Xico was a restaurant serving

Mexican cuisine Mexican cuisine consists of the cooking cuisines and traditions of the modern country of Mexico. Its earliest roots lie in Mesoamerican cuisine. Its ingredients and methods begin with the first agricultural communities such as the Olmec and M ...

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

neighborhood, in the United States. The restaurant opened in 2012; sibling establishment Xica Cantina opened in

northwest Portland Northwest Portland is one of the sextants of Portland, Oregon, United States. Northwest Portland includes the Pearl District, most of Old Town Chinatown, the Northwest District, and various residential and industrial neighborhoods. A range of ...

in mid 2019. Xico closed in March 2023.

Description

Xico was a Mexican restaurant in southeast Portland's

neighborhood. ''

Eater Portland ''Eater'' is a food website by Vox Media. It was co-founded by Lockhart Steele and Ben Leventhal in 2005, and originally focused on dining and nightlife in New York City. Eater launched a national site in 2009, and covered nearly 20 cities by ...

Brooke Jackson-Glidden Brooke Jackson-Glidden is a food writer and the editor of ''Eater Portland''. In 2023, she received the Jonathan Gold Local Voice Award from the James Beard Foundation in part for her essay about Either/Or. Career Jackson-Glidden has been the ed ...

said the "contemporary" restaurant had a "Pacific Northwestern

ake Ake (or Aké in Spanish orthography) is an archaeological site of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It's located in the municipality of Tixkokob, in the Mexican state of Yucatán; 40 km (25 mi) east of Mérida, Yucatán. The name ...

on Mexican food". Xico's queso had chorizo and salsa verde. The drinking menu featured a

mezcal Mezcal (, ), sometimes spelled mescal, is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from any type of agave. The word ''mezcal'' comes from Nahuatl , which means "oven-cooked agave", from and .What is MezcalElmezcal.org Traditionally the word "m ...

collection and a habanero-caramel hot chocolate. As of 2015, the restaurant offered a popular rotisserie chicken dinner for two. Xico began serving lunch in February 2018.

History

Xico opened in 2012 and was owned by Elizabeth Davis, as of 2019. Liz Davis has also been credited as a co-owner, as of 2018. David Haddow was the sous chef, as of 2016. In 2018, the restaurant's executive chef Kelly Myers suffered a stroke. Michael Russell of ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 185 ...

'' described how the community rallied behind her. Myers' quelites recipe is featured in the 2018 cookbook ''Saving Pan'', which was compiled by local students to raise money for the Jane Goodall Institute's Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Center in the Republic of Congo; the book also features a paper collage inspired by Myers. In June 2019, the LLC behind Xico (Normal Activity) confirmed plans to open sibling restaurant Xica Cantina along Northwest 23rd. Xica Cantina was operating by the end of the month, and held a grand opening on July 5. In 2019,''

Willamette Week ''Willamette Week'' (''WW'') is an alternative weekly newspaper and a website published in Portland, Oregon, United States, since 1974. It features reports on local news, politics, sports, business, and culture. History Early history ''Willame ...

'' Matthew Singer described Xica as the "casual cousin to Southeast Division Street Mexican favorite Xico". Xico and Xica both offered pickup service during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, as of May 2020. Xica closed during the pandemic. Xico closed in March 2023.

Reception

In 2016, ''Willamette Week'' Martin Cizmar and Matthew Korfhage ranked Xico winners in the "best overall" and "best margaritas" categories in their overview of the "six most bougie taco spots" in southeast Portland. The newspaper's Beth Slovic wrote, "Xico Will Change How You Think About Mexican Food". Samantha Bakall of ''The Oregonian'' called the restaurant's hot chocolate a "soothing way to finish dinner" in her 2017 overview of the city's "best drinking chocolate". Alex Frane of ''Eater Portland'' included Xico is his 2019 list of the city's "most enticing" margaritas.

References

External links

*
Xico
at

Zagat The ''Zagat Survey'', commonly referred to as Zagat (stylized in all caps; , ) and established by Tim and Nina Zagat in 1979, is an organization which collects and correlates the ratings of restaurants by diners. For their first guide, covering ...

{{Richmond, Portland, Oregon 2012 establishments in Oregon 2023 disestablishments in Oregon Defunct Latin American restaurants in Portland, Oregon Mexican restaurants in Portland, Oregon Restaurants disestablished in 2023 Restaurants established in 2012 Richmond, Portland, Oregon

Description

History

Reception

See also

References

External links