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Yonder, the Northeast Portland fried-chicken restaurant from chef Maya Lovelace, is about to make a big change.

The restaurant, which opened in 2019, “weathered the storm” of the past two years, Lovelace wrote in an email last week, “but now it’s time for us to focus on something new.”

According to Lovelace, Yonder will close near the end of June, then reopen almost immediately as Hissyfit, a new restaurant with some of Yonder’s old personality (and familiar cocktails, including nonalcoholic drinks), while freeing up the kitchen to experiment with both Southern and more global flavors.

An early look at Hissyfit’s draft menu reveals some fun fusion dishes highlighting ingredients from both the Pacific Northwest and the American South. Those include a Korean-inspired cornmeal spring onion pancake with spicy sorghum syrup, a McFarland Springs trout in guajillo-tomato butter with fresh egg noodles, tempura pickled green beans with a smoked cheddar fondue and a koji-cured pork schnitzel. Dessert brings an Amish butter popcorn ice cream sundae, a Taiwanese-style milk tea rice pudding with bourbon brown sugar raisins and a chocolate cobbler with strawberry whip and salted passionfruit.

Even by pandemic standards, the last two years have been eventful for Lovelace. Two years ago, the chef — who first made noise locally via her Appalachian supper club Mae — began posting anonymous accounts of abuse and other toxic conditions in the Portland restaurant industry. Those accounts and other revelations led to apologies and chef departures from some of the city’s best-known restaurant groups. Eventually, Lovelace herself came under fire over allegations from her own alleged treatment of employees at Yonder.

According to Lovelace, the word “Hissyfit” is “a classic southern-ism for a tantrum, specifically used in regards to the sass and emotional outbursts of women,” an “evocation of the wild and untamed feminine” that the restaurant hopes to embody. After a quick turnaround, the restaurant will open in early July with “funky shades of pink and green” on the walls, ”gorgeous plants and lush botanical wallpaper,” and food arriving on “earthy stoneware” and “red clay platters.” Hissyfit’s dining room manager is Eric Pavey (Little Bird, Nostrana), its chef de cuisine is Kevin Jones (Xico, Sitka & Sprice in Seattle).

Look for Yonder to close after dinner service on June 26, with Hissyfit reopening on July 6 in the same space, 4636 N.E. 42nd Ave. Suite A, hissyfitpdx.com

— Michael Russell, mrussell@oregonian.com @tdmrussell

Original Article: Source