Michael Mina is opening his only Pacific Northwest restaurant inside one of Portland's most storied hotels. Bar Sprezzatura, the Venetian-inspired cicchetti and cocktail concept that made waves in San Francisco, will take over the main restaurant space at the Heathman Hotel this fall, with the Mina Group running the hotel's full food and beverage operation, including breakfast service and the lobby bar.
The Portland outpost will not be a copy-paste of the original. According to Eater Portland, Bar Sprezzatura Portland will replicate the bones of Mina's San Francisco Financial District restaurant — the handmade pastas, raw seafood, and Venetian bar snacks called cicchetti that made that location a hit — while leaning harder into beverages and approachable dining than its Bay Area counterpart. The original San Francisco bar opened in November 2022 at One Maritime Plaza through a partnership between Mina's TableOne Hospitality and mixologist Carlo Splendorini, according to The Bold Italic, and its interior, designed by London-based Martin Brudnizki Design Studio, drew inspiration from Venetian bacaros and historic European hotel bars.
A Pacific Northwest Menu Built Around Local Ingredients
Rather than lean on the Italian imports and urban chic vibe of the San Francisco flagship, which serves dishes like wagyu bolognese, caviar service, and black truffle-guanciale arancini per Eater Portland's reporting, the Portland menu will draw heavily on regional ingredients. Planned dishes include Pacific Northwest baked clams with lardo and breadcrumbs, carne cruda with Cascade matsutakes, grilled king salmon with Romano beans from Eloisa Farms in Albany, and an ember-roasted sweet potato with huckleberry conserva.
The cocktail program follows the same logic. Cocktails will be organized into martinis, negronis, spritzes, and originals, and the bar will offer nonalcoholic options made with dealcoholized wines and zero-proof vermouths and amari. One signature drink will use Clear Creek Douglas Fir Brandy and a tarragon-infused vermouth in a Negroni. Clear Creek Distillery makes the brandy in Hood River by macerating hand-harvested green Douglas fir buds, according to Gorge Local, using Oregon's official state tree to flavor the spirit.
Local Talent Leading a National Chef's Kitchen
Mina tapped Portland chef Justin Ramirez to head the kitchen, and the pairing is meant to bridge the chef's national brand with local credibility. Ramirez has lived in Portland for 11 years and returned to the Mina Group a year ago after serving as chef de cuisine at Coquine, the Mount Tabor restaurant run by chef Katy Millard that has earned multiple James Beard Foundation Award nominations, according to Oregon Wine Press. Ramirez is joined by general manager Tyler Groom, a childhood friend who worked alongside him at Mina's San Francisco restaurant before the pair reunited for the Portland project.
Mina himself grew up in Ellensburg, Washington, giving the opening a homecoming quality of sorts even though this marks his first Pacific Northwest restaurant. “You want the restaurant to fit the city,” Mina said, per the same Eater Portland report, adding of the Portland concept, “It all felt right.” Mina leads the 20-year-old Mina Group and owns more than 30 restaurants around the globe, having won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: California in 2002, according to The Mina Group.
Reviving a Historic Hotel's Dining Legacy
The Heathman Hotel space Bar Sprezzatura is taking over has sat without a permanent marquee restaurant since Headwaters, the seafood-focused restaurant from James Beard Award-winning chef Vitaly Paley, closed in October 2020 amid pandemic disruptions, as Portland Monthly has reported. The 10-story Jacobean Revival hotel opened December 17, 1927, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in February 1984 — making it, per Eater Portland's account, almost 100 years old. From the late 1920s through the 1950s, the hotel's mezzanine even housed the KOIN Radio broadcasting studios, airing live musical performances and political addresses across the western United States, according to Heritage Traveler.
The hotel sits in Portland's Cultural District, adjacent to the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall and within walking distance of the Portland Art Museum and the Portland'5 Centers for the Arts, positioning Bar Sprezzatura as a natural stop for concertgoers and museum visitors alike. Beyond the main dining room, the Mina Group will also oversee the hotel's lobby bar, where beverage director Anthony Attanasio and Splendorini plan to rotate the focus periodically, starting with barrel-aged cocktails. Attanasio said bar patrons will not have to settle, a promise that extends across both the main restaurant and the lobby program.
Bar Sprezzatura is set to open this fall at the Heathman Hotel in downtown Portland, according to Eater Portland's reporting. The opening adds to a string of recent moves by the Mina Group across its portfolio, including a Union Square bar launched with NBA star Steph Curry and changes to its Tiburon waterfront restaurant, both previously covered by Hoodline.
