Chef/owner David Levi has announced that he’s permanently closing Vinland, his locavore restaurant at 593 Congress Street.
Vinland has closed. It is a hard loss for me and for those closest to me, professionally and personally. It is also a beginning. Vinland could not withstand the long quarantine required for the Covid-19 pandemic, the disproportionate impact on the fine dining sector of the food industry, and the overall downturn in the economy, the last of which may reverberate for years. This is plain and simple. It’s a reality that was not lost on me as I cooked and served the last Vinland meals on March 15th, but one which settled in and calcified, slowly, over the ensuing months. I’d hoped for a reopening even as I failed to see the viable path. The path, for us, didn’t exist.
For now Levi looks forward to “spending far more of my time with my wife, my son, and, very soon, my daughter.”
As for the future,
Have I served my last oat brown bread, my last hakurei turnip soup, my last smoked monkfish, my last parsnip turmeric custard? Has Timm served his last Sunstone cocktail? No. So stay tuned. There will be more Vinland meals. Just not at Vinland, and not six nights a week. If we’ve entered the Brigadoon stage, I promise, we’ll show up a little more often than once a century.
Read the full announcement on Facebook.
The 1,720 sq ft restaurant space in Congress Square is now available for lease for $2,782/month (Modified Gross).
So. So. Sad. I promise to jump in early for whatever you do next!
Vinland was the best restaurant in Portland. I hope that he’ll be able to open a new restaurant a year from now when we are all vaccinated and able to go to restaurants again.