Machado Proclaims 2010 The Year of the Meatball
Small Bites: A chat with David Machado
By The Oregonian
January 19, 2010, 12:00AM
Motoya Nakamura/The OregonianDavid Machado3 QUESTIONS
A short chat about what’s cooking
Chef David Machado has a deep imprint on Portland’s dining scene. He had a crucial hand in the creation of downtown spots SouthPark and Pazzo, and now he runs three well-regarded restaurants of his own: the Southeast neighborhood spots Lauro Mediterranean Kitchen and Vindalho, and Nel Centro, a destination spot that opened last year in downtown’s posh Hotel Modera. Machado’s also one of the top forecasters of food trends. We asked him to peer into his culinary crystal ball to see what’s on the horizon.
Q: 2008 was the year of the chicken wing. 2009 was the year of the sandwich. What are we going to eat in 2010?
A: Whatever continues to comfort us, especially meatballs. When we think of meatballs we think of an Italian meatball, but every culture’s got one. Every culture grinds chicken or pork or lamb or something and spices it. In keeping with frugality and trying to use up the ingredients that you have and offer things at a good price, I’m going to call 2010 the year of the meatball.
Q: Besides full tables at your own restaurants, what would you like to see happen in the next year in Portland’s dining scene?
A: I’d like to see happy hour mania slow down. It’s at a frenzy right now and is certainly related to the sad state of the economy. But it’s a challenge for operators. They’re popular and they do increase revenue, but they decrease the bottom line substantially, and so the more popular they get, the more difficult it is financially. In the old days, there was a nice balance between dinner and happy hour, but because of the difficult state of affairs, the balance is a little challenging.
Q: What are the challenges you face running three successful places?
A: They’re different markets. The two on the east side are neighborhood mom-and-pops, and the scale and the relationship that the customers have is based on that. The one downtown is big, in a hotel, and driven by different factors than the other two — arts patrons, hotel travelers, business people. The challenge for me is not so much the geography and distance between the restaurants, or even having the three: It’s the dining public relates to them differently and I have to clearly understand who’s coming to each one and why.
