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Perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise that I first heard of Chisme, a permanent pop-up of sorts at Duality Brewing in Kerns, via word-of-mouth.
Chisme, after all, means “gossip” in Spanish—and I’m always here for the tea, especially when it has to do with good food… or the drama of your poly friends. But after being drawn in by a good word, Chef Francisco Leyva keeps you captivated with an ever-rotating mix of seasonal and fancy-not-fussy “Comida Chicana” that actually tells his story.
“I don’t feel like gossip is good enough for chisme,” says Leyva, whose wife, Anne, suggested the name. “Gossip is always blatantly negative. There’s a part of chisme that is storytelling and news sharing. Especially being in Duality. Eating, drinking, and chismeando.”
Leyva has spent 15 years in professional cooking, from the famed Zuni Cafe in San Francisco, to the early opening days of Tusk, to five years as the chef de cuisine at Kachka. He spent that time learning, getting ready for the days when he could run his own kitchen.
Since early November of last year, he’s been blending the foods his abuelita made with the technique he’s learned in professional kitchens, all within a tiny space inside Duality Brewing. Inside the light-filled, high-ceilinged brewery, the Chisme team is afforded a small prep area, and the indoor space seats maybe 15. A small team runs plates, and orders are taken at the counter.
“As a Chicano Mexican American, we all have an identity crisis—not Mexican enough for Mexicans, not American enough for Americans,” says Leyva, whose mother was an immigrant farmworker and his father owned taquerias. “I grew up eating pizza, but we always made things a little Mexican.”
A recent dish from September was a prime example of that world-blending. Leyva layered a French beef tenderloin tartare on a crisp durito—the Mexican fried wheat crackers you’ll often see in stores as orange-tinged pinwheels. This was the wide and flat version, giving the tartare an ideal vessel, topped with dollops of salsa macha aioli and Tajin.
Always pick up whatever veg Leyva is throwing down. A late summer salad of melon, jicama, cucumber, and fennel dancing with chiltepin pepper and fish sauce, scattered with herbs and almonds was maybe my favorite of the night. Leyva’s attention to texture and acidic pop shows the influence of working alongside famed veggie-focused Chef Josh McFadden at Tusk, but made very much his own.
When the weather is nice, Chisme spreads out to tables on Duality’s huge front porch, people drinking a shiso leaf beer while dipping fried tortillas into fantastically smooth refried beans cooked in butter (yes please), sprinkled with cotija cheese. Get whatever tacos are on offer, like the taco de suadero—succulent crispy beef brisket served simply and perfectly with salsa, cilantro, and onion on a fresh tortilla. A few times over the summer, Leyva served tacos from a rotating trompo, cutting away al pastor and steak for hungry customers.
The menu can change weekly, or even between services. You can usually count on a seafood tostada, though. The recent Oregon albacore came with delicious crispy leeks and avocado, which helped balance the somewhat oversalted fish.
Because the techniques are so refined, it can feel somewhat like a juxtaposition to get beef tartare, seafood tostadas, or seasonal veggies on a plain plate and at a table with a number on it.
Leyva says that’s by design. “I’ve never frankly cared about super fancy plating and cool plating techniques,” he says. “Nothing against that, but it’s never been what I was drawn to in food.”
Chisme’s predecessor in the Duality space, the also delicious Astral, left in search of its own brick-and-mortar space. Leyva says he’s not in a rush to hang his own shingle, but he won’t rule it out.
“Me and my family are good, I feel healthy and creative,” he says. “I’m happy existing in the moment, and for so much of my career in this industry that wasn’t the case. I enjoy being in a really happy place.”
Chisme, 715 NE Lawrence, instagram.com/chisme.pdx, Thurs-Fri 4 pm-9 pm, Sat 2 pm-9 pm.
