How it started
Built around one hearth.
Chef Marco Theron spent a decade working in Lisbon and Barcelona before moving back to Portland in 2017. He spent two years looking for a space with the right bones before signing the lease on SE Division — a long, narrow building with a fifteen-foot ceiling and a back wall that could take a commercial exhaust hood.
The wood-fired hearth was the first thing built into the kitchen. No gas lines run to the main prep station. The cooking method isn't a design choice or a marketing angle — it's how the food actually tastes different.
The Mediterranean angle came from Marco's time in Iberia and the North African coast. The seasonal structure came from the farmers. The natural wine list came from Dana Vo, who joined as sommelier before we opened and has been building it ever since.
How we work
Three things we don't bend on.
The farm drives the menu
Twelve farm and ranch partners across Oregon and Washington supply the kitchen. When a crop peaks, the menu shifts. We write the menu around the ingredients — not the other way around.
Open flame, no shortcuts
There are no gas burners in the main prep station. The wood-fired hearth handles every main course — whole fish, lamb chops, chicken, vegetables. The char and smoke are part of the recipe, not decoration.
Hospitality is the whole point
We designed the room for long meals. The tables are wide enough for multiple rounds. The lighting is dim on purpose. We'd rather you stay two hours than rush through in one.
The team
The people behind the plates.
Marco Theron
Executive Chef & Co-founder
Marco spent a decade in Lisbon and Barcelona before returning to the Pacific Northwest. He built Olive & Ember around one conviction: open-fire cooking is a discipline, not an aesthetic. Every dish on the menu started with the question of what the flame could do to it.
Dana Vo
Sommelier
Dana built the wine list from the ground up, focusing on biodynamic and minimal-intervention producers. She is particularly deep on the Mediterranean basin and the Willamette Valley, and rotates the by-the-glass selection seasonally to follow what she's excited about.
Leila Roos
Pastry Chef
Leila bakes every dessert in-house each morning. The olive oil cake has been on every version of the menu since we opened in 2019. The pistachio baklava uses a recipe her grandmother brought from Tehran.
Carlos Ibarra
General Manager
Carlos runs front-of-house and keeps the room feeling like a neighborhood restaurant, not a performance. If something is wrong with your evening, he will know before you tell him.
Sourced locally
Farm & ranch partners.
We source from 12 farms and ranches within 100 miles of SE Division. A selection of current partners below. The full list changes with the season.
Luscher Farm
Lake Oswego, OR
Summer squash, brassicas, dry beans
Gathering Together Farm
Philomath, OR
Heirloom tomatoes, peppers, salad greens
Cascade Natural Lamb
Bend, OR
Whole lamb, monthly
Camas Country Mill
Junction City, OR
Heritage grain, flatbread flour
Come for dinner.
Stay through dessert.
Dinner Tuesday through Sunday. Reservations recommended Thursday through Saturday. Walk-ins welcome as space allows.
Reserve a table