John Maribona, chef/co-owner of Pambiche Cocina and ReposterĂa Cubana, worked in Portland kitchens for years before opening his restaurant in 2000, but he hasnât worked a line in a very long time. Since opening, the restaurant has evolved considerably in its nearly 20 years in business: In 2002, Pambiche took over ownership of the entire building on Northeast Glisan; in 2010, they renovated their patio and put up a mural on the side of the restaurant; in 2012, they started serving liquor. These days, Maribonaâs duties are more administrative and deal with big-picture plans. For our interview, Maribona calls me from MĂ©rida, Yucatan, in Mexico, where he and his family currently live while renovating an old house theyâre planning to turn into a boutique hotel.
âI kind of split my time between Portland and MĂ©rida,â Maribona says. âIâm back and forth constantly. My wife comes for summer and spring break... itâs a little hectic, kinda crazy.â
Maribona says the benefit of living in MĂ©rida is that itâs halfway between Havana, Cuba (where some of Maribonaâs family lives), and Chiapas, Mexico (where much of his wife Hada Salinasâ family lives), and only an hour-long flight away.
Flanked by his other co-ownersâSalinas and Roseanne RomaineâMaribona fuels Pambiche (and all his other projects) with a passion for traditionalist cooking, architecture, and travel.
Maribona recently caused a stir with Portlanders who lost their cool online and were âdevastatedâ by the decision to have the buildingâs vibrant green-and-pink stucco façade updated with beige and off-white.
âThe stucco has been crumbling for years,â Maribona says. âWe had to do it. It shouldâve been done last year but since weâre not [in Portland]. We kinda had to wait until this year, and so having two major construction projects happening and running a restaurantâitâs a lot of stuff.â
Maribona says that with gentrification running unchecked in Portland, and the revolving door of restaurant openings and closures, he totally gets why the paint jobâpaired with his move to MĂ©ridaâmay have been alarming and symbolic to some.
âWeâve been talking about gentrification in Portland for 30 years,â Maribona says. âLook at a place on Division or Alberta or Mississippi... theyâre all kind of that beige thing, and then we were one of the last bastions of funky-weird-old Portland, and now weâre beige too. And people are like, âWhat the fuck?ââ
Maribona says he was actually inspired to recreate an old-Portland feel.
âI was inspired to do it because we found an old black-and-white photo from the â20s,â he says. âItâs really beautiful. Thereâs guys with these top hats just kind of sitting out there with their suspenders and hanging out, drinking a soda pop.â
Maribonaâs inclination toward reclaiming old things is a big part of his and the restaurantâs identity.
âWeâre trying to make the old food and the classic old drinks. Everything that I have, or want to have, is old. I like the antique aesthetic,â Maribona says.
âI know itâs kind of unpopular these days. Everyone wants to tear every old thing down and build something new. But thatâs just not me.â
Maribonaâs love of everything old and traditional is apparent when you look at his other projects. Take their gorgeous Portland home for instance: Maribona and Salinas bought their Alberta Arts District house 18 years ago. With Salinas as his muse, Maribona spent years doing extravagant renovations to transform the Craftsman into their Spanish Colonial dream home. The extravagant house was made âto create the feeling of another time and place,â and uses lots of reclaimed wood, brick and fixtures, plus loads of brightly colored dĂ©cor thatâs inspired by his familyâs travels to the Caribbean and Latin America. Maribona and Salinas recently put it on the market for a cool $1.2 million.
While Maribona and his family have temporarily relocated to MĂ©rida and are in the process of selling their current home, he says theyâre merely downsizing, and plan to move back to Portland full-time when their kids start high school. To put a finer point on it: Pambiche isnât going anywhere. And as long as the food continues to be the-bomb-dot-com, neither are their customers.
For a small place, Pambicheâs menu of pre-revolution Cuban fare is quite expansive. And since most Cuban food is rice-based, much of their menu is gluten-free (though Maribona makes sure to clarify that they donât have a gluten-free kitchen). Without trying, Pambicheâs also got a lot of vegan and vegetarian options like black beans and rice, fried plantains, corn/yuca fritters, empanadas, and exquisite salads. Thereâs also a Plato Comunista ($16), a vegan/vegetarian dish that includes yuca in a garlic mojo sauce, with a choice of beet or cabbage salad, beans, and rice.
I recommend starting with the Fritura y Frijol combo ($14), which comes with your choice of Cuban fritters (get corn!) as well as black beans and avocado salad. And even though Cuban food is known for using pork as its main meat source, pescatarians (and flexitarians) make out pretty good at Pambiche: a Pescado con Coco plate ($20) of red snapper, coconut pepper sauce, black beans, rice, and fried green plantains is exactly what you want on your birthday. A more costly plate of garlicky Gulf prawns ($26) comes with white rice, a garlic crostini, and avocado salad. That avocado salad, by the way, is $10 when you order it alone: an entire Hass avocado tossed with Cuban aliño dressing and red onion and topped with parsley. Now thatâs my kind of salad. Thereâs also lots here for omnivores: from Cuban sandwiches, picadillo, and much more.
Drinks-wise, the traditional thing to do here is get a mojito or something else with rum. (Theyâve also got rum flights, and Maribona says heâs been crafting a beer with Migration Brewing across the street.) Thereâs a substantial non-alcoholic drink program as well. On a recent visit, a non-dairy pineapple and banana shake ($6) hit the spot, with a thickness that survived the whole dinner. If youâve got room for dessert, go for the tres leches cake ($8) or the guava cheesecake ($7).
âMost things that we haveâarroz con pollo, the black beans, and the congri, the sandwiches and the empanadasâcame from my godmother [who] had a Latin American deli,â Maribona says. âHer and this Argentinean woman opened up a place in the Yamhill Market, back in the â80s. It was called Las Delicias, and they did Cuban sandwiches and empanadas, and a few other things. And I worked with her as a kid, just like 14-years-old or something like that. Thatâs kinda where I got started.â
A lot of the other Cuban basics, like the guava and cheese desserts, come from Maribona growing up with his mother and grandmotherâs cooking.
Maribona says that while sometimes he has an urge to put something new on the menu, he also knows heâd have to rotate out a staple to make room for it. And some customers, who go out of their way to visit Pambiche, simply wouldnât stand for it.
âWeâre kinda stuck,â Maribona says. âIâm not complaining about it, itâs our identity. I love our identity. I love who we are. I love doing the classics. Iâm a traditionalist. Itâs a passion just to try to do things the way theyâre supposed to be done.... I think what I crave to do is update it, do something different with the dĂ©cor, update the feel. [It feels like] Iâm holding back. But if you do, then everybody cringes.â
Maribona argues that the more subtle paint on the building allows the vibrant colors of Pambicheâas well as the mural on the side of the buildingâto pop more.
In any case, making a fuss over the color of the restaurantâs exterior is definitely a first-world Cuban-food problem. Tourists whoâve traveled to Cuba in recent years report back saying the food was bland or lacking due to fewer ingredients being available. When asked about how scarcity affects the cuisine in Cuba, Maribona had insight from his experiences and frequent travels to the area.
âWhen things were opened under Obama, Cuba was getting a landslide of tourists and.... thereâs not enough beds, not enough toilet paper, not enough gas for the cars. You know, just not enough of everything.â
Maribona explains that while plenty of money was going into the infrastructure for tourism, barely any was going to the population.
âSo it was like âWow, Cubaâs really prospering.â You can see these touristy areas where things were happening, all this new construction was going on. But if you go in the neighborhoods, people that didnât have any access to any part of that industry were really having a hard time.
âSo yeah, people will buy garlic, oregano, and cumin, but sometimes youâve got to think about tomorrow, and Friday, and Saturday. You have to think about the next day... Iâve walked for blocks âcause we were going to make mojitos... but lime, itâs not always available. Or theyâre these big limes, where you try to squeeze them and nothing comes out because theyâre all dried up and no juice. You know, Iâve lived this.
âIn some of the places, it can be better,â Maribona continues. âIt depends on the situation and the scenario. You know, paladares get all the fish. People complain about that. âWeâre not surrounded by water, we donât have access to fish because all the fishermen sell to the paladares,â which are the privately-owned restaurants. You know, not everyone has money to eat at the paladares. Theyâre kind of expensiveâespecially by Cuban standards.â
Cubaâs ongoing limited access to food and other resources should put things in perspective for those of us who live in places like Portland, where our stores, markets, and restaurants all have ample access to the natural worldâs riches.
Pambiche owners recently got notice that the Glisan Quick Wash located in their building was closing and had to decide whether they wanted to take over the space or rent it out.
âWe decided that you know, weâre just a little hole in the wall Cuban joint on Northeast Glisan street, and we like that vibe: the little mom-and-pop joint and just doing what we do. Weâre afraid to mess with it too much... For a long time, we were for sure, like âOh weâre gonna go open up a bar, weâre gonna do all these things.â But then I think Portland is so saturated with restaurants and bars, and we really like where weâre at. And you know, constantly getting new people in, all these new people that are moving here. Itâs constantly new faces, and constantly old faces. So itâs just a really good happy place.â