Tercet

Downtown Portland's fine-dining credibility was very much on trial when Tercet opened in November 2021, and the restaurant spent two years making a persuasive case for the Morgan Building's southwest Broadway address. The tasting-menu format placed every seat facing the open kitchen, so the kitchen's rhythm — small courses arriving in sequence, each built around Oregon produce and Pacific seafood — was as much part of the experience as the food itself. Dark wood, industrial chandeliers, and a mezzanine dining room gave the space a moody, contained quality that suited the prix-fixe format. The cooking under chefs John Conlin and Wyatt VandenBerghe drew on hyper-local sourcing and a willingness to work with ingredients that rarely appear at this price tier: goat braised with blueberries, eggplant, and Padrón peppers; caramelle pasta with celery and escargot; sourdough served with house-cultured butter reworked into a sherbet. Conlin had previously helmed Roe, Tercet's predecessor in the same culinary lineage, which gave the kitchen a continuity of technique that showed in the precision of the courses. Sommelier Michael Branton completed a tight three-person leadership structure that kept the operation focused rather than sprawling. Tasting Table included Tercet in its 2023 list of Portland's forty best restaurants, a recognition that arrived in the restaurant's final operating year before it closed in November 2023. That timing gives the venue a particular place in Portland's recent dining history: it ran for exactly two years, long enough to establish a clear identity and attract critical attention, but not long enough to become a fixture. For anyone researching Portland's fine-dining arc from 2021 onward, Tercet represents a useful data point — a tasting-menu counter that demonstrated what the city's downtown core could sustain, and what it ultimately could not hold onto.

Request BookingDiscover on Pearl

Pearl is the En Primeur Club membership app — saves, bookings, and concierge access live there. Same editors, same standards.