Birth of a Restaurant: Raven and Rose (video)

Birth of a Restaurant: Raven and Rose (video)
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Lisa Mygrant admits that buying a 7,000 square foot, high-profile historic building in the center of downtown Portland was a larger project than she'd envisioned for her first restaurant.

"Terrifying," she said when asked how it felt when the deal went through for the future Raven and Rose restaurant. "But really exciting. It was an amazing opportunity and such a special building."

With a degree in a branch of geological engineering called biogeochemistry, which studies the cycling of elements through life in the earth, she'd thought of specializing in sustainable fisheries and farming. But then a friend from college, who had moved to London, asked her to come help open a restaurant, then another, and she was hooked.

Mygrant decided to attend a three-month immersion program at the prestigious Ballymaloe cooking school, which taught traditional French cookery along with English and Irish cuisines. Located on a 100-acre organic farm in Ireland where students lived and worked on the farm, the experience cemented her choice to make food and restaurants her career.

After graduation there were stints in the kitchens at Chez Panisse in San Francisco and Paleys Place in Portland, and she would occasionally look for properties where she might open a place of her own. One night, as she was driving through downtown Portland, she saw a for sale sign on an old building and stopped. As she was studying the sign, a jogger ran by her, then stopped and came back, asking if she was interested. He turned out to be the agent for the building and told her the bank was forcing the sale.

2013-01-17-RavenandRose.jpgThe building turned out to be the Ladd Carriage House, built by early Portland businessman William S. Ladd to house his horses. A historic structure, it had been slated to be torn down but was saved when a group of citizens came together with a plan to preserve it.

It's a big commitment, but one Mygrant is excited to take on.

"We've met so many great people and the community is so excited about this," she said. "I knew it would be something good from the beginning. It's a special place."

To read the entire post, please visit Cooking Up a Story. To watch more videos, visit Food.Farmer.Earth.

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