Oregon albacore with ajo blanco at Fallow’s. | Fallow’s The Sellwood-Moreland restaurant sources ingredients grown in a collaborative regenerative farming model At the new farm-driven Westmoreland restaurant Fallows, co-owners Marné Minard and Paul Arnold spend a lot of time considering where their food comes from: They only source proteins that are wild or sustainably caught and let seasonal produce dictate the menu. In the circa-1920s building formerly occupied by gastropub Relish, the couple serve food free from ingredients like gluten, seed oil, refined sugar, soy, and corn — although diners are typically not aware of this until they read that note on a dessert menu, Arnold says. Minard, a certified nutritionist and Arnold, a chef, are also the co-owners of Bastion, a gluten-free cafe located a quarter-mile up Southeast Milwaukie Avenue. With Fallow’s, the couple have found room to cook with a bit more decadence than they’re able to at their other restaurant. Plates like steak tartare with shiitake mushroom and nasturtiums and roasted farm hen with fennel and peaches are meant to be shared family style. The restaurant opened in mid-July, and is building a wider audience on top of fans it carried over from Bastion. Fallow’s menu structure has allowed for more playful experimentation. Arnold, who worked in fine dining for two decades and is also an alum of Screen Door, missed cooking multi-course meals and pushing flavor profiles in new directions. Minard, who studied cooking in Thailand, works to incorporate herbs and spices that are common in Eastern medicine. On the current menu, a roasted cauliflower dish is seasoned with hawaij, a Yemeni spice blend, and served with sunflower seed chimichurri. The restaurant is co-owned by Joe Taylor of Cedar Springs Farm, a regenerative farm in Trout Lake, Washington. The couple met Taylor at the Sellwood Moreland Farmers Market and started sourcing chickens for Bastion from the farm. In the vertical integration of Cedar Springs and Fallow’s, Taylor plans to start raising a couple heads of cattle per year for the restaurant. Arnold explains that working closely with farmers allows them to supply approximate batches of proteins, thereby minimizing food waste. While chef Steph Britton will often grab some of the restaurant’s produce from the Sellwood-Moreland farmers market across the street, Fallow’s also works with local farms that practice regenerative agriculture, like Sauvie Island Growers and Flying Coyote Farm. “It’s really important to us that farming regeneratively becomes a proven model, so that other farmers are like, ‘Wait a second, people are willing to pay for this,’” Arnold says. Minard and Arnold worked with bartender Robbie Wilson, former owner of Botanist, on the cocktail menu. Non-alcoholic versions of every cocktail are available, and each of the drinks includes ingredients that are meant to support one of the body’s organ systems. For example, the Rest Wild, which lands somewhere between a whiskey sour and an Old Fashioned, includes ginkgo biloba and rhodiola, two plants that support the nervous system. Education is an important component for the couple, who aim to hook diners with bold flavors and encourage questions around food systems and the restaurant’s place in them. In addition to Minard’s background in nutrition, Arnold formerly ran a Tigard location of Little Kitchen Academy, a children’s cooking school that fostered learning through play. “There’s an opportunity for us to play and also educate,” Minard says. “There’s little ways to insert bits of education into a dining experience.” Fallow’s is located at 6637 SE Milwaukie Avenue.