Coquine, the acclaimed restaurant at 6839 SE Belmont St. in Portland’s Mount Tabor neighborhood, will close in late October and is expected to reopen in mid-November as Katy Jane’s. Owner and chef Katy Millard plans to remove a wall between the restaurant and the neighboring cafe and market, joining the two into one larger, more approachable restaurant.
Many Coquine favorites will carry over. Seasonal salads and a roast chicken meant for sharing will anchor the new menu, and the restaurant’s well-known cookies stay. Katy Jane’s will add seafood towers loaded with fresh-shucked Pacific Northwest oysters, a schnitzel topped with chicory salad and more handmade pasta, including the milk-braised pork sugo. The candy tray that ended every Coquine meal is already gone.
“After 11 years, I’m waving a soft goodbye to Coquine, turning the page on this chapter of my life and combining the two sides of the business into one bigger restaurant that is a little more in line with how I want to be cooking right now,” Millard told The Oregonian/OregonLive.
She said the change isn’t about business trouble. “Coquine is doing really well,” Millard said. “We do not struggle to fill seats. But I did this thing for 11 years. I think I did it really well. And now I want to move on.”
Part of the shift comes down to the price of the food. Coquine’s tasting menu now costs $140 per person, and Millard said that even a humble dish like soup has to feel special at that price. At the more casual Katy Jane’s, she can serve a bowl of cauliflower and bean soup topped with pesto and let it stay simple. “It still feels like me,” she said. “But it’s so much easier.”
Coquine opened in July 2015 and quickly won national attention. It was a James Beard Foundation finalist in 2016, the same year The Oregonian named it Restaurant of the Year, and Millard was nominated for Best Chef: Northwest every year from 2017 to 2020. In 2020, the restaurant expanded into the former yoga studio next door, which became a cafe, then a market and, since early last year, an oyster bar called Katy Jane’s Oyster Bar.
The market will stay open during most of the construction, and Millard hopes to bring back favorites like waffles and the breakfast sandwich while the work is underway. Doughnuts could also make an appearance.
