Fire first
No gas range, no induction. Everything is cooked over oak and applewood, which means timing, patience and a lot of respect for the person on the grill.
Our story · Since 2014
A cooperage, a wood fire, and thirty-eight chairs
The Copper Fig began as an argument about whether a restaurant could run on nothing but live fire. Ten years later we are still proving the point, one hearth at a time.
How it started
We bought the building for the chimney, not the address
In 2013 Elena Márquez was cooking in a basement kitchen with no windows, and Daniel Okoro was running a dining room he did not believe in. They found a former barrel works on Alder Street with a brick chimney running the full height of the building, and decided that was enough of a plan.
The hearth was built in place, brick by brick, by a mason from Astoria. It has been lit every morning since — the same fire that bakes the bread at six roasts the ribeye at nine, and its embers still hold heat when the last table leaves.
Everything else followed from that: a menu short enough to change daily, a wine list built on growers rather than labels, and a room where you can hear the person across the table.
“Fire is not a technique for us. It is the whole argument. It sets the menu, the timings, even the hour we come to work.”
Milestones
Ten years on Alder Street
- 2014
A hearth in a former cooperage
Elena Márquez and Daniel Okoro take on a derelict barrel works on Alder Street and spend nine months building a kitchen around one wood-burning hearth.
- 2017
The Cellar opens
The brick-vaulted basement, once used to age cider, becomes a twenty-seat private dining room and our small wine library.
- 2020
The garden years
During closure we built a riverside terrace and started the Alder Street kitchen garden with two neighbouring restaurants.
- 2023
Best Restaurant, Pacific Northwest
Portland Monthly names us Restaurant of the Year, singling out the hearth counter and Tomás Reyes' pastry section.
What we believe
Three rules we do not bend
Whole ingredients
We buy whole animals and full crates. What we cannot serve today gets cured, pickled, fermented or turned into stock — our kitchen sends less than a bin bag of waste to landfill each week.
Fair hospitality
A single service charge, shared with the kitchen. Four-day weeks for the senior team, and a training budget for every cook who wants one.
The people
Who you will meet
Elena Márquez
Chef & Co-ownerTrained in San Sebastián and Lisbon, Elena cooks the food she grew up with, filtered through Oregon's growing seasons.
Daniel Okoro
Co-owner & General ManagerTwenty years in dining rooms from Chicago to London. Daniel writes the service standards and greets most guests himself.
Priya Anand
Wine DirectorPriya built our 200-bottle list around Oregon growers, Jura oddities and older Rioja than the price suggests.
Tomás Reyes
Head Pastry ChefTomás bakes the sourdough at six each morning and finishes the day with the burnt honey cheesecake everyone came for.
Sourcing
Thirty-one growers, one delivery van
We buy direct wherever we can, which means an early start, a lot of phone calls and a menu written after the last crate is unloaded. These are the farms and boats you will taste most often.
See what they sent this week- Thistledown FarmVegetables & herbs · Junction City
- Harrow & VineStone fruit & figs · Hood River
- Coldwater Day BoatsLine-caught fish · Newport
- Ridgeback RanchDry-aged beef & lamb · The Dalles
- Foxglove DairySheep's milk cheese · Tillamook
- Alder Street GardenSalad, flowers & chillies · Portland
Come and sit by the fire
The best seats in the house are the eight stools at the hearth counter, close enough to feel the heat.