Our Mission
Our mission is simple.
It's a commitment, everyday, to hyper-seasonality.
"Hyper-seasonality represents to us what is happening right now. All of our produce we try to source within 250 miles of the Restaurant. All of our beans, all of our dried chiles are from Forest Grove. I don't think there's another restaurant doing what we're doing with quality product like that. You've got all these ingredients that I've used my entire life and they are from...right here.
That's what hyper-seasonality means.
That all the ingredients that you traditionally get from super far away, you get 'em from as close as you can and you try to work with whatever is happening right now."
- Chef Juan Gomez
Our Story
From Chef Juan’s steadfast commitment to hyper-seasonality, to the way he blends aspects of his identity as a Mexican-American Chef with his deep ties to the Pacific Northwest to create utterly magnificent dishes, to the meticulously curated wine list which features BIPOC, Women, and LGBTQ+ Winemakers, there's no shortage of ways we set ourselves apart.
About Lilia
At its core, Comedor Lilia is an expression of family.
The Restaurant itself is an homage to Chef Juan's beloved, late mother, Lilia, and his ever-growing family.
The vibrant flowers which garnish each dish are grown in Chef Juan’s wife, Sam’s, garden. Many of the gorgeous desserts, too are her stunning creations.
At the end of the night, guests nursing their last sips of wine are often surprised by Chef Juan and Sam’s young boys as they race across the dining room and into the kitchen to latch on the legs of the Chefs and staff members who have become tíos and tías after many months spent alongside each other.
To spend an evening at Lilia is to spend an evening in Chef Juan's family home, a beautiful home indeed.
About Chef Juan Gomez
When you walk into Lilia, the first thing you hear is a warm greeting by the man behind the counter, our Executive Chef Juan Gomez.
Self-proclaimed farmer’s market enthusiast, proud father of three boisterous young boys, award-winning Chef, and quite genuinely one of the most humble people this industry.
When asked where he learned to cook, Chef Juan responded quickly. Juvie. During his time in incarceration as a teenager, he was placed in the kitchen, an assignment he was dead-set against before his first day. But the moment he walked in, he fell in love. With the noise, the movement, the chaos, all of it!
From that moment, he made it his life's goal to be a Chef and truly turned his life around.
After joining República in 2021, he rose from Sous Chef to Chef de Cuisine, running one of the most ambitious Restaurants in the country.
His ultimate insatiable drive soon made it clear he needed a space of his own, a concept he could design from the ground up which would allow his obsession with culinary history, locally sourced ingredients, and most importantly, hyper-seasonality, to run wild.
On July of 2022, Chef Juan was given the keys to an airy space on Portland's South Waterfront, and 30 days after opening those doors, it was voted one of the Top 40 Restaurants in the Country by Esquire magazine.
30 days. That's all it took.
As he and his team always say, "We are just getting started".
MAILING LIST
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