😋 The delicious story behind Nacheaux | Plus, I Spy location revealed.By Cassie Ruud It’s Thursday. And we’ve got an absolute treat of a newsletter for you today Portland, because we’re diving into one of our local eateries: Nacheaux. Chef Anthony Brown was kind enough to tell us about his family’s journey from smash hit food cart to brick-and-mortar in the middle of a pandemic. Plus, he fills us in about the town hall they’re throwing this weekend where they want to meet you (yes, you) and the rest of the neighborhood. It’s a truly delicious story — so let’s dig in. Also! Today our Bridgeliner Unabridged members are finishing a game of I Spy to test their knowledge of Stumptown, and Bridgeliner Bragging Rights are on the line. Want to join the fun? You can get signed up here. | 💖 Meet the family behind Nacheaux and Unicorn Creations Food Hall | | | Chef Anthony Brown and his wife want to meet you this Sunday and tell you all about the cool projects they have coming down the pipeline for Unicorn Creations Food Hall. (Courtesy of Anthony Brown) We sat down with Anthony Brown, the co-owner of Nacheaux and Unicorn Creations Food Hall over on Fremont Street, to talk about this weekend’s upcoming town hall, how he and his family balance restaurant life, and the crucial importance of community in your business. Here’s what he had to say (edited slightly for clarity and length). | What sort of food are folks going to experience at Nacheux?At Nacheaux, we do Mexican and Southern fusion; however, when you come here you’ll also find everything from ice cream, crunch wraps, all the way to nostalgic Hamburger Helper. When people ask what we do, I say Mexican-Southern, but I then send them over to Instagram to see what we really do — nostalgia food. | Tell us more about the town hall happening Sunday? It’s essentially our way of introducing ourselves to the neighborhood. We’re a very transparent company; if you follow us on Instagram, you’ll get everything from what our family is doing, how we’re doing, and all the new food we’re making. To me, food is a conversation piece. My wife’s from Louisiana, and I’m from LA, with a grandma from Atlanta and another from Mexico City — so we always came together around food. We’re a blended family of four, which we talk about a lot on social media because the transparency part is important to us. Everyone has some walk of life they come from and different experiences, and I’m not afraid to connect with my community through those things. We don’t have customers — we have a community. | | | The Brown Family first hit the Portland food scene with their successful food cart dishing up nostalgic dishes with a twist, before moving into the old Alameda Brewhouse building. (Courtesy of Anthony Brown) And it's because of our community that we have this space today. The outpouring of support has allowed us to bring on more people to our team — we even have a sous chef now! Every half hour or so, I come out of the kitchen and walk the dining floor to see how everyone's doing and ask how their day is. | Okay, now what about your food hall set to open in October?At Alameda, folks were used to that same kind of setup and we wanted to keep that same concept and same familiarity. We’re calling it the Unicorn Creations Food Hall — Unicorn Creations being our parent company. And the meaning behind the name is that these businesses we’ve created are things that unicorns would create. We’re planning on having an ice cream space that we’ll call Karnival Korner. It’ll give us a way to highlight all of our sweets and desserts, like our milkshakes and beignets and I’m especially excited about our “cookie-to-order” program. Basically, you’d come to the counter and say you wanna order a pop tart flavored cookie, another one rolled in Lucky Charms marshmallow dust, and a lemon-flavored Trix cookie. We’ll pop those in the oven, they take nine minutes to cook, and voila! You’ve got your hot, fresh cookie. | Tell us what sort of drinks you’ll have on tap?You’ll be able to get your fill of gin fizzes, daiquiris, and more from our bar area. We’ve got some really fun lemonades in the making that come with a light up flashing LED bulb inside. That’s our vibe — it goes with the fun. Fremont’s first private dining hall will go where we had originally planned to put our speakeasy. You can rent the room by itself, a catering program, or a drinking program because the speakeasy bar is still there. So if you’ve got an event and come to us, we’ll get you set up right, and the day before we’ll send you a special code for you and your guests to get into the space — sort of a modern take on a speakeasy. | Where does Nacheaux go in all of this?Nacheaux will stay where it is. This will give us three different points of sale, which means that you’ll need to order separately at each. And that’s all part of that family feel; we’ve got younger kids so, when we go to a restaurant sometimes, they don’t want to sit down, they want to get up. This food hall lets them do that — your kids can wander around, maybe go get a picture with our unicorn mascot Gregory, or see how the chefs are making beignets. And that is exactly how it’s supposed to be. | | | The menu at Nacheaux is often changing, but you’re always bound to find something delicious like this peanut butter, Butterfinger chicken and waffle sandwich. (Courtesy of Anthony Brown) | How has it been making the leap from food cart to brick-and-mortar?The transition was actually pretty smooth. It’s a little hard to talk about because before this I came from a background of working at restaurants that aren’t really part of the Portland food scene anymore. And I feel for them and for that loss — I worked at Pok Pok for a bit before they closed. My wife’s been a huge contributor when it comes to things like our menus, online services, insurance, everything that goes into running the business side of things. We had a baby four months ago (his name is Boss Brown 😉), and she was doing payroll the day after she gave birth. It’s hard because we sacrifice so much in order to do the business the way we need it to be. There are some days I’ll leave for work at 8 a.m. and get back home at 10 p.m. There are times when I don’t see my daughter for a while. I said to my wife, “look if we don’t like it, if we can’t make it work, we’ll go back to the food cart.” From the outside, folks look at us and say that we moved pretty fast, but honestly we got here through a lot of trials and strategy and always having a back up plan. | | | “When people ask what we do I’ll say Mexican-Southern but I then send them over to Instagram to see that we really do nostalgia food.” — Chef Anthony Brown (Courtesy of Anthony Brown) Follow this link for the rest of our interview with Anthony. You can learn more about the UC Food Hall and all of their upcoming events and ventures by following them on Facebook, Instagram, and checking out their website. Join the Brown family for their town hall this Sunday from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. at 4765 NE Fremont. 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