Italians have the right idea. Slow mornings with cappuccinos “to stay,” a crisp Moretti at an outdoor table after work. Now, you can have an Italian café experience right on Killingsworth.
No Saint, the beloved Northeast wood-fire, pizza-focused Italian restaurant, began offering breakfast and lunch at the start of the year, calling it Café No Saint. Neighbors chat over espresso al fresco, or enjoy lengthy lunches.
“It’s shaped by the experience you seek,” says No Saint’s co-owner Gabriella Casabianca. “We love the intimacy that this service carries. It’s our unfussy, casual sibling to dinner.”
These new weekend hours are the leisurely, sun-soaked alternative to the buzzy din that falls over the same space in the evenings. Casabianca and No Saint’s chef Anthony Siccardi, partners in work and life, wanted to make sure the menu reflected the language of their food—Italian-inspired, ingredient-driven, beautifully plated, and yet still familiar. Notably, it’s a menu without classic egg-centric brunch fare. In a town that is (to put it mildly) obsessed with brunch, this was a risk.
“We’ve never done things that traditionally make good business sense,” Casabianca laughs. “I’m sure we’d be much busier serving bacon and eggs, but that doesn’t bring us joy or push us forward.”
Portlanders will benefit from No Saint’s decision to forego the benedicts and breakfast sandwiches. Instead, their Menu del Giorno is thoughtful, flavorful and unique—a combination of Italian classics with a No Saint spin.
On the savory end, their ham and cheese pithivier is as pretty as it is delicious. Crosshatched puff pastry is lanced with a colorful assortment of pickled vegetables and served with fruit mostarda, a traditional Italian condiment of candied fruit mixed with a mustard syrup. A seemingly simple mortadella sandwich (foccacia, mortadella, burrata) is slathered with an unctuous pistachio butter that pulls the whole dish together and puts it on another planet.
Teeny butter cookies are rolled in sprinkles and topped with a thumbprint-size amount of apricot jam—perfect for dipping into a cappuccino, in my experience. Something I’ve yet to see on any other Portland menu is their cannoncini, a puff pastry shell filled with coconut custard that tastes like a lighter, more interesting cannoli.
The strawberry tartine is another showstopper—a slice of sesame focaccia topped with sheep’s cheese, fresh strawberries, chunks of gooey honeycomb, and black sesame seeds. The restaurant’s huge, wood-burning oven is their primary cooking tool during service, both morning and evening. But, rather than stoking the flames for brunch, they bake the focaccia using the oven’s residual heat from the previous night’s service.
“It’s a huge limitation, but a beautiful one, that has changed how we cook,” Casabianca says.
The pair sources produce and other ingredients from many Oregon-based farms, like Groundwork Organics, Flying Coyote, Pablo Muñoz Farms, and Gathering Together.
“We cook with the seasons, so our menu is informed by our farmers’ availability,” she says.
In the morning, guests can sip on espresso-based drinks, drip coffee from Coava or teas from Smith. Later, a glass of wine from small-scale Italian or Oregonian producers. Or, order a cocktail like a sbagliato rosa—cappelletti mazzura and Aperol, prosecco, and an olive—another classic with a twist.
“I sometimes joke that [Anthony] is one side of the menu and I’m the other—beverages!” laughs Casabianca.
Both, on either side of the menu, have had to be light on their feet and adaptive from the very beginning of No Saint.
“We never set out to open a restaurant,” Casabianca quips. “We wanted to throw a dinner party at someone else’s.”
Their idea was simple: bring their community together around a table, cook seasonal dishes from what they could procure at the market, and pour wine from producers they admire. What started as a pop-up in September 2019 at Vivienne Kitchen and Pantry quickly moved into a residency at the now-shuttered Dame and then to their own location.
“Inspiration was born out of limitation,” she remembers. “We sourced stacks of vintage service ware and old chairs that moan with memories.”
The oven might technically be at the center of the restaurant, but the core of No Saint is the partnership (and love!) between its two founders. The pair, who were high school sweethearts, work hard and also still find time to chat up regulars and share the story behind a certain plate.
Now, they’re creating something new together again.
“I love the café service—it speaks to my inner artist,” says Casabianca. “It’s a romantic gesture to the neighborhood that captures the lighthearted nature of No Saint—sneaky delicious food and hospitality that’s always warm.”
Café No Saint, 1603 NE Killingsworth, Sat-Sun 10 am-2 pm, nosaintpdx.com, @nosaintpdx