Portlanders have been treating Gregory Gourdet’s Kann like a special-occasion ticket since day one, and now the rest of the country is catching up. The live-fire Haitian restaurant on Southeast Ash has landed at No. 9 on Food & Wine’s annual list of the 10 best restaurants in the United States. Opened in 2022 and crowned the James Beard Foundation’s Best New Restaurant in 2023, Kann has quietly shifted from local darling to full-on regional destination.
According to KGW, Food & Wine slotted Kann at No. 9 in its Global Tastemaker Awards roundup, calling it "Portland’s hottest table" and praising its intensely personal approach. The list is assembled by a global network of chefs, travel experts, and wine professionals, meant to spotlight the on-the-ground tastemakers shaping how and where people eat. For a restaurant that has only been around a few seasons, the placement simply turns up the volume on a steady stream of national attention.
From Pop Ups To A James Beard Win
Kann opened in August 2022 after a run of Kann Winter Village pop-ups that road-tested Gourdet’s live-fire Haitian menu for Portland diners braving the cold. Portland Monthly tracked the build-up to opening, and the James Beard Foundation later named Kann Best New Restaurant in 2023, one of the most consequential honors in the industry and still a defining milestone for the dining room on Southeast Ash.
Reservations And Residencies Keep The Buzz Alive
Kann runs reservations through Resy and directs hungry hopefuls to its website for updates and notify alerts, a necessity since seats at the Southeast Ash space disappear quickly. The restaurant has also leaned into high profile chef residencies, including a multi restaurant takeover that brought New York’s Atomix, Atoboy and Naro to Portland, as reported in a feature on NYC Michelin powerhouses. Collaborations like that have kept Kann in rotation on the national radar even when awards season is quiet.
For Gourdet, the Food & Wine nod lands on the heels of consecutive James Beard recognition, including a regional Best Chef prize in 2024, and it keeps Portland’s dining scene in front of a national audience. Eater Portland noted that Gourdet’s back to back Beard wins have helped cement Kann as a touchstone for Haitian rooted, Pacific Northwest cooking, a role this latest national list only reinforces.
