De Noche (restaurant)

De Noche
Exterior of De Noche and Bar Comala, 2025
Restaurant information
Established2022 (2022)
Closed2025 (2025)
Owner(s)República & Co.
Head chefDani Morales
Food typeMexican
Street address422 Northwest 8th Avenue
CityPortland
CountyMultnomah
StateOregon
Postal/ZIP Code97209
CountryUnited States
Coordinates45°31′35″N 122°40′42″W / 45.5263°N 122.6784°W / 45.5263; -122.6784
Websitedenochepdx.com

De Noche was a Mexican restaurant in Portland, Oregon, United States. The restaurant group República & Co. opened the restaurant in northwest Portland's Pearl District in 2022, alongside an attached bar called Bar Comala. Dani Morales was the executive chef of De Noche, which served small plates with mostly Pacific Northwest ingredients. Menu options included aguachile with salmon, mole, sopa de fideo, short ribs with birria, and tlayudas. The restaurant received a generally positive reception and was named one of the city's 50 best restaurants by Karen Brooks of Portland Monthly in 2024. República & Co. closed De Noche permanently in 2025.

Description

Exteriors of De Noche (top) and Bar Comala (bottom), 2025

The modern Mexican[1] restaurant De Noche operated on 8th Avenue, along the North Park Blocks in northwest Portland's Pearl District at the border with Old Town Chinatown.[2][3] The interior contains an open kitchen and dining nooks as group seating,[4] and the dining room had brick walls and wooden tables.[5] Prix fixe dinners included 9 to 10 dishes.[6]

The masa-centered[7] menu included small plates such as memelas Veracruzanas, rotating varieties of mole often made with Oregon produce,[8] and sopa de fideo.[6] De Noche primarily used Pacific Northwest ingredients,[3] except for the corn, which was imported from Mexico.[7] The restaurant served aguachile with salmon, grapefruits, and a pepper sauce, as well as short ribs with birria, mole negro steak, and tlayudas with avocado, kampachi, and watercress. The birria is based on a family recipe used by the chef and her mother.[4][7] De Noche served drinks made in an attached cocktail bar called Bar Comala, which was operated by the same restaurant group.[2]

Bar Comala

De Noche and Bar Comala were connected by an interior hallway.[4] Portland Monthly described the shared space as "serene" and "transportive".[9] Bar Comala had a large display of bottles on shelves and had Mexican black-and-white films projected on the front wall.[4] The bar also offered drinks made with Mexican gin, mezcal,[9] raicilla, rum, sotol, tequila, and whisky. In 2024, Portland Monthly said the business had "one of the largest bar collections of these distillates" in the nation and only offered products by Mexican-owned brands. The drink menu included a Negroni,[4] as well as wines by BIPOC-, LGBTQ-, and woman-owned businesses.[5]

Food options available at Bar Comala included botanas (tapas, or appetizers) such as fried masa puffs with aioli, mole coloradito wings with sesame seeds, and tacos with skirt steak.[4]

History

De Noche was operated by the restaurant group República & Co. (of which restaurateur Angel Medina is a co-owner),[7][10][11] which has also operated Lilia Comedor and República.[2] De Noche operated in the space that previously housed Park Kitchen.[12] The restaurant and its bar were considered "sibling" or "sister" establishments to these restaurants.[12][13][14]

In October 2022, República & Co. announced plans to open De Noche in the space that had previously housed La Fondita. It was targeted to open on November 10, and De Noche would revive a dinner menu previously offered at the restaurant República.[6] In May 2025, República & Co. announced plans to close De Noche and move Lilia Comedor into the space from South Waterfront in June. Dani Morales, the executive chef of De Noche,[4][15] was named executive chef of the restaurant República.[7][16][17]

Reception

While Michael Russell of The Oregonian did not include De Noche in a 2023 list of Portland's best new restaurants, he included the business in an overview of "five more Portland restaurants we enjoyed in 2023" as an extension of the list.[12] In 2024, Jordan Michelman of Portland Monthly called the food "simultaneously subversive and foundational" and said Morales gives "textbook perfect" dishes with "thought-provoking inversions". Moreover, Michelman praised the restaurant's "utterly impressive and ambitious" atmosphere, stating that it "is uncommon in Portland restaurants".[4]

In 2024, food critic Karen Brooks included De Noche in Portland Monthly's list of the city's 50 best restaurants, and Nathan Williams included the mole in Eater Portland's guide to the city's Oaxacan cuisine.[9][18] Eater Portland's Janey Wong and Zoe Baillargeon included the restaurant in a 2024 "guide to the ultimate staycation" in Old Town Chinatown and 2025 overview of the best restaurants in Old Town Chinatown, respectively.[3][5] In 2025, the destination marketing organization Travel Portland highlighted De Noche and Bar Comala as two of Portland's "great" Latin American-owned restaurants.[19]

See also

References

  1. ^ Baillargeon, Zoe (July 24, 2023). "16 Superb Restaurants and Cafes in Portland's Old Town-Chinatown Neighborhood". Eater Portland. Vox Media. Archived from the original on March 1, 2024. Retrieved May 30, 2025.
  2. ^ a b c Spencer, Malia (March 27, 2024). "República restaurateur reflects on rapid expansion, capital and city politics". Portland Business Journal. American City Business Journals. Retrieved May 30, 2025.
  3. ^ a b c Wong, Janey (July 2, 2024). "A Guide to the Ultimate Staycation in Portland's Old Town-Chinatown". Eater Portland. Retrieved May 30, 2025.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h "Groundbreaking Mexican Food and Drinks: Bar Comala and De Noche". Portland Monthly. ISSN 1546-2765. Retrieved May 30, 2025.
  5. ^ a b c Baillargeon, Zoe (July 24, 2023). "16 Superb Restaurants and Cafes in Portland's Old Town-Chinatown Neighborhood". Eater Portland. Archived from the original on March 1, 2024. Retrieved May 30, 2025.
  6. ^ a b c Wong, Janey (October 28, 2022). "What to Know About the New and Incoming Restaurants From the República Team". Eater Portland. Archived from the original on August 11, 2023. Retrieved May 30, 2025.
  7. ^ a b c d e Bicchieri, Paolo (May 23, 2025). "Acclaimed Mexican Restaurant República Is Getting a New Chef, and a New Menu Format". Eater Portland. Archived from the original on May 30, 2025. Retrieved May 30, 2025.
  8. ^ Williams, Nathan (April 30, 2024). "A Guide to Oaxacan Dining in Portland". Eater Portland. Archived from the original on June 6, 2024. Retrieved May 30, 2025.
  9. ^ a b c "Portland's Top 50 Restaurants". Portland Monthly. Archived from the original on December 20, 2021. Retrieved May 30, 2025.
  10. ^ Spencer, Malia (May 24, 2024). "Oregon tourism comeback: 'There is no Portland without the culinary scene'". Portland Business Journal. Archived from the original on May 26, 2024. Retrieved May 30, 2025.
  11. ^ "Portland restauranteur launches food media platform that gives voice to those often underrepresented". KGW. September 27, 2024. Retrieved May 30, 2025.
  12. ^ a b c Russell, Michael (December 22, 2023). "Five more Portland restaurants we enjoyed in 2023". The Oregonian. Archived from the original on May 12, 2024. Retrieved May 30, 2025.
  13. ^ Kingsman, Kay (August 9, 2024). "The 15 Best Restaurants in Portland, Oregon". Fodor's. Archived from the original on September 8, 2024. Retrieved May 30, 2025.
  14. ^ Copeland, Mims; Russell, Michael (September 25, 2024). "What's the best Mexican restaurant in the Portland area? Vote in our Readers Choice Awards". The Oregonian. Advance Publications. ISSN 8750-1317. OCLC 985410693. Archived from the original on September 30, 2024. Retrieved May 30, 2025.
  15. ^ "Recipe: Seared radicchio with black garlic, salsa negra and corn nuts". Oregon Public Broadcasting. Archived from the original on March 27, 2025. Retrieved May 30, 2025.
  16. ^ Russell, Michael (May 28, 2025). "Another one of Portland's top-rated restaurants is moving downtown". The Oregonian. Retrieved May 30, 2025.
  17. ^ Spencer, Malia (May 29, 2025). "Changes coming to Portland's República Hospitality restaurant group". Portland Business Journal. Retrieved May 30, 2025.
  18. ^ Williams, Nathan (April 30, 2024). "A Guide to Oaxacan Dining in Portland". Eater Portland. Archived from the original on June 6, 2024. Retrieved May 30, 2025.
  19. ^ Prado, Emilly (April 16, 2025). "Great Latinx-Owned Eateries in Portland". Travel Portland. Retrieved May 30, 2025.
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