delicate, herbed cashew cheese; paper-thin, flaky sheets of baklava dripping with sweet syrup; and bright, tangy, citrus-spiked sauces drizzled over golden, hot-from-the-fryer potatoes. The intoxicating flavors and ingredients diners can find at Aviv in the drizzly Pacific Northwest are products of a childhood nearly 7,000 miles away.
Head chef Tal Caspi’s time living in Tel Aviv serves as the basis for the menu at his pair of Middle Eastern-inspired restaurants, Aviv and Little Aviv, in Portland, OR. The concept for the eateries was seeded in 2017 from a partnership with another celebrated PDX chef, Sanjay Chandrasekaran of The Sudra, giving rise first to a pop-up before taking over the brick-and-mortar space previously held by local institution Portobello Vegan Trattoria. It was there that Caspi created vegan