This new downtown breakfast room will serve at least four different sauces every day

Brandon Stevens, owner of Portland’s Cajun-Creole Mumbo Gumbo cart, grew up surrounded by omelets and oatmeal. His grandfather opened Stagecoach in the Sacramento area in the 1970s, a wood-paneled restaurant where families slip into booths for chicken fried steaks, corned beef hash, and cookies dipped in a country sauce. “I learned to cook and serve there,†says Stevens. “My grandfather and my father taught me everything I know.”

Now, after years of building a reputation for his Cajun-Creole food cart, Mumbo Gumbo, Stevens has decided to return to the griddle. This week, the chef will open a breakfast room in the city center, Oatmeal and sauce, in the former Little Bird Bistro area.

Sixty percent of Grits n ‘Gravy’s menu comes from the Stagecoach menu, the dishes the Stevens family has been making for decades: fried catfish in cornmeal with eggs and buttered oatmeal, bacon waffles, cookies and gravy. sausage. Grits n ‘Gravy isn’t one of those Portland spots with a tight 10-item brunch menu – Restaurant is reminiscent of old-fashioned breakfast haunts with dozens of omelets and every possible permutation of eggs, meat and potatoes. “They have 35 omelets on the Stagecoach menu,†says Stevens. “You give them all the options you could want. “

However, given the name, Stevens focuses on the two namesakes of the two restaurants. Grits n ‘Gravy always serves at least four different types of sauces, from sausage to smothered onion; these sauces are found on cookies, rice and sausage patties. As for oatmeal, it can arrive buttered or fried with molasses, and serve as the basis for two distinct versions of shrimp and oatmeal: a traditional version with fatty bacon and “hella cheese”, in Stevens’ words, and another with white wine, andouille sausage and Cajun cream sauce that Stevens serves at his food cart. “Mumbo Gumbo, I rely a lot on French techniques,†he says. “It’s a whole different ball game.”

When Grits n ‘Gravy opens on December 9, it will start with food and coffee; in 2022, however, the restaurant will begin serving mimosas, beer cocktails and Bloody Marys. Grits n ‘Gravy is located at 215 SW 6th Avenue.

• Oatmeal and sauce [Official]
• Rapper Mic Capes’ Guide to Dinner in Portland [EPDX]