Since launching Nodoguro nearly a decade ago, Ryan and Elena Roadhouse have popped up at Portland restaurants, presented a “Twin Peaks”-themed dinner for director David Lynch at the old Château Marmont in Los Angeles, and crafted an izakaya menu inspired by volcanic soil for a Canary Islands conference of some of Europe’s most celebrated chefs.
No one should be shocked, then, that Nodoguro didn’t just survive the pandemic, but found a new home. And that’s despite COVID-19 landing just as they were finishing an expensive remodel on a second restaurant, Tonari, in the space now home to Bluto’s. (Public records show the two businesses received a combined $516,474 from the Small Business Administration’s Restaurant Recovery Fund in 2021.) Given their budding global reputation, it might be more surprising that they stayed in Portland at all.