“Hash” restaurant opens on Garthwick’s doorstep

By Merry Mackinnon

The Bee, Nov 27, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

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In some cases, “local” is only as far away as Murray’s backyard, where he grows the tomatoes that end up in other menu items — such as eggs Florentine, burgers, and B-L-T sandwiches. Murray’s vegetable garden is not far from Sel Gris Restaurant on S.E. Hawthorne Boulevard, which is where Murray and Wong previously worked.

“Mike helped open Sel Gris,” observes Wong, who now lives in Woodstock, after moving to Portland from Los Angeles.

Until several years ago, Wong had spent most of his adult life employed in the California high-tech industry, staring at a computer monitor. “I was downsized,” Wong ruefully recalls. “I was ready for a change. I decided to go to culinary school.”

Wong’s father had run a string of Cantonese seafood restaurants in Los Angeles, and Wong grew up working in them.

So he has a basis for comparison, when it comes to what Wong regards as the superior quality of many of the farm, fish and meat products Oregon has to offer.

“Oregon has a lot more products you can play with compared to L.A.,” Wong comments.

“The pork belly up here is awesome,” adds Murray, referring to their Carlton Farms gourmet meats provider. (That’s bacon, you understand.)

Hash’s menu is seasonal, and open to suggestion. “We’re trying to feel what our customers are looking for,” Murray explains.

So far, word-of-mouth is filling the tables at Hash’s location at 8728 S.E. 17th Avenue. On a recent Sunday the line was out the door. The restaurant’s telephone number is 503/239-3966.

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