Taylor Street Kitchen wants to help plan your next family dinner

Helping families remove the logistical headaches from eating healthy meals at home has always been part of Christine Burmeister’s business plan.

But after taking over the longtime Leo’s Non Smoking Coffee Shop with her first restaurant in 2016, it became clear that The Daily Feast, which began life as a meal delivery service, would have to evolve to match the space. And that meant being a diner, full-time.

“At first, we were more like a cafe in Spain, with all these little special touches: homemade desserts, Spella Coffee, cold soup in the summer,” Burmeister said. “But customers dictate what you are, and in everybody’s mind we’re a diner. So that left all those other foods undone.

Five years and a pandemic later, The Daily Feast feels like part of the fabric of downtown Portland’s Medical Dental building, serving its all-day pancakes, scrambles, burgers and tuna melts to customers at teal-colored booths or swivel chairs at Leo’s signature undulating counter. So it made sense that, when building owner Eastern Western Corp. decided to convert an empty space next to the diner into a restaurant, they would turn to Burmeister Guivernau to see if she had any ideas.

Starting as soon as next month, The Daily Feast will have a new neighbor, Taylor Street Kitchen, a restaurant and market that Burmeister hopes will help families figure out what to serve for dinner (or breakfast, or lunch). Each day, the restaurant will release a menu with set meals and a la carte dishes including marinated and grilled flank steak, roast chickens with salsa verde, farro and sweet potato salads, cajun dirty rice and more.

Taylor Street Kitchen will have a pizza oven and a deli case filled with prepared food that returning office workers can order for lunch, plus bag lunches they can take home for their kids the next day. There will be an espresso machine pouring Spella Coffee and, pending liquor license approval, beer and wine. Imagine a downtown take on Providore, Burmeister said, only priced for more everyday shopping.

“Basically we want to be a food solution, so that the question ‘What’s for dinner?,’ doesn’t seem like a threat,” Burmeister wrote in a follow-up email. “And (so) that no one is frantically packing lunches as they run out the door.”

Taylor Street Kitchen is shooting for an August opening at 1120 S.W. Taylor St.

— Michael Russell, [email protected], @tdmrussell