New Restaurants and Shops Coming to PDX's Main Terminal
The renovation of PDX will finish in two phases over the next two years, with the final retailers and restaurants coming in late 2025.
Image: Courtesy Port of Portland
Portlanders love their airport, and we're about to have plenty more to love. PDX just announced several new restaurants and shops to round out its main terminal renovation. The $2 billion face lift and reconfiguration of “America’s Best Airport” began in 2021 and has made progress with the reopening of overhauled concourses. Full completion is planned for the end of 2025.
The main terminal project includes a new roof made from 2.5 million board-feet of locally sourced timber; a streamlined check-in area; an indoor garden with native ferns, trees and other plants; a stadium seating area where rotating musicians will perform; and new retail and restaurant space.
A list of 20 restaurants and shops—some new, others familiar faces—that will fill the main terminal were approved Wednesday by Port of Portland commissioners and will enter into leases with the airport in two phases: the first 12 in May 2024, the rest in late 2025. All but three of the food options will be behind TSA checkpoints.
That list includes some heavy hitters like Portland Gear, Sizzle Pie, Smith Teamaker, and three of Portland-based restaurant group Chefstable’s offspring: Oven and Shaker, Grassa, and Loyal Legion.
Relax before your flight with a full glass of Oregon craft beer at Loyal Legion.
Image: Courtesy Port of Portland
It also includes some smaller, less-known business. Lake Oswego–based Lola’s Café (owned by LO mayor Joe Buck of Babica Hen and Gubanc’s fame), northwest Portland’s Freeland Spirits, and Paper Epiphanies, a card and stationery store based, are a few of the new PDX additions.
Returning businesses include Columbia Sportswear, Portland Coffee Roasters, Stumptown Coffee, Blue Star Donuts, and Pendleton Woolen Mills.
Portland Gear founder Marcus Harvey says he’s been trying to get space inside PDX since 2015, when his start-up apparel company was just a year old. To finally have that come to fruition feels like the realization of a lifelong dream.
“It just always felt like Portland Gear needed to be at PDX,” Harvey says. “It’s massive to not only serve our local customers, the people who shop with us here in town, but to be able to have some international reach and see the word “Portland” being worn by people all over the world. I feel like the city needs that right now.”
Buck of Lola’s Café says their inclusion is an opportunity to show travelers that there’s more to Portland’s food scene than just those located in the city proper. “As a Lake Oswego–grown business, we’re proud to represent the incredible, locally owned suburban restaurants all throughout our region and embark on a journey of shared prosperity with our dedicated team,” Buck says.
According to Kaitlin Hunter, manager of the airport’s terminal concessions and customer service, the Port of Portland considered 43 proposals from 35 local businesses. The businesses coming into the new main terminal are expected to create 500-plus new jobs and invest $30 million in the buildout of their spaces.
Treat yourself for breakfast (or anytime) with Blue Star Donuts while traveling through PDX.
Image: Courtesy Port of Portland
Hunter says build allowances are helping to eliminate cost barriers for some local businesses that might not have the upfront capital to invest in an airport location. And six of the 20 incoming businesses are BIPOC- or women-owned.
One of those is Victoria Venturi’s Paper Epiphanies, founded nine years ago. Today the company’s products are sold at their flagship store in Southeast Portland, as well as at 2,000 retailers worldwide. She says her business was created to disrupt the greeting card industry by creating cards for occasions the big brands don’t cover: divorce, friends with benefits, the "fourth trimester" of new motherhood. It also carries a variety of gift items, from candles to notepads to stationery from woman-owned brands all over the country.
“It’s going to change lives…. Instead of ordering 12 candles, I’ll be able to order 1,200,” Venturi says. “I’m excited to make women a lot of fucking money.”
Phase 1 Businesses
- Freeland Spirits
- Grassa
- Hello From Portland*
- KURE Superfoods
- Lola’s Café
- Loyal Legion*
- Oven and Shaker
- Paper Epiphanies*
- Pilot House Distilling
- Portland Gear
- Sizzle Pie
- Steven Smith Teamaker
- Straightaway Cocktails
Phase 2 Businesses
- Blue Star Donuts
- Capers Bistro
- Columbia Sportswear
- The Country Cat Deli & Market*
- Portland Coffee Roasters*
- Pendleton Woven Mills
- Stumptown Coffee
*Denotes business located before TSA checkpoints.
