República de México

Portland’s Eater Awards Winners for 2021 | Eater Portland

"Over the course of the last year, República simply refused to stop growing and changing. It started as a sweet wine bar and cafe with lovely desserts and guisados, but chef Lauro Romero has pushed his evening tasting menu into more fascinating territory, sifting through both his culinary history and the larger cultural narrative of Mexico. In the mornings it presents as a casual cafe where Doña Chapis folds tri-colored masa tortillas layered with Salem-made quesillo on the comal; in the evenings diners sit down to a parade of plates while servers discuss colonization’s impact on foodways, detail the annals of indigenous ingredients, and share personal stories about components of each dish, be it a watermelon aguachile or a mole encacahuatado." - Brooke Jackson-Glidden