Pay-what-you-can cafe in NE Portland will moonlight as a fine dining restaurant

At Northeast Portland’s newest restaurant and community cafe, the owners believe everyone deserves to dine with dignity.

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Makin’ Groceries — a reference to a phrase commonly used in New Orleans to mean going grocery shopping — allows customers to dine and pay what they can, if anything at all. It’s the creation of nonprofit

Landing Paper Planes

, a group led in part by longtime Portlanders Jade Fenton and her husband, Paul Lewis.

And here lies the twist: On weekends, Makin’ Groceries plans to moonlight as Parish, a fine dining restaurant whose proceeds will support the cafe’s main mission.

“It is a place where people in the community, no matter what their economic status is, can come in and feel safe and accepted,” Lewis said. “Every person deserves to eat food.”

The cafe, located just off Sandy Boulevard at 7137 N.E. Fremont St., will open its doors Friday with a 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

grand opening

with live music, snacks and cocktails.

Makin’ Groceries standard cafe hours will be 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday and Saturday. On the fine dining side of things, Parish will launch this month with three nighttime weekly pop-ups on June 13, 20 and 27.

Makin’ Groceries is a pay-what-you-can cafe at 7137 N.E. Fremont St. that will also host Parish, a fine dining concept that starts pop-up events in June.

Courtesy of Jade Fenton

The eatery isn’t Northeast Portland’s first experience with pay-what-you-can cafes. In 2011, a

Panera Cares cafe

that used a similar model popped up in the Hollywood neighborhood — though it soon had to impose restrictions on how often customers could come in when it

struggled to stay afloat

, and it closed for good in 2016.

This is the issue Fenton said she hopes to avoid with the addition of Parish, as proceeds from those full-price fine dining services will help sustain the cafe.

The board members of Landing Paper Planes all live either in the Roseway or Rose City Park neighborhoods, Lewis said, so it was important to the group to find a location within the community for Makin’ Groceries.

“We’re here to help (our) neighbors,” he said. “ “ These are people you actually see and faces you recognize day to day. I run into people all the time that are talking about the cafe opening, and it racks my brain until I realize, ‘Well, I saw them at the Safeway. That’s why I know this person.’”

Makin’ Groceries is a pay-what-you-can cafe at 7137 N.E. Fremont St. that will also host Parish, a fine dining concept that starts pop-up events in June.

Courtesy of Jade Fenton

The nonprofit also tried to steer clear of busier streets like Hawthorne Boulevard or Belmont Street, Lewis said, which are already packed with restaurants and cafes of all kinds.

“ East of Hollywood, it kind of becomes a food and services desert,” he said.

Makin’ Groceries’

menu

leans Cajun, composed of items like jambalaya, vegan dirty rice, baked potato skins, pimento cheese and standard or veggie muffulettas — a New Orleans-style sandwich stuffed with cured meat, cheese and a tangy olive salad.

Fenton’s family is from the South, she said, and she enjoys the amalgamation of cultural cooking that inspires Cajun cuisine, which tends to blend influences from Native American, West African, French and Spanish food.

“It’s a mixture of all sorts of cultures combined,” she said, “so we can play with a lot of food that way.”

Makin’ Groceries is a pay-what-you-can cafe at 7137 N.E. Fremont St. that will also host Parish, a fine dining concept that starts pop-up events in June. The menu includes Cajun staples like muffulettas, a New Orleans sandwich with meat, cheese and a tangy olive salad.

Courtesy of Jade Fenton

Parish pop-ups will feature Cajun flavors, too, but through a family-style prix fixe menu. That menu will rotate every week, Lewis said, and will include five courses. Parish will be reservation-only, but there will also be a walk-in area with a bar serving snacks and drinks, he said.

The goal is for Makin’ Groceries to serve as a third space where customers feel safe and accepted, Lewis said.

Employees are trained to treat all patrons with dignity and respect, he said, and the experience is crafted to ensure customers don’t feel nervous or ashamed asking for free food.

It’s an intentionally private and user-friendly exchange, Fenton said: When it’s time to pay, an employee will turn the tablet toward the customer. From there, they can select one of several pre-set price options or input their own.

“Nobody around them will know how much they did or did not pay,” Fenton said.

Makin’ Groceries is a pay-what-you-can cafe at 7137 N.E. Fremont St. that will also host Parish, a fine dining concept that starts pop-up events in June.

Courtesy of Jade Fenton

The cafe will have books, games and other methods of entertainment for customers, Lewis said, and he hopes to bring in technology like laptops that would be available for anyone to use. He also wants to host community workshops for skills like resume-building, as well as events like karaoke or poetry readings.

When the cafe closes for the day, Lewis hopes to rent the space to community members equipped to give seminars on how to access local services, such as Planned Parenthood or homeless shelters, he said.

But above all, he said, he wants customers to “dine with dignity.”

“ If you can pay double what the menu price of an item would be, that’s great. If you can pay zero of the menu price, that’s great as well,” Lewis said. “Please eat.”

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—Veronica Nocera covers retail and recalls news for The Oregonian/OregonLive. Is a business in your area opening or closing? Reach Veronica at


vnocera@oregonian.com


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