Lucier (restaurant)

Lucier was a restaurant in south Portland's South Waterfront district. The menu included "modern European cuisine", according to Portland Monthly.[2] Martin Cizmar described Lucier as "the most opulent restaurant space in Portland history".[3] The interior featured a lazy river.[4]

The restaurant operated for seven months during 2008,[5][6] and the space remained unoccupied until 2013.[7] Willamette Week called the restaurant's short lifespan "the most colossal faceplant in Portland dining history".[4]

In 2008, Karen Brooks of The Oregonian gave the restaurant a rating of 'C–'.[8] Wendy Culverwell of the Portland Business Journal wrote, "Lucier Restaurant opened and closed so quickly in 2008 that many people never had a chance to see its stunning setting."[9] Lucier chef Pascal Chureau said criticism of the restaurant was "unfair".[10] In his 2016 overview of "97 long-gone Portland restaurants we wish were still around", Grant Butler of The Oregonian wrote, "OK, this ridiculously extravagant waterfront restaurant may have been the biggest dining belly-flop in recent years, opening and closing in a matter of months in 2008. But those views of the Willamette! And those over-the-top Dale Chihuly sculptures, which were pretty magnificent when seen up close. The expensive food may have been a mess, but the desserts put pastry chef Kristen Murray on the map, and for that we are forever grateful."[11]