Hey!
Just like that it’s October, although you wouldn’t know it from the temperatures. While I’m definitely a cooler fall sort of weather person, we’ll take the temps for now to extend the harvest. It’s always a tricky time of year for us, menu planning wise because we never know when that frost is going to hit. We’ve learned a few tricks over the years though. For example, cooler temps lead us to preserving green tomatoes that aren’t ripening. The frost will damage those peppers on the vines but not enough that we can’t help the farms one last time to make our last round of hot sauces and ferments.
When I was a young line cook I never would’ve thought how much of my time would be spent planning, squirreling away and preserving local food. It’s on the borderline of being a problem. The kitchen crew will give me subtle winks that we’re running out of space for all the things, especially these past couple months. It’s been Murphy’s Law of refrigerator and freezer problems for us. If there was a Family Feud style questionnaire for restaurateurs about an issue frustrating their operation, while it wouldn’t be the number one answer it would definitely be in the top 5. We’re always used to the game of fridge tetris but this summer has been a doozy. Remi’s the conspiracy theorist of the group but it does seem suspicious that we’re just past our warranties. It reminds me of an old Simpsons episode. There’s a hot dog vendor that just follows Homer around, when Marge questions him he just says, “Lady, he’s putting my kids through college”. That’s us with our appliance repair guys. Like everything though, we laugh about it, roll with the punches and find the silver lining of developing new systems and solutions.
We have a few new faces in the front of house! Izzy’s a few weeks in on the tasting room side and Alyse is hanging in Art Haus. New blood is always good to have around. If you see any unfamiliar faces just say hi. We’re even forcing some of the kitchen crew to get behind the bar and learn to barback. K Bae (Kris Bea), our Art Haus sous chef, just had his first service side shift last Friday and killed it. We’ve always been big proponents of cross-training the staff. Not only does it diversify their knowledge and experiences but it helps train a little contextual empathy for their peers, living a few shifts in their shoes.
Upcoming Events
Sun Dog Flower Farm Dinner!
Saturday & Sunday, October 10th & 11th
Dry Creek Valley
It’s finally happening this weekend! We’d love to see you out at Brooke & Davis’ farm to celebrate the closing of another harvest season. We go way back with them and even have Hillin (and Alyse) sharing time between the kitchen and spending days out in the sun, working alongside them in the rows. The nights should be really fun, family style, dinners out in the Dry Creek Valley with music from Dr. Scott’s Electric Hairbrush. There are a few tickets available Saturday and a bit more on Sunday. You can follow the link below to purchase tickets.
Saturday
https://www.opentable.com/booking/details?availabilityToken=eyJ2IjozLCJtIjowLCJwIjowLCJjIjo2LCJzIjowLCJuIjowfQ&cfe=true&correlationId=8cd7c2af-a8eb-47cd-bec7-86561f3891a8&creditCardRequired=true&dateTime=2026-10-10T18%3A00%3A00&diningAreaId=&isModify=false&partySize=2&points=100&pointsType=Standard&resoAttribute=default&rid=1065754&selectedExperience=774300&slotHash=300055801&st=Experience&tableCategory=
Sunday
Interwoven
Saturday, October 17th
Pendleton, OR
We got a special invite to head out west to Pendleton to collaborate with Interwoven. It’s a multiday event that weaves cultures together, that gives a space for Western and Indigenous makers to share their stories through art, design and craft. Kevin will be paired with Iranian artist, Sharereh Hamed, for the “Fashion Bites” portion of the weekend. She’s part of an Interwoven residency where she is working on shoulder hangings out of her own woven textiles based on Coast Salish traditions. Kev, being our in house forager, will be creating bites that feature the natural ingredients of the Columbia Basin and SW Idaho. It should be a really interesting and engaging event, plus Kev loves exploring the Eastern Oregon area.
Soprano’s Halloween Dinner
Saturday, October 31st
KIN Tasting Room
$150 (beverage, tax & gratuity included)
Believe it or not, the tasting room has never been open on Halloween. Most of that is due to what day the holiday lands on but to be honest, it’s a hard sell to get people down here that night. It being on a Saturday this year, we knew we wanted to do something. The kitchen crew has been wanting to do a Soprano’s theme dinner. Turns out that the TV shows from the early oughts are also coming back into style with the Gen Z’ers. Well, we figured that this would be a good a time as any. So, Sara’s going to tap into her Italian-American roots and lead the team in a family style, mobster feast. THe menu is still to be determined but we did get our hands on a thrift store, Soprano’s Cookbook that will be more than enough inspiration. Think cacio pepe, picatta, ziti, gabagool…So put out the bowl of candy, shut off the lights and get dressed in your finest velour tracksuit. Whaddaya hear? Whaddaya say? Come join us for dinner with the family.
Art Haus & Ampersand
The patio is still amazing to hang out on, maybe the best all year. There’s little cool pockets here and there but we’ll keep it open to relax on until the cooler temps are here to stay. Speaking of here to stay, our Les Bois Hot Chicken Sando is going to more permanently stay on the menu, by popular demand of course. It’s a breaded and fried chicken thigh slathered with our own KINbasco, fermented cayenne hot sauce. It’s got dilly cuke pickles and a blue cheese celery root slaw all on our housemade buns.
We will also still keep a 2-week rotating special burger. To be honest, we’ve done a poor job at keeping record of them all but I’m sure we’re up over 50 by now. In fact, it’s a late harvest corn elote burger with habanada peppers, lime, cotija and cilantro.
Ampersand is also great this time of year, catching the sunsets, the rolling clouds and the vibrant spectrum of colors. We’d love to see you down in the bar or up on the top floor as well.
Days Open: Wednesday-Saturday
Hours of Operation: 4-11p
Happy Hours: 4-5p & 10-11p
KIN
We have two more weeks of Menu 86, all inspired by local artist, Lorelle Rau. Lorelle works with paper, collaging, printing and even making her own. She draws a lot from the outdoors, taking photos of national park landscapes and pulling color tones out and enlarging to bring contrast and harmony. She harvests invasive plants, processes them and dries them into paper. Incorporating them into works invites a quiet conversation about the environment and ecosystems that she loves. As she told us, “maybe conservation begins simply by knowing a place well enough that you'd miss it if it were gone.”
She’ll be taking down her work after this menu cycle so come on down and check it out. Even if you're just hitting up Art Haus, as long as we’re not currently in service in the Tasting Room, just ask.
KIN seatings for September
Thursday, Friday (and some Wednesdays) : 7p
Saturday: 6p & 9p (Supper Club $99)
Staff Shoutout
Here’s K Bae! Since we’ve already introduced him as our Art Haus Sous and barback in training, we figured we might as well tell a little more about him. So, as another K-ris, we figured he needed a nickname, hence K Bae. He’s been cooking for a while and been with us a couple years. He used to operate a foodtruck, Kain Na Tayo, featuring some of the Filipino food he grew up eating. We’re lucky to get some samplings through family meal! He’s currently studying and training to get his EMT certification with the longer term goal of grabbing one of the city’s coveted firefighting positions. In the meantime though, we’re lucky to have him. Not only is he a damn good cook but at a young age he is as professional, consistent and dependable as I’ve seen. He’s a semi-competitive powerlifter and possesses a wealth of hip hop knowledge. K Bae is just one of those guys with a quiet confidence and charm that wins over everyone, pretty much immediately. He’s a special one that’ll do well on any path that he chooses and we couldn’t be happier to have him on the team.
Favorite Fruit: Mango
Primal Zodiac: Anglerfish (maybe my favorite on the crew)
Death Row Meal: 4@ Les Bois Chicken Sandos, 3@ Haus Burgers, curly fries from Jack in the Box with our fry sauce and a gallon jug of minute maid pink lemonade.
Why he’s on Death Row: Multicorporational heist, like the big ones, to steal from the rich and give to the poor, like a Filipino Robinhood.
Culinary Weapon of Choice in a Zombie Apocalypse (has to be in our kitchen): Our big noodle pot lid and a stabby thing.
As always, we really appreciate all of your support and we hope to see you down here soon!