Oven and Shaker, the Pearl District pizzeria known for its wood-fired Neapolitan pies and Italian street food, will close its doors on Friday, October 30, 2026, after nearly 15 years in business. Co-owner Ryan Magarian cited insufficient revenue, COVID-related effects, a slower downtown, higher costs and fewer customers as reasons for the shutdown. In its final weeks, the team plans to send the place off with a menu built from its own history.
Ryan Magarian, one of the restaurant's founders, announced the closure in a Facebook post on behalf of chef Cathy Whims, restaurateur Kurt Huffman and the rest of the Oven team, according to KOIN.com. The station reports that Magarian cited insufficient revenue, COVID-related effects, a slower downtown, higher costs and fewer customers. Whims, Huffman and Magarian founded the pizzeria together, according to a 2011 Portland Monthly report describing Whims as “pizza goddess” of Nostrana, Huffman as a “new-think restaurateur,” and Magarian as a “cocktail mover and shaker.”
The station's report notes that during October, Oven and Shaker will feature food and beverage favorites pulled from the entirety of its time downtown, along with what the team is calling an All-Oven Original Cocktail Menu — a tribute to the bartenders, past and present, who have worked behind the bar over the years.
A Pearl District Fixture With Airport Reach
Oven and Shaker sits in the Pearl District along NW Everett Street, with a second outpost inside Portland International Airport, per the same account. The airport location was named among the best airport restaurants in the United States in 2025 by Airports Council International–North America, a trade organization representing commercial airports across the U.S. and Canada.
The restaurant's menu draws from chef Cathy Whims' trips to Italy, according to the report. Whims, a six-time James Beard-nominated chef, built a kitchen around wood-fired Neapolitan pizza and Italian street food, according to Oven and Shaker's own site, which describes the concept as a pizzeria and cocktail bar experience from Whims and Northwest bartender Ryan Magarian.
Part of a Broader Pattern of Closures
The Pearl District closure isn't Oven and Shaker's first this decade. The Lake Oswego location at the Mercato Grove development closed on August 10, 2025, according to the Lake Oswego Review, which reported that Pizzeria Otto was set to replace it there. That closure left just one of the six restaurants that opened at Mercato Grove under the ChefStable group in 2021 — Grassa — still operating, the paper reported.
Other Portland pizza institutions have also scaled back in recent years. HOTLIPS Pizza closed three of its five Portland restaurants — locations at 33rd and Killingsworth, in the Hollywood District, and at Civic/Stadium — citing pandemic, labor and economic stresses as factors, according to the company.
KOIN quoted Magarian citing insufficient revenue, COVID-related effects, a slower downtown, higher costs and fewer customers as factors in the closure.
For now, Oven and Shaker's Pearl District doors remain open through October 30, with the team inviting longtime regulars back for one more round of the favorites that defined nearly 15 years downtown.
