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Chef Javier Canteras has been enjoying success in Portland for some time with The Basque Supper Club, a pop-up restaurant (that is organized periodically in secret places) that, as the name indicates, is based on Basque gastronomy.  Now, Canteras is taking another step and by mid-July will open the Urdaneta Basque Restaurant, with money that he one on the TV contest show Restaurant Startup.  Here is his story. 

Portland, OR.   Chef Javier Canteras will open his new restaurant in Portland, Oregon in mid-July..  Canteras is known in the city for his Basque Supper Club, a pop-up restaurant with a Basque touch.  The Basque Supper Club doesn’t have its own locale, but every month it is organized in a different secret spot.  Only the attendees know where it will be held.  The club, as the name indicates, serves dishes inspired by Basque gastronomy and is very successful.

Now Canteras is faced with a new challenge, with the opening of Urdaneta where, according to the Chef, they will serve pintxos and Basque inspired dishes with a modern touch.  Canteras is the son of a father from Madrid and a Basque mothers, and his cooking is strongly influenced by the Basque tradition that he learned from his mother.

Canteras and his partner, Chef Ryan Spragg, got funding for this new business on a TV contest show called Restaurant Startup.  There, both cooks presented their restaurant idea to a jury of prestigious chefs in the US, like Joe Bastianich, among others. Bastianich supported the two cooks’ idea, and in February of this year, invested $150,000 in what will be the Urdaneta.

The new restaurant will with the same Basque gastronomy as the Basque Supper club, but simpler, with les technique and letting the products speak for themselves.  The restaurant will have a bar complete with pintxos, like in any town in the Basque Country.  “We will continue the Basque tradition,” Canteras explained.  “There will be pintxos and tapas on the bar, like ham, and tortilla, the first things that clients will see when they come in.  I want this to be the first impression, which is important.”

More information on the Urdaneta Restaurant (reservations are already being accepted), here.