OK Omens, the final form of Portland culinary legend Castagna, will close Saturday, October 17. Owner Monique Siu announced the impending closure on Instagram Saturday, September 26, saying that she is “wrapping up this chapter and heading into retirement!”
While Siu acknowledged the challenges of operating a restaurant at this moment in history, OK Omens’s impending closure seems less to do with the success of the restaurant and more to do with Siu’s well-earned desire to rest. “Well, I am 74,” she said in a phone call Saturday morning. “It’s a really challenging time to be in the restaurant industry. It’s a young person’s game.”
OK Omens’s legacy began next door, in one of Portland’s most significant fine dining restaurants, Castagna. Siu — who cofounded another culinary kingmaker, Zefiro — opened the restaurant in 1999, with chef Kevin Gibson (Davenport) holding things down in the kitchen. Soon afterward, Cafe Castagna opened next door, a casual counterpart with a famed burger and butter lettuce salad (peak early-aughts weeknight dinner material). Over the course of its life, Castagna was home to several Portland chefs who went on to open their own projects: Elias Cairo, who founded groundbreaking domestic salumeria Olympia Provisions; modernist Mugaritz alum Matthew Lightner, who helped New York’s Atera nab a few Michelin stars before opening the ambitious Okta in wine country. Even Nate Tilden, a onetime Castagna general manager, became one of Portland’s most prolific restaurateurs, helping shape places like Clyde Common, Pepe le Moko, and Bar Casa Vale.
Castagna’s final chef was the late Justin Woodward, a seven-time James Beard Award semifinalist with a wd~50 pedigree and serious pastry chops — a particularly famous Woodward dessert involved ice cream made with potato skins and curls of meringue (which, of course, resembled potato skins). In 2018, Woodward helped Siu turn the increasingly tired Cafe Castagna into neo-bistro OK Omens, one of the few places where a diner would see Woodward relax: think cheddar beignets and a Caesar salad inspired by the California chain El Torito’s. Castagna sommelier Brent Braun shaped the wine list, with acid freak natural wines and grand dame Mosel rieslings and cellar picks that would make the snootiest oenophile blush, all presented with descriptions straight out of a Marissa A. Ross column. Over time, Woodward let himself expand the menu’s scope, adding beautiful house pastas and spiced-and-cured duck leg confit. Castagna, which had shuttered indefinitely during the 2020 coronavirus shutdown, announced its permanent closure in 2023, leaving OK Omens to carry the Castagna torch. In 2024, Woodward left OK Omens, and the following year died of liver failure, a complication of alcoholism according to his family.
Even after Woodward’s departure, it seemed like OK Omens was going to enter another compelling era. Chef Joseph Papas, who had floated around other Portland kitchens (Tusk, Davenport, Coquine) relatively unnoticed, stepped into his first executive chef role at OK Omens, and ended up playing the underdog. The restaurant began to accrue waves of praise, particularly for seafood dishes like the cured trout toast (“Gorgeous cubes of cured trout top verdant parsley aioli on rustic bread, a snowfall of fresh horseradish shaved on top,” Alex Frane wrote for Portland Monthly’s Top 50 restaurants list) or Dungeness crab endive salad tossed in crab fat (a dish shouted out in the most recent version of the Eater PDX’s 38 Essential Restaurants). “The young chefs I’ve worked with, it’s been great to help them along in their careers,” Siu told Eater Portland. “It has been rewarding to collaborate in creating some beautiful things with people.”
On Instagram, Siu further writes, “When I opened Castagna and Cafe Castagna, the goal was to create a beautiful space serving exceptional food.” She added: “OK Omens has been the continuation of that vision. Looking back, the true legacy of this corner isn’t just the accolades or the menus—it’s the vibrant community that came to life within these walls.”
