2024-07-17 00:25:02
Naomi Pomeroy, chef, author, and an icon in Portland’s culinary scene, died July 13 at the age of 49. Family told Portland Monthly yesterday that they fear Pomeroy drowned during an inner tubing excursion on the Willamette River.
Pomeroy — through her gritty-meets-refined ethos at early supper clubs and, later, at her influential Northeast Portland restaurant Beast — helped define the Portland culinary scene that so captured the national imagination in the early aughts. Each of Pomeroy’s moves felt on the pulse, even a portent for what was to come next: freewheeling dinner parties predated the pop-up boom; early concepts flaunted the potential of whole hog cooking; prix fixe, “no substitutions please” menus embodied the spirit of the now-bygone era of the “rock star” chef.
“She was an inspiration, a pure force and was just beginning a whole new exciting chapter in her life,” Kristen D. Murray, chef-owner of Portland luncheonette Maurice, wrote on Instagram. “I fear words fail me at the moment for how significant, extraordinary, and impactful this wonderful woman is. She ‘is’ and will forever be these things.”
On social platform X, chef and television host Andrew Zimmern also paid tribute: “Naomi Pomeroy was a great chef, an icon and a friend for many years. May her memory be a blessing to all who loved her.”
A Corvallis, Oregon, native, Pomeroy first garnered attention locally in her mid-20s through an underground “Family Supper” dinner series with her then-partner Michael Hebb. The duo would go on to found their restaurant group Ripe, which opened Family Supper (a restaurant version), Clarklewis, and Gotham Tavern. The group eventually flamed out spectacularly — fueling seemingly endless local and national press — vaulting them to celebrity status within the industry, and resulting in divorce between Pomeroy and Hebb. But its impact was unmistakable: Gabriel Rucker (Le Pigeon and Canard), Tommy Habetz (the Bunk empire), Morgan Brownlow (formerly of Tails & Trotters), and Troy MacLarty (Bollywood Theater), who have since made their own their marks on the local scene, all famously passed through Ripe’s doors. (Family Supper and Gotham Tavern closed in 2006, while Clarklewis remains open.)
But Pomeroy’s largest impact was at her own restaurant Beast, which debuted in 2007 to near-instant acclaim. There, her bold approach — just one menu, two seatings, everyone leisurely eating the same five or six courses while elbowing the diner next to them — was literally front and center, as Pomeroy and her team cooked and plated each meal from a central kitchen island with nowhere to hide. The dishes showed Pomeroy’s range: a silky veloute one course, a meaty lamb chop with surprising accompaniment the next, a delicate charcuterie plate that reached icon status. Beast displayed Pomeroy’s absolute confidence in her vision. There were famously no substitutions or deviations from the communal tables; Pomeroy demanded complete trust from the diner, asking the city’s growing cadre of adventurous eaters to embrace the pig and shut up and enjoy the ride. Pomeroy would earn a Food & Wine Best New Chef accolade in 2009 and a James Beard Award for Best Chef: Northwest in 2014, after four nominations.
Beast became emblematic of the Portland culinary ethos at the time, mentioned in the same breath as Andy Ricker’s Pok Pok and Gabriel Rucker’s Le Pigeon. Each were somewhat scrappy, sometimes intentionally provocative temples to the singularity of a chef’s vision — helping the build the city’s reputation as one that welcomed iconoclasts.
Beast’s exacting point of view was even more remarkable given that Pomeroy had no formal cooking training, something she was often quick to point out. “I’m not even a trained chef,” Pomeroy said on the Eater Upsell podcast in 2017. “I started a catering company in my basement when I was 22, and I didn’t really know what the fuck I was doing, and then I just kept trying stuff and people somehow decided that it was good. I have natural skill, and I really care about creating a team. And I think that ultimately what happened is that I keep my people around me really well.”
Beast closed in October 2020, a pandemic casualty. (During that time, Pomeroy was a vocal advocate for the Independent Restaurant Coalition, lobbying for more funds for restaurants.) Pomeroy shifted the space to house Ripe Cooperative, a hybrid neighborhood restaurant and market specializing in grab-and-go items. Ripe itself would close in 2022. Most recently, she partnered with longtime Beast sous chef Mika Paredes on Cornet Custard, which got its start as a pop-up within Pomeroy’s flower shop Colibri. Cornet just opened the doors to its first standalone location on SE Division Street in May. That month, news broke that Pomeroy had also planned to open a new restaurant in the same building.
Pomeroy shared in projects with her husband Kyle Linden Webster: the duo opened renowned Portland cocktail bar Expatriate in 2013 (Webster is also co-owner of Yaowarat, which debuted in October 2023). Pomeroy published the cookbook Taste & Technique in 2006 and has appeared on Top Chef: Masters, Top Chef, Iron Chef America, and Knife Fight.
In 2023, Pomeroy told Eater Portland that she was excited for her forthcoming projects. “I feel this very new, energetic zest for preserving the industry, and making sure that fine dining doesn’t start to disappear,” Pomeroy said at the time. “There are lots of things that have been needing to change in the industry, and I’d like very much to continue to be at the forefront of that.”
Pomeroy is survived by Webster and her daughter. Per Portland Monthly, the family is requesting privacy at this time, with no current plans for a public memorial.
