As diners chat over steaming bowls of potato soup and frybread tacos, laughter floats from chefs busily cooking in the open kitchen — they’re going to sell out again. The secret is out: Javelina is one of Portland’s hottest pop-ups — and its only Native American restaurant.
"Native Culture Corner" is a recurring column by Melanie Henshaw sharing uplifting cultural stories from Indigenous communities in Oregon.
Javelina is the brainchild of chef Alexa Numkena-Anderson (Hopi, Yakama) and her husband Nicholas Numkena-Anderson.
Javelina hosted its first service Nov. 12 and sold out of food within hours.
Portland has the 11th-largest Native American population in a major metropolitan area in the country, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Around 50,000 Native Americans are living in the metro area.
However, Native American restaurants are still uncommon. The U.S. government’s forcible displacement of many Native American tribes, deliberate efforts to destroy Native’s food sources and other methods of cultural erasure play a significant role in the lack of Native American restaurants.
It forced many tribes to adapt to new ingredients, resources and dishes. At Javelina, Numkena-Anderson is showcasing both precolonial and postcolonial cuisines.
Creating space
Indigenous cultures are incredibly diverse, and there is no overarching “Native American cuisine” — typical dishes and ingredients differ vastly based on the tribe, location, culture and traditions.
Numkena-Anderson said most of the menu is based on her grandmother’s recipes — Stella Washines from Yakama Nation.
“As I got older, I decided to attend culinary school here in Portland and worked for various acclaimed chefs (and) restaurants,” Numkena-Anderson said. “Through these kitchens, I was able to hone myself, create a love of cooking and learn techniques to make my dream come true — Javelina.”
Perhaps the most famous dish across Indigenous communities is the frybread taco, popular at cultural events like powwows and round dances. At Javelina, it's known as the NDN taco, featuring a pillowy piece of frybread topped with housemade beef chili, shredded cheese, salsa and sour cream.
Frybread is a staple comfort food for many Indigenous peoples, but no restaurants in the Portland metro serve it — except Javelina.
“I wanted to give the urban native community, like myself, a place to eat and feel at home; that’s what fry bread is to me, home,” Numkena-Anderson said. “I have lived here for nine years, and aside from the occasional powwow, I could never find a place to get my fry bread fix. I felt a responsibility, given my culinary background, to provide my community comfort through food and allow us space in the ever-growing food scene here in the Pacific Northwest.
“Also, the timing felt right, after years of trying to figure out my style of cooking and working for many different restaurants/chefs in Portland as well as becoming a new mother. I just knew that I wanted to feed people and not just my people, but everyone needs to hear the story of our culture and its forgotten food.”
Numkena-Anderson says she’s continuing to innovate and expand her menu.
“I quickly learned that frybread is just the beginning for me, and I felt inspired to showcase other foods that my family, tribe and culture used to cook before we were forced off our ancestral lands — a sort of revival of Native cooking that I will explore with each pop-up,” Numkena-Anderson said.
Innovative cuisine
Numkena-Anderson dedicates Javelina’s menu to serving seasonal ingredients endemic to Turtle Island and comfort foods close to her heart, like hearty bowls of her grandmother’s potato soup with bacon, corn and green chilis.
While some dishes stay close to tradition, others showcase Numkena-Anderson’s innovation, like the “Three Sisters Baked Potato,” a nod to the Indigenous method of farming beans, corn and squash together so they grow in harmony.
The dish features a roasted sweet potato topped with butternut squash, refried hominy, white beans, cranberries, a flourish of fresh herbs, puffed quinoa and a dollop of maple chard butter.
Diners with a sweet tooth will be thrilled by the cinnamon sugar frybread, hot pieces of crisp frybread tossed in cinnamon sugar and drizzled with honey.
Dishes on Javelina’s menu change regularly to highlight the season’s best ingredients. Future menus will explore different ingredients with Numkena-Anderson teasing new dishes, like “Three Sisters Braised Elk,” on Javelina’s social media.
Since November, almost every Javelina pop-up sold out. Its profile is growing, and it has already earned several mentions in the food and travel magazines Eater Portland and Travel Portland.
Cultivating a community space
Aside from Numkena-Anderson’s cuisine, another part of Javelina’s mission is a success — its pop-ups serve as a joyful gathering place for Portland’s Native community.
“I have now met more people from my culture than ever before, including two other Hopi in Portland,” Numkena-Anderson said. “But, I am filled with such love for our people, and when someone tells me my food brings them comfort, it brings me joy.”
On a recent visit to Javelina hosted in a Northeast Portland restaurant space, the dining room buzzed with smiling guests eating powwow burgers — a juicy beef patty topped with cheese, sandwiched between two pieces of hot frybread — and drinking sour grapefruit limeades as Snotty Nose Rez Kids’ “Boujee Natives” blared on the stereo.
Nicholas Numkena-Anderson, who specializes in front-of-house management, provided thoughtful and friendly service as he handed out stickers featuring Javelina’s logo of rainbow-colored javelina, a small pig-like animal that populates the southwest.
Though Numkena-Anderson is satisfied with hosting pop-ups for now, she hopes to open a more sophisticated version of Javelina under a different name that will remain a secret for the time being, she said.
Javelina is part of a growing number of Indigenous-owned and operated restaurants making their mark on the Pacific Northwestern dining scene, increasing the visibility of Native American cuisines.
After a string of successful services, Javelina is taking a short break while the team regroups and curates a menu for its upcoming dinner series.
Numkena-Anderson says she feels like she is constantly organizing for Javelina, but the benefits are there.
“The most rewarding thing is working for myself, cooking for people, and always learning more about mine and other tribes' cookings,” Numkena-Anderson said. “Connecting with the community has been very rewarding, too, and my original goal of meeting other Natives in the city is already becoming more of a reality with each pop-up.”
As a new parent and chef-owner of Javelina, Numkena-Anderson is performing a careful balancing act — while also serving as an inspiration for Indigenous women, parents and aspiring chefs.
Street Roots is an award-winning weekly investigative publication covering economic, environmental and social inequity. The newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Street Roots newspaper operates independently of Street Roots advocacy and is a part of the Street Roots organization. Learn more about Street Roots. Support your community newspaper by making a one-time or recurring gift today.
© 2023 Street Roots. All rights reserved. | To request permission to reuse content, email editor@streetroots.org or call 503-228-5657, ext. 40