We’re professed fans of Japanese outdoor brand Snow Peak. With minimalist aesthetics and a subdued color palette, the brand’s collection of apparel, cooking equipment, tents, and other outdoor gear is both elegantly technical and just darned good-looking. When we found out they were opening Takibi, a camping-inspired restaurant across the street from their United States headquarters in Portland, we started researching flights to PDX.
While the space, designed by local architecture firm Skylab, is meant to evoke the feeling of camping (a wood-fired hearth, airy wide open spaces, abundant exposed wood, folding camp chairs and tables on the patio), the results are anything but themey. That wood-fired hearth turns out Japanese-influenced dishes like grilled miso-marinated trout and koji-cured amberjack from kaiseki-trained chef Alex Kim. The beautiful, expertly made cocktails are…
