mature into a permanent shop. However, the hunt for a new space created an opportunity for a different style of wine bar that leveraged an existing space into a symbiotic cooperation between complementary businesses. “Brick and mortar is a big investment. Stocking a wine store with hundreds of different kinds of wine and thousands of bottles is expensive,” explained Caroline Tache. Rent of a whole storefront and inventory costs would require higher prices and change their vision for Eno Wine. The couple was aware of other coffee shop and wine bar combinations outside of Portland that worked well due to inverted schedules and overlapping clientele palates. “If you come here (Futura), you care about your coffee, so you’ll probably gonna care about your wine,” said Caroline Tache, detailing why the two shops work well together.
Owners Caroline and Matthew Tache. Image courtesy Eno Wine
Menu variety is an integral part of Eno Wine. Themes and special events will drive each week’s bottle selection, encouraging regular visitors who seek variety and attracting new groups. On June 23rd and 24th, the section offered all Eastern European sourced wines from Slovenia, Croatia, and Hungary. Previously they hosted a wine and food paring event for chef Hannah Che’s James Beard award-winning cookbook The Vegan Chinese Kitchen. They also plan future collaborations, including one with the neighboring Secret Pizza Society. They will select certified vegan wines to pair with vegan pizzas at that event. Future themes will post to the Eno Wine Instagram feed as details emerge.
Sharing Futura Coffee Roasters’ space on NE Glisan fits the Taches business goals for an accessible neighborhood wine bar and bottle shop. Futura’s owner was receptive to collaboration because the two businesses share a commitment to sustainable production and quality. The cafe’s layout and clean design works for Eno Wine’s image, but they hope to add minor enhancements to the shared space, primarily in a wine rack that will showcase popular bottles to customers of both shops.
Matthew and Caroline Tache are Montavilla residents who want to balance the beer-rich culture here with more wine options for their community. However, the seed of this new wine venture started across the country. “I worked in restaurants for a long time and then transitioned to food and wine writing. For about ten years, I wrote about food and wine for sites like Eater and Zagat, then as a food editor for the free weekly paper in Philadelphia. Obviously, it’s a subject I’m very passionate about,” said Caroline Tache. That enthusiasm for restaurant culture took a substantial hit during the pandemic, and she transitioned to sales, managing a boutique wine and spirits store outside of Philadelphia. In 2021, Caroline Tache moved to Portland to start her own business combining her review and sale careers. Matthew Tache is new to this business but brings a personal enthusiasm for wine to the shop.
Image courtesy Eno Wine
The group works with several local distributors, including Montavilla’s own Prufrock Wines, creating impressive selections of affordable options. Many of the bottles cost less than $28 but still represent high standards of wine production. “We’re looking for minimal intervention, natural, sustainable, just good quality small production lines,” explained Caroline Tache. People looking to try a creative array of wines should visit Eno Wine on Fridays and Saturdays from 5 to 10 p.m. Look for expanded days and hours over the coming months.
By
Jacob Loeb
Disclosure: The author of this article received free tasting of six wines during the interview.
Promotion: Help keep independent news accessible to the community. Montavilla News has a Patreon account. We invite those who can contribute to this local news source to consider becoming paid subscribers or sponsors. We will always remain free to read regardless of subscription.
Two events will attract visitors to Montavilla’s commercial corridors this Saturday evening. Winter Wassail along NE Glisan Street features festive beverages, snacks, carolers, and holiday lighting. Participating stores and restaurants between 82nd and 68th Avenues will remain open for last-minute holiday gifts and festivities. People are invited to Wassail (Go from location to location caroling and/or drinking in merriment) on Glisan from 4 to 8 p.m. this December 17th.
Promotional image provide by event coordinators
That same night, SE Stark Street businesses will host the Montavilla Soiree & Pub Crawl from 6 to 9 p.m. The Montavilla East Tabor Business Association (METBA) organized this winter celebration in the historic downtown to support neighborhood businesses as they enjoy the best parts of the colder months.
Promotional image provide by event coordinators
Drinkers, shoppers, and anyone looking for a fun Saturday night can explore the collection of holiday-themed cocktails, food specials, live music, and late-night last-minute shopping in one big evening event. No matter where you reside, some part of Montavilla will have an activity to warm your spirit on a cold night.
These are some of the participating businesses on Glisan Street:
