Our Establishments
In June of 2020, our Founder Angel Medina re-opened the doors to his beloved La Perlita Cafe in Northwest Portland.
In November of 2020 our team launched their first version of the República restaurant.
In 2022 we launched 6 more concepts and renamed our growing group República & Co.
República & Co. is composed of a number of Restaurants, Coffee Shops, a Coffee Roastery, and a Bakery & Cafe.
All of them located in the city of Portland, Oregon.
República
A Mexico Forward Chef's Tasting Experience
By Executive Chef Jose "Lalo" Camarena
Wednesday - Sunday.
4:30 pm - 8:30 pm
7 Course & 10 Course Chef's Tasting Dinner (only)
Reservations highly encouraged, via OpenTable.
Final seating at 8:30 pm.
Address:
100 NW 10th Ave
Portland, OR 97209
Located on the corner of NW 10th & NW Couch Street
(across the street from Powell's Book Store)
About Republica
República is the best Mexico-Forward restaurant in the country.
What does that mean, really?
It means that when our young Chef Jose “Lalo” Camarena dreams up a plate, he does it understanding the intentionality of the restaurant. There are a number of rules in place to assure that our offerings pay respect to the food from the country that is now Mexico.
We ask ourselves...
Is there a meaningful historical connection between this dish and the culture?
Are the components of the dish currently in season? Can we source them locally?
Is it beautiful when plated?
Does the taste match the beautiful aesthetics of the plating?
Essentially what we aim to do is create original dishes and present them with historical roots in an etymology which oftentimes has very little to do with what we now call Mexico. That is a lot to ask of a Chef.
It means that, in order for us to hold our culture and our cuisine in high regard, we first have to acknowledge that much of it did not belong to us in the first place. Everything from the foundational dishes with maiz – first created by the Olmecs, Toltecs, Mayas, Aztecs – to the mole recipes that feature ingredients originally from Asia and Africa, were another culture's to begin with.
It is with these acknowledgements, this level of intentionality in mind, we call our cuisine, “Mexico-Forward."
About Comedor Lilia
Lilia is like no other restaurant in this city.
We know because we made it this way by design.
It's our way of letting the world know that not everything should follow a format.
That a restaurant, no matter how new or small, can have a Chef that goes to the Farmer's Market just about every day and dream up something entirely new and beautiful with the ingredients he found.
In addition, every person working in that Restaurant can accurately share with you how that new dish came to be and where every one of its components came from, showing you that Pacific Northwest cuisine can look very different through the eyes, perspective, and skill of a young Mexican-American Chef.
All of this while treating you like a guest in their dining room, or Comedor.
About De Noche
This one is pretty simple, we just wanted to have a space that allowed us to bring you beautifully executed Mexican cuisine.
5 days a week, Chef Dani curates a nostalgic dining experience inspired by the humility of her upbringing and her continued growth and mastery of this cuisine.
This was our original intention when we opened República back in 2020: a place that would introduce folks to dishes from all over the Republic of Mexico, from Tetelas Mixtecas, Memelas Veracruzanas, Quesadillas Oaxaqueñas, to Tacos Yucatecos. We serve many traditional dishes that play homage to their place of origin, but use modern cooking techniques, giving you a different interpretation that reflects the skill of our kitchen.
Yes, we know that this is a big undertaking, but again this is what sets this little operation apart.
About Matutina
Matutina is currently undergoing some exciting changes! But for background...
The word "Matutina" is the feminine of the word "early morning", as in the early morning shift.
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This isn't a traditional Panaderia, but it's also not a traditional Bakery.
The term "Panaderia Americana" was used by our crew to describe to their friends and family what Matutina was; "es como una panaderia, pero como panaderia Americana".
It's like a bakery, but like an American Bakery.
3 Restaurants,
1 Cocktail Bar,
3 Coffee Shops, and a Roasting Company.
We love food - we don't hide this.
We do however understand that without our cafes we would not have any of our restaurants. After all, you fell in love with our Coffee first!
We have 3 Cafes: La Perlita, Esperanza Trading Co., and Electrica.
In addition, we have our little roasting company, Reforma Roasters, who keeps all of us fueled day in and day out.
La Perlita
¡Cafecitos Chingones since 2017!
7 Days a week.
8:00 am - 4:00 pm
Espresso Drinks and Pourovers.
Pan Dulce by Matutina.
50 free Conchas on Sunday!
Address:
5620 N. Interstate Ave
Portland, OR 97217
About La Perlita
This is where it all began.
Before there was a James Beard nominated Restaurant or the thought of having one of the fastest growing Restaurant Groups in the country, there was La Perlita.
The work of founders Angel Medina & Axel Villa, what was once a cute, amicable little coffee stand has given the us all one of the best Mexican restaurants in the country, República.
La Perlita has since transitioned into its own stand-alone space in North Portland. Still as humble and opinionated on topics about our culture and its people, as well as on who the actual GOAT is...doesn’t matter if we are talking about athletes or Mexican composers, aquí hay de todo!
Esperanza Trading Co.
A Cafe & Workspace in the heart of Woodstock.
7 Days a week.
8:00 am - 4:00 pm
Espresso Drinks, Pourovers, and a large selection of Wine to take home.
Pan Dulce by Matutina.
Address:
4229 SE Woodstock Blvd.
Portland, OR 97206
About Esperanza Trading Co.
The idea was to create a space that brought together the community in the Woodstock neighborhood by way of great conversations over coffee.
Today Esperanza serves Coffee and Tea alongside an assortment of Pan Dulce courtesy of Matutina, our Panaderia Americana.
Tucked away between two buildings, our beautiful cafe is filled with green plants, beautiful artwork, and the tantalizing smell of Coffee freshly roasting in our Probat Coffee Roaster, which on any given day is in full motion, courtesy of the Esperanza Coffee roasting team.
Electrica Coffee
Mexican Coffee + Japanese Tea
Tuesday - Sunday
9:00 am - 4:00 pm
Espresso Drinks, Pourovers, and a well curated selection of Japanese Teas.
Pan Dulce by Matutina.
Address:
2181 NW Nicolai Street
Portland, OR 97210
About Electrica Coffee
Established in November of 2022 and quickly regarded as one of the best coffee shops in Portland...to be fair, we didn’t say that, someone else did.
We do however strongly believe that Electrica is like no other coffee shop in the city.
There is tremendous intentionality behind having a harmonious blend of cultures represented in one space, inspired by the backgrounds of our Founders (Mexican & Japanese).
Located inside of the Schoolhouse Electric Building in Northwest Portland, Electrica is the proud work of Seiji Nanbu and the team at República & Co.
Reforma Roasters
Con Calma Y Con Toda El Alma.
The fuel to all of our operations!
Reforma Roasters is the work of Angel Medina, our Founder. It is a project that was founded out of love for Coffee and our Community.
No really, we know how cliche that phrase sounds, but the reason this company started was to raise funds for DACA recipients in 2017, right as the political ideology of this country began shifting to became even more Anti-immigrant.
At the moment, we source 90% of our Coffee from states in Mexico such as Oaxaca, Veracruz, Chiapas, Nayarit, Guerrero, Puebla, and occasionally Colima.
You can find all of our rotating roasts on our website.
