PastaWorks

Evoe also hosts special events, including wine tastings, thematic dinners and private parties.

Evoe in the Press

Zagat Guide to Portland
"Every bite" of chef Kevin Gibson's "unusual, creative" sandwiches and small plates is a "burst of flavor" insist insiders who "sit at the counter" of this Hawthorne "gem" and watch as the European-inspired dishes "come together"; it's set in a "simple, small" space in an "odd location" (inside the gourmet grocery Pastaworks), but a "large collection" of wines by the glass, modest prices and that "exquisite" chow overcome all; P.S. closes at 7 PM; closed Tuesday

Karen Brooks, Portland Monthly
"In 2008 Kevin Gibson, one of Portland’s most accomplished chefs, left the high-end restaurant scene to become the master of his own universe inside the Hawthorne Pastaworks. Food formulas don’t exist here. In a space no larger than a dorm room, Gibson’s mood reigns whether he is grilling a cheese sandwich, slicing up wild-boar pâté with sour cherries, or rubbing anise into duck to be paired with fresh kumquat chutney—a dish you’d be thrilled to find at a fancy restaurant at twice the price. Check for a scallops salad—a Gibson signature—or squid baked in an earthenware crock with hot peaks of blood-orange aioli (garlic mayo). If you’re on the run, grab one of the nearly dozen daily sandwiches. Best is the Little Bo Peep: exquisite lamb meatballs stacked with frizzy greens on ciabatta bread. Even by Portland standards, Evoe is quirky. But for anyone who loves great food, it’s Exhibit A for why we are the envy of the country. Closed Tue."

Katherine Bauer, Good Stuff NW
"When people ask me what the best restaurant in town is, Evoe is my hands-down favorite. Despite its nonstandard hours (Wed.-Sun., noon-7 pm) and absence of even nominal restaurant equipment—just a slide-in electric stove/oven and plug-in pancake griddle that would have been at home in the kitchen of my childhood—chef Kevin Gibson (top, holding some red mole from Mexico) makes magic. Give the guy a mandoline and a pot and he's golden. It doesn't hurt that he's got years-long relationships with top local farmers who bring him the best of the best of our local produce. Or that he's a master charcutiere of the highest order (I'm still working on him to let me take a picture of his walk-in).

Suffice it to say that his deviled eggs—such a simple, yet, in his hands, sublime mouthful—were divine. The tomato salad with chevre and a sprinkling of olive oil, the duck salad (kill me now), the chistorra (Basque sausage) sandwich, even the pickle plate (left, with "mouse melons" and aji dulce peppers), all over the top. If you have friends who love food, you can do no better than to go here. If not, you can sit at the counter and make new ones."

Details: Evoe, 3731 SE Hawthorne Blvd. 503-232-1010.

Portland Monthly Best of the City 2012 :Food
"Part art, part supper, heavy glass jars filled with Evoe owner Kevin Gibson’s twisted, brightly stained produce line the communal table at Evoe—evidence that Gibson has been dutifully transforming the choicest of the season into his dynamic pickle plate. A recent visit brought a seven-piece platter loaded with kimchi-spiked turnips, star anise–steeped chard stems, and hard-boiled eggs dyed yellow with a cumin and coriander soak. For maximum pucker, try Gibson’s experiments like supertart sour cherries and Guindilla peppers braced with zippy spices."

Ruth Brown, Willamette Week Restaurant Guide, October 19, 2011
"[SLOW BAR FOOD] Evoe has always felt more like a bar than a restaurant to me. A place where you can pull a stool up to the big butcher-block counter and shoot the shit with the chefs. You glance at the day’s menu, scrawled in chalk on the blackboard. Tell them what you like, they’ll tell you what’s good. Conversation continues as they prepare your dishes, leisurely but attentively, and delicious plates of fresh, seasonal goodies sporadically appear. Most dishes feature very simple but elegant flavor combinations, and almost all are considerably more than the sum of their parts. On a recent visit, a salad made from thinly shaved slices of raw squash, soft and salty feta cheese, hazelnuts and mint was “summer” captured in a single, flawless dish. Thick slices of a light and fluffy garlic-puree tortilla española came with a lick-your-plate romesco sauce. A simple caprese salad was transformed with a rainbow of heirloom tomatoes. There is always a long list of very good sandwiches for a quick lunch, but if you have the time, put aside a few hours and sit down for two or three plates and a good conversation with the guy who made them.

Danielle Centoni, The Oregonian, June 20, 2011 (full review)
"Intimate, informal, relaxed. Evoe is like those small tapas bars on the back roads in Spain, filled with regulars and overlooked by tourists. The small plates are perfect examples of bold, elemental Mediterranean flavors harnessed into harmony, from the earthy-salty-sweet salad of shaved fennel, artichoke and guanciale, to the oily, spicy Gallego sandwich stuffed with anchovies and peppers. Fall in love with a wine or an ingredient, or want to re-create a dish at home? Just wander into Pastaworks next door, the source of just about everything on the menu."

Roger Porter, The Oregonian, June 16, 2010 (full review)
"... Evoe is perhaps the only place in town where, it seems to me, each item is near flawless. It is the first restaurant to which I've given a straight A in four years of reviewing for The Oregonian.

Let me hasten to say it is not at all the best Portland restaurant I've been to in that time; and because Evoe is somewhat like a tapas bar, the sheer informality of the place would seem to call for a less exalted grade. But gram for gram, it furnishes the most perfect collection of dishes I've experienced in town."

Camas Davis, Portland Monthly, February, 2009 (full review)
"With each visit, I’ve stayed longer, tried more dishes, and chatted with the chef, who cooks with a kind of rare, meditative precision that’s rarely seen in the frenzied, machismo world of restaurant line-cooking. I lingered, in other words—something that most restaurants these days don’t necessarily inspire or encourage, but that, at Evoe, is the guiding mantra."

Open Wednesday thru Sunday, 12Noon-7PM.
Closed Mondays and Tuesdays

Menu for the week of May 15, 2013

menu changes frequently

Sandwiches

Gallego (sardines, Pepper & Fennel)
Dansk (Cured Salmon, Horseradish, Dill)
Autogrill
Grilled Cheese
Prosciutto Panino
Little Bo Peep (Lamb meatballs, frisée)
Chicken Salad

Salads

Endive, Grapefruit & Avocado
Chevre Chaud w/Arugula
Beets, Greens, Pistachio, Sherry/Dijon Vinaigrette
Squash, Balsamic, Seeds & Mint
Artichoke, Fennel & Guanciale
Roasted Fava Beans w/Pecorino Romano

Small Plates

Scrambled Eggs w/Morels over Toast
Txistorra Sausage w/Frisée, Almonds & Sunny Fried Egg
Scallops/Agretti & Preserved Meyer Lemon
Roasted Rapini w/Anchovy
Roasted Rapini w/Anchovy & Egg
Squid I, Asparagus, Green Almond Salad
Squid II, Chickpeas & Spring Onion Aioli

Snacks

Jamon Serrano
Deviled Eggs
Spiced Marcona Almonds
House Made Pickles
Mixed Olives
Bread & olive oil or butter

Cheese Plate
Charcuterie Plate

Wines by the Glass and bottle

Whites
Arregi Txakoli '11
Cantina dell Angelo Greco di Tufo '11
Pardevalles Albarîn (not Albariño) Blanco, '11
Walter Scott Pinot Blanc '12

Reds & Fellow Travelers (rosés)
Valdibella Nero d'Avola '11
Dom. de la Bonne Tonne Beaujolais '10
La Stoppa Trebbiolo '10
Andre Neveu Rosé '12
Clos Venturi Vin de Corse Rosé '12

Bubbles
Adami Prosecco by the glass and bottle

$5 corkage for any bottle from Pastaworks retail selection (waived for retail bottles $35 or more). $20 corkage for bottles brought from outside Pastaworks.

Beverages

Double Mtn. IPA
Upright Pils
Anthem Cherry Cider (hard)
Petritegi Apple Cider (hard)

Assorted soft drinks

Other beers, waters and soft drinks available from Pastaworks retail selection.

Evoe is the name of Pastaworks on Hawthorne "eating in" facility and tasting room.It draws its name from Virgil's homage/invocation to Bacchus and from Peter's only winemaking experience in the late 1960's.

Evoe fills the space of the original Pastaworks and opens into the store as well as the street. It's open from noon to early evening five days a week (Wednesday through Sunday). Evoe also hosts thematic dinners, tastings, demos and/or readings in the evenings and on closed days.

Evoe's menu of salads, charcuterie, soups, sandwiches, fried items are crafted by Kevin Gibson, who also prepares and serves the dishes (with a little help). There are wines by the glass, beers too, and customers can purchase wines and beers off the store's retail shelves (with an incredibly modest corkerage fee to cover glasses, etc). Evoe has been well received by customers and press alike. We hope you will stop in soon.