Our History
In 2010, creative trio Ben Meyer (Revel Meat Co. and Old Salt Marketplace), Alex Ganum (Upright Brewery), and Marcus Hoover (Lovebites) opened Grain & Gristle with the intention of bring farm-to-table fare and great beer to the Sabin neighborhood. They believed that great, local food should be affordable and that you shouldn’t have to get dressed up to eat it. For the past 10 years, Grain & Gristle has been a staple in the neighborhood. But after 10 years, this trio was ready for a break from the restaurant scene. Luckily, they knew exactly who could take over and continue to serve locally grown and skillfully crafted farm-to-table fare to our community.
Ben, Marcus, and Alex handed off the baton to Jeff and Heidi Whitney-Schile, who they had worked with for years, because they held the same core values: that we should support our community, our farmers and ranchers, and our local food producers, and that great food should pair with wine and beer, and everyone should be able to enjoy it.
Heidi and Jeff’s vision for Grain & Gristle is for it to continue to be a cozy neighborhood staple, and to make their fare as local as possible by focusing on all Portland- and Oregon-based products. So stop in, have a drink, let off some steam, eat some great food produced by your local farmers and ranchers, and enjoy!
Our Team
Heidi Whitney-Schile – Head Chef & Owner
If you visited Old Salt Marketplace for brunch or for the supper house program during 2017 and 2018, then you have already tried the food and style of our head chef, Heidi Whitney-Schile. An Oregon local, Heidi has spent her entire life around food: she was raised on a farm in Dundee, Oregon, and her love of food and an understanding of the importance of Oregon farms has never left her.
Heidi’s 13-year culinary career in Portland has been fully focused on flawless technique and quality. She studied the art of french pastry at a handful of iconic bakeries, including Crema, Pix Patisserie, and Plaza del Toro. And she’s spent a lot of time in high-level, high-volume kitchens, like Carafe Bistro and Bollywood Theater, where the food quality is held high, even when the lines are a mile long.
Eventually Heidi started her own French brunch pop-up, Lavender & Thyme, in Old Salt Marketplace’s Carver Room. And when Old Salt Marketplace had an opening for a brunch chef, Heidi took that opportunity so she could share her brunch fare on a more regular basis. Soon after, she also began managing Old Salt’s dinner program, where she broadened the pastry offerings, and continued to push the seasonal menu with creative dishes that brought guests back week after week.
After Old Salt Marketplace closed, Heidi left Oregon temporarily and moved across the country to beautiful Pennsylvania to work as the head chef of a luxury resort and help them create a new locally focused menu and develop a farm to table program.
Upon her return to Oregon, Grain & Gristle immediately scooped her back up to join the family. Now that she’s head chef at Grain & Gristle, you can expect to see her beautiful seasonal offerings that pair great with a glass of wine, cocktail or beer. Pop your head in the back, say hi, her energy and love of food is contagious and obvious in every dish she creates.
Jeff Whitney-Schile – Owner, Kitchen Manager, Charcutier
If you were a fan of the butchery program at Old Salt Marketplace, then you’re already familiar with Jeff’s work. A Portland local, Jeff got his start in kitchens at old Portland restaurants like Sylvia’s Italian Restaurant and Plainfield’s Mayur.
When Plainfield’s Mayur closed in 2013, Jeff shifted his focus into baking and moved on to Crema Bakery. The long days baking allowed Jeff to develop an interest in and understanding of scratch cooking and farm-to-table fare.
This prompted Jeff to shift his focus to butchery and charcuterie. Jeff left Crema with the encouragement of his wife and became an intern at Proletariat Butchery. His work quickly caught the eye of Ben Meyer of Old Salt Marketplace, who quickly brought him over and began training him extensively on the dark arts of butchery, sausage making and charcuterie. Jeff learned with a fierce passion and intensity – he read everything he could about curing meats and old world techniques, and used what he learned to create new recipes and new techniques that mimic old traditions in order to enhance the meat case and programs at Old Salt.
Upon the closing of Old Salt, Jeff left Oregon temporarily and moved across the country to western Pennsylvania with Heidi to set up a farm-to-table, in-house butchery program for a luxury lodge. Once the program was established, they quickly moved back to Portland to resume their careers.
When they got back, Jeff began working at Revel Meat Company alongside Ben Meyer once again, helping push the sausage program of Revel to new heights.
Jeff now works at Grain & Gristle full time alongside Heidi. He continues to push the meat program at Grain & Gristle, creating new takes on age-old dishes, doing in-house butchery, charcuterie, and sausage-making. When he’s not in the kitchen he enjoys spending time outdoors, gardening, and trying new and exciting foods and drinks with his wife.