Our Story

Chef Laurent Moreau grew up in a kitchen in Lyon, watching his grandmother turn the simplest ingredients into something that made a room go quiet. She never measured anything. She tasted, adjusted, tasted again. By the time he was twelve, he could make a proper béarnaise with his eyes closed.

He trained at Institut Paul Bocuse, staged at three Michelin-starred restaurants across Paris, and spent two years cooking in Tokyo, where he learned that restraint is its own kind of generosity. A single perfect bite can say more than a twelve-course meal.

He came to Portland in 2018 because he fell in love with the farms. The Willamette Valley grows everything he missed from France, and things he never knew he needed. He found a space on Oak Street with good light, brick walls, and a kitchen that faces the dining room. He wanted his guests to see the cooking. No separation. No mystery. Just the work.

Chez Laurent opened in the spring of 2019 with twelve tables and a menu that changes every week. The only rule is that everything comes from within a hundred miles. Laurent drives to the farms himself on Tuesday mornings. He picks what looks best and builds the menu around it. If the chanterelles are perfect, you get chanterelles. If the tomatoes are still a week away, you wait.

The wine list is short and personal. Every bottle is something Laurent has drunk himself and loved. He does not carry wines because they score well or because a distributor pushes them. He carries wines that make food taste better. Ask the server what to drink and they will steer you right.

The dining room seats forty. We take reservations and we recommend them, especially on weekends. Walk-ins are welcome at the bar, where you can eat the full menu and watch the kitchen work. Friday and Saturday nights, Laurent runs a five-course tasting menu that tells the story of what the farms brought that week. It is the best way to eat here.

We are closed Sundays and Mondays because Laurent believes cooks should have lives. The rest of the week, we are here, doing the thing we love. Come hungry.