If you’re a Clyde Common regular customer or staffer, you likely haven’t seen owner Nate Tilden in months. That’s because Tilden has been busy growing a gnarly Grizzly Adams-caliber beard while working nights and weekends to assemble the pieces of what might be the most original Portland restaurant to open all year.

Thanks to the handywork of Tilden, chefs Jason Barwikowski and Elias Cairo, and the rest of the partners of Olympic Provisions, (2nd and SE Washington Street) Portland’s first and soon-to-be-unveiled charcuterie restaurant and wholesale meat-curing facility is looking rather sharp just a fortnight or so from opening day. With about 40 seats, a long concrete chef’s counter, a wall of shelving 15 feet high stocked with wine, shiny white subway tile aplomb, and the type of glass counter-top fridges often seen at tapas bars in Spain, Olympic Provisions is going to be unlike any restaurant in Portland.

Tilden says the restaurant will open around the 13th of the month, lunch only for starters, and will do few private events during the evenings through the holiday season. The restaurant will specialize in small wine-friendly plates, pates and salami, and will sell its house-cured products and wine to go.