kann
Haitian restaurant · Buckman
548 SE Ash St, Portland, OR 97214
Highlights
Haitian cuisine with Pacific Northwest ingredients, wood-fired
Haitian cuisine with Pacific Northwest ingredients, wood-fired
"A Portland Haitian restaurant led by chef Gregory Gourdet, who used his James Beard Awards win for Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific as a platform to publicly honor Haitian history and identity; his memorable stage look—a gray, 1800s-inspired suit with hand-stitched turquoise and blue ombré feathers and a bright red vest evoking the trogon—signaled that his culinary acclaim is accompanied by a deliberate, culturally rooted personal style." - Lisa Shames
"This Southeast Portland Haitian restaurant may be one of the city’s most famous, thanks to the celebrity of its owner, Top Chef regular and James Beard Award winner Gregory Gourdet; the restaurant has racked up accolades since its opening in 2022. All of that being said, Kann earned its place among Portland restaurant royalty: Meals start with lightly cured kampachi with smoked coconut milk and Haitian specialties like griyo, followed by show-stopping wood-fired proteins like herb marinated king salmon with stewed peppers or bone-in ribeyes coated in coffee rub. The whole restaurant is gluten-free — and dairy-free, because why not? Getting a reservation can be a blood sport; set an alarm for the first of the month at 12 p.m. Pacific and start refreshing Resy." - Sararosa Davies
"Kann, chef Gregory Gourdet’s acclaimed restaurant, offers a menu of Haitian food made with local produce and ingredients from the Pacific Northwest. The menu features dishes like a local pasture-raised pork chop, crispy okra, and espageti (Haitian spaghetti). But at the end of the meal, it’s all about the Baked Haiti made with coconut sponge cake, bavarian cream, pineapple reduction sauce, charred meringue, and basil. It’s a visual showstopper that somehow tastes even better than it looks — like the rest of the menu, it’s gluten-free, too. Book through Resy." - Rebecca Roland
"Gregory Gourdet’s reputation within Portland dining was already well-established before he opened his first restaurant — the Top Chef regular and James Beard Award-winning cookbook author was known for his shaved ice-topped desserts and Christmas ducks at Departure for years before he opened this resoundingly lauded Southeast Portland restaurant. Now, the stylish and energetic Kann is the hottest reservation in town, groups gathering at round tables to share peanut creamed greens, cured kanpachi with a seasonal granita, whole snappers with pineapple and tamarind, and ribeyes rubbed with Haitian coffee. The entire menu happens to be dairy and gluten-free, in alignment with Gourdet’s own dietary needs, but you’d never know it from the dessert menu, with items like pineapple upside down cake with rum raisin ice cream; non-drinkers will also appreciate the lengthy list of NA cocktails. Plan ahead — reservations disappear minutes after they drop." - Katherine Chew Hamilton
"Food media sang praises for chef Gregory Gourdet’s Haiti-meets-Pacific Northwest restaurant early into its opening, scoring awards left and right for best new restaurant and best chef. Just a few years since its opening, Kann is still a highly sought-after celebratory meal. Inside the airy, brightly lit dining hall, large groups dress to impress while enjoying family-style plates of crispy okra with sugarcane chile glaze and jerk-seasoned cauliflower. The open kitchen and its wood-burning oven make the tantalizing smells of flame-cooked pork chops and whole snapper more prevalent. All dishes are typically seasoned with or highlight ingredients familiar to Haitian cuisine but with seasonal flair; a whole tai snapper can be flavored with a pineapple-tamarind pepper sauce, while smoked beef rib is rubbed with Haitian coffee grounds and ti malice (Haitian-Creole hot sauce). Meat-free guests will be happy to find an entirely separate vegan menu, while cocktail enthusiasts can head downstairs to its counterpart Sousol, a loungey basement bar boasting an extensive menu of Caribbean-inspired alcoholic and spirit-free drinks." - Katrina Yentch
