If you’ve walked down Belmont Street lately, you might have wondered what was going on inside the big pink house. Madeline Kenney and her partner, Chris Perry, have been quietly renovating the space, preparing it to be a Spanish-style cafe/bar.
Kenney always loved the cafe culture in Europe, but something about Barcelona in particular got under her skin. There, a “bar” is a place to get an espresso and a slice of cake, or a vermouth over ice and a savory snack.
“It’s laid back and unfussy,” Kenney says. “That’s what I’m aiming to emulate.”
Named after a Catalan children’s cartoon and comic book, Patufet, which opened on October 8, is bringing that easy energy to Southeast Portland. It’s a place to pop in with a friend before a dinner reservation to grab a glass of wine and candied fennel almonds, or to linger over a slice of fig ricotta cake and caffè con panna.
“We don’t want to be a place for dinner,” Kenney says. “We’re a beverage-forward place for a snack or a treat.”
Their food is, in Kenney’s words, “pan-European.” Right now, that means things like an anchovy maritozzo (“totally divine” anchovies paired with Normandie butter in a sandwich), velvety tonnato (tuna spread served with market veg and an egg) and “picky bits” (cheese and meat from Cowbell, house-made crackers, pears, and Spanish fig cake).
“Simple food, executed well,” Kenney says.
The beverage menu is balanced between vermouths and wines by the glass. This includes Catalan wines that fit in thematically with the rest of the bar’s menu, as well as some “bottles with good stories and romance.” Kenney’s added cheeky but apt descriptions for each wine to help customers suss out what they might enjoy, like “cava for adults with standards” or “lovely, relaxing red with no squeakies.”
Same goes for the vermouth—a vinmouth blanc listed as “a walk in a garden, sugared lemon, flowers, leaves” is served up in a chilled, ornate vintage glass. Kenney has also sourced “fun” vermouths with “wild origins,” like Alma Quinquina—an Asturian apple cider-based vermouth that she serves “blessedly neat” with a side car of a literal apple.
Kenney often will pop back into their kitchen to bake between conversations with customers—pressing dough into a mold to create intricate lemon pizzelle cookies, or dusting sugar over a Galician almond tart. To accompany her sweets, Kenney pulls espresso shots from a 1979 La San Marco Leva 80 machine she found on Craigslist and drove all the way up from California.
The interiors of Patufet are just as special. The couple left the bones of the house as is whenever possible while amplifying its existing charm. The kitchen has a whimsical blue and white mural of drying lavender and strung garlic that Kenney painted—she self-deprecatingly calls it a “dime store version of Portuguese azulejos.” An original window seat nook now has antique lace curtains above it, filtering light off of the soft pink walls. When faced with a hole in the floor, Kenney painted ceramic tiles in a floral motif to fill in the gaps. The deep mahogany built-ins now hold to-go bottles of wine and vermouth, vintage and contemporary glassware, and even Scopa decks—the centuries-old Italian card game.
The back room, which Kenney affectionately calls “the chapel,” was also hand-painted. Kenney’s friend Emily Parkinson created the nouveau-inspired mural with lime green paint, depicting large-scale versions of the herbs that go into vermouth, like Angelica, artemisia, licorice, oris root, and dittany of Crete. Another friend, Brianna O’Brien, painted the gold-leaf stars that are peppered throughout the ceiling, which feel like a grown-up version of the glow-in-the-dark ones that dotted many millennials’ childhood bedrooms.
Meanwhile, in Patufet’s backyard, another business, Secret Sauna, is setting up shop for the winter. The outdoor space will be transformed into a tranquil area for showering off and changing clothes after a session in the cedar sauna.
Kenney’s dad built the bar to accommodate an upright piano, at her request. Kenney is a signed musician, who previously toured and put out music under her own name and helped produce projects for others.
Alongside her music career, Kenney worked in kitchens in Seattle (Cafe Besalu) and the Bay Area (Ramen Shop, The Mill) but always wanted her own space. She hopes Patufet becomes not only an integral part of the neighborhood, but also is a place where people can indulge their curiosity.
“I want people to walk in knowing they can try something weird, new, and cool,” she says. “I’m also giving myself permission to play. There is a piano in the bar, which I intend on occasionally playing, too.”
Patufet, 2511 Belmont, Thurs-Sun 4-9 pm, patufetpdx.com, @patufetpdx