BRUCE CAREY

At any of the restaurants in the group that bears his name—Bluehour, Saucebox, 23Hoyt (and the late Zefiro)—Bruce Carey is liable to be found pitching in, carrying a plate, or chatting with one of the patrons. This degree of attention to every detail of excellent food, presentation, and service is a Carey hallmark. It's certainly how he is remembered, by those who were there, at Stephanie Pearl Kimmel's Excelsior Café in Eugene in the 80s: seemingly everywhere at once, providing top-notch service.

Carey and compatriots Joe Rogers, Chris Israel, Kenny Giambalvo, and Monique Siu have changed the restaurant landscape in Portland. They didn't invent great food, style, and service, but rather polished the experience of dining to a high shine.

Carey is likely the only restaurateur in Portland with a Master's degree in Arts Administration. In another life, Carey might now be at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., an early ambition, or perhaps heading up an interior design studio. As it is, the modern spaces he's created with the help of Portland's best contemporary architects, are the stylish products of his refined aesthetic sometimes even decorated—as at 23Hoyt, Carey's latest venture with Israel—with eclectic pieces, art and object, from his personal collection.

In San Francisco, he worked at both the James Beard Award-winning Zuni Café and Fog City Diner. Carey also met Chris Israel who had just completed his art history degree at Berkeley and was working at Square One under Joyce Goldstein.

When Carey and Israel moved to Portland, "We were thinking about opening a restaurant, because compared to San Francisco, in Portland we had no place to eat," Carey says. "We had no jobs, but we told our landlord on our rental application that we were going to open a restaurant, had the backers lined up and everything." That restaurant was the legendary Zefiro at the corner of NW 21st and Glisan which they opened in 1990 with Monique Siu whom Carey and Israel had met through catering jobs at Briggs and Crampton. In the decade and a half since then, Carey and his collaborators have opened Saucebox, Bluehour, and now 23Hoyt.

Carey serves on the Board of Trustees of the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art and on the Advisory Board of the Cascade AIDS Project. He shares a SW Portland home with partner Joe Rogers and their toddler, Heinrich.