Campana, a new Italian restaurant that began as a pop-up at Grand Army Tavern, will replace the Northeast Portland bar permanently this Friday, owners George Kaden and Annalisa Maceda told The Oregonian/OregonLive.
The move spells the end for Grand Army Tavern, a neighborhood bar opened in 2017 by Kaden and Maceda, another former New York City restaurant industry vet who previously ran The Tippler, a powerhouse cocktail bar at Manhattan’s Chelsea Market. According to Kaden, the bar represented an effort to bridge the couple’s respective resumes. Maceda’s cocktails were fun and approachable, while Kaden’s ambitious menu was split between house-butchered pork platters and vegan snacks.
“If we had opened a cocktail bar that was very much a cocktail bar, I wouldn’t know what to do, and if we opened an Italian restaurant Anna might not have a place in that,” Kaden said. “The fear was we would open a place that nobody would know if it was a bar or a restaurant. And that’s kind of exactly what happened. Grand Army Tavern had a real identity issue.”
Shifting to Campana full-time was already in the works before Oregon’s COVID-19 outbreak, but the pandemic did force the timing.
“It’s something we were planning to do slowly over the course of many months, because we didn’t want to rip the rug out from anybody,” Maceda said. “But after Dining Month, when we had a line out the door every single night, we were like, we should just do Campana.”
“It feels right,” Kaden said. “Like putting on a comfortable pair of pants.”
What were they lining up for? Meatballs in a seductive house marinara, fresh tagliatelle dripping with clam sauce, grilled meats served with lemon and salsa verde and other traditional dishes channeled through Kaden, an accomplished cook who spent six years at Hearth, the well-reviewed New York City restaurant from award-winning chef Marco Canora, including four as the restaurant’s top lieutenant.
Campana, a new Italian restaurant that started life as a pop-up at Grand Army Tavern, will replace the Northeast Portland bar full-time starting Friday.Courtesy of Campana
“Another reason that I didn’t pursue the Italian thing was that, working for Marco for so long, as a Dutch German whose family has been in New Jersey for generations, it was hard for me to accept that it’s what I want to study and cook,” Kaden said. “But then after two years of cooking tavern food, I really missed it. And that’s what prompted starting the pasta night.”
A liberating moment came after Kaden asked Luigi Petrocelli, the subsequent Hearth chef de cuisine, how he would feel if he added Hearth’s pork ragù -- made with red wine, broth, pork shoulder, pork sausage and mortadella ends left over from Hearth’s sister wine bars -- to Campana’s menu. Turns out, not only did Petrocelli give his blessing, he actually considered it to be Kaden’s dish.
With to-go cocktails forbidden in Oregon, Grand Army Tavern’s sales were down 90 percent for the entire three-month shutdown. To make rent, Kaden and Maceda turned to selling lasagnas, eggplant Parm and other Italian-American comfort fare to-go. (I bought a tray of excellent Parm for Father’s Day, with thin-sliced eggplant fried in batches then layered with marinara, chopped basil and crumbled fresh mozzarella. “As far as I’m concerned that’s canon for every good pizza place,” said Kaden, who has been eating leftover Parm for the past five days. “It’s not rocket science. Eggplant Parm should be for the people.”)
“I fell in love with him over this food,” Maceda said Monday. “This is what he would feed and woo me with. It’s East Coast, garlic and red sauce, and all these things that make me feel like I’m back in a church basement with my family. It feels right at this time. We’re taking this leap, and we’ll just see how it goes.”
Kaden will take a more seasonal approach at Campana, highlighting lighter pastas, salads and vegetables from Northeast Portland’s Lil Starts Farm in the summer, adding more braised meats and heavier ragùs in the winter. A simple dessert list includes a buttermilk panna cotta, pistachio-chocolate cannoli and a polenta cake with strawberries and crème fraîche. Classic Italian cocktails from Maceda include Boulevardiers, fizzy Negroni Sbagliatos and Aperol Spritzes for sipping outdoors.
When it opens by reservation-only on Friday, the restaurant will have about 10 tables outside after successfully applying to turn 60 feet of parking space on Northeast Durham Street into additional seating, plus six more inside, with big garage-door windows kept open to provide a draft.
“We’re as cautious as anyone when it comes to going back out,” Kaden said. “But as a business, we have to reopen. There’s an immediacy.”
Reservations for Campana, 901 N.E. Oneonta St., are live now at campanapdx.com. See the opening menu below.
The opening menu at Campana.
-- Michael Russell, mrussell@oregonian.com, @tdmrussell
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