Over the past few years, Portland has added enough sushi burrito spots, mostly in the form of food carts, that we might not need sandbags the next time it floods. Other cities, meanwhile, have embraced a more delicate version of the sushi roll for one, the hand roll, or temaki, a four-bite snack of rice and raw fish wrapped in toasted seaweed (nori).
Now, thanks to Oregon’s unlikely yet ongoing cultural exchange with Nevada, the city has its first dedicated hand roll restaurant. Tekka Bar, which opened its first location in the same upscale Las Vegas hotel food court as Lardo and Pok Pok Wing, will officially open Tuesday in the glass-walled space once home to Portland’s original Blue Star Donuts.
Instead of Blue Star’s baking equipment and white-tiled walls, Tekka Bar has shelves lined with Yamada Nishiki rice and a handsome oak and walnut sushi counter. Customers sit at high chairs and order sake by the cup, Japanese beer on draft or matcha on nitro alongside either individual hand rolls or pre-set combos. The “Highroller” ($30) comes as a flight of rolls including salmon, yellowtail, lobster and fatty tuna (toro), each delivered by a server or sushi chef quickly, so the rice is still warm, the fish still cold and the nori retains its crunch.
Tekka Bar comes from Takashi Segawa, the man behind Las Vegas sushi restaurant Kabuto as well as Monta Ramen, and Oliver Wharton of A Perfect Bite, the hospitality company behind Portland’s Jackrabbit restaurant. For Tekka Bar Portland, they partnered with ChefStable, the restaurant group that now backs four businesses on the block: Lardo, Grassa, Beer O’Clock and Tekka Bar.
Opening hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday (with plans to expand to seven days a week as soon as next month); 1237 S.W. Washington St.; 971-346-3280; tekkabar.com
-- Michael Russell @tdmrussell
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