Javelina Just Became Portland’s Only Indigenous Restaurant | Eater Portland
"Opened as a permanent brick-and-mortar on January 23 after starting as a pop-up in November 2023 at Lil’ Dame, this counter-service by day serves contemporary Native American dishes like fry bread alongside traditional foods such as someviki (Hopi corn tamales). Starting February 8 it transforms at night into Inɨ́sha, a multi-course dinner concept — Inɨ́sha translates to “my daughter” in the Yakama tribal language — that will use only ingredients native to “Turtle Island” (the term many Indigenous groups use for North America), provided by other Indigenous businesses wherever possible. “Us offering Indigenous food as a whole is a very special experience,” says chef Alexa Numkena-Anderson, who co-owns the restaurant with her husband, Nick Numkena-Anderson. “You can’t really go out and be like, ‘Let’s go have some Indigenous foods tonight for dinner.’” According to the couple, theirs will be the only Indigenous restaurant within about 180 miles (the closest is Off the Rez Cafe in Seattle). The daytime menu reflects Alexa’s roots growing up on the Yakama Reservation in Washington — she is an enrolled Hopi tribe member and a descendant of the Cree, Skokomish, and Yakama nations — and centers both contemporary and traditional preparations: fry bread is the base for the “NDN” tacos topped with bison chili and serves as the buns for the powwow beef burger with American cheese and shredded lettuce. The write-up also notes fry bread’s complicated history as a survival food after forced displacement and government rations, while Alexa frames it as a comfort food with fond memories of eating fry bread tacos at powwows and making fry bread with her grandmother. Other dishes highlight traditional Indigenous ingredients and cross-cultural ties: tribal-caught salmon steamed in a corn husk with sunflower seed pesto; blue corn someviki topped with maple-roasted duck and a pasilla cacao sauce (tying in her Mexican heritage); and a smoked salmon salad served with Sonoran wheat berries, commonly grown in Nick’s home state of Arizona. Nick runs the beverage program, which includes a whole menu of teas from Indigenous farms (including Sakari Farms near Bend) blending ingredients like blueberries, jasmine flowers, wild rose petals, and bachelor buttons, plus coffee from Portland’s Native-owned Bison Coffeehouse. The non-alcoholic menu uses Indigenous ingredients such as chokecherry, wild sumac, and prickly pear, while the cocktail menu — using spirits from Indigenous-owned distilleries — incorporates blue corn whiskey, gin with Pacific Northwest juniper, and highbush cranberry syrup. The nighttime tasting concept is ticketed and intentionally intimate: dinner launches February 8, will be served Fridays and Saturdays, is available by ticketed reservation only, and is capped at 22 people per day across two seatings with shareable courses designed to build community around food. The tasting builds on a successful pilot called Oraibi at Kolectivo in December; “Oraibi was a success,” says Alexa, and “I could see the excitement in their eyes as I’d drop off a plate.” The initial menu opens with a passed course of Makah Ozette potatoes (a long, narrow potato variety the Makah tribe in Washington State has grown for over 200 years): “They’re like fingerlings, but not as bitter — they’re tender, a little nutty,” says Alexa; she tops them with duck fat, dandelion greens, and yellowfoot mushrooms. In order to stay true to non-colonial Indigenous foodways, the tasting features only proteins native to North America — no beef, chicken, or pork — instead showcasing elk, wild boar, goose, duck, and tribal-caught fish; everything is free of gluten, dairy, soy, and cane sugar. The initial six-course menu incorporates elderberry-marinated elk shoulder, braised rabbit, manoomin (wild rice), and indigenous heirloom bean varieties including tepary beans and Rio Zape beans, finishing with a huckleberry pie with a sunflower seed crust sided by maple cranberry sorbet. The space is intended as a place of Indigenous pride and community, decorated with Indigenous art including beadwork and Hopi pottery, with the air smudged with sage and sweetgrass; plans include partnerships with the Native American Youth and Family Center and the Northwest Native Chamber to showcase Indigenous vendors and create a market in the shipping container next to the restaurant. “I want it to be an educational space for people to learn about first foods,” says Alexa. “I’m really trying to create a cozy, welcoming environment here for Native people to enjoy. I’m doing this for you.”" - Katherine Chew Hamilton
