When Anh Tram Nguyen and her husband, Hien, left their corporate careers to pursue their dream of opening a restaurant, the road ahead was full of unexpected twists and turns — from finding investors to finding the right location, all against a string of tight deadlines and big decisions.
One of those decisions was choosing a firm to transform a 2,118-square-foot leased space in the OHSU Knight Cancer Research Building into a minimalist, bright and airy restaurant. They found the right match in Green Hammer, who served as general contractor overseeing the tenant improvements for the ground-floor commercial space at 2720 SW Moody Avenue, Suite 100, in Portland’s South Waterfront District.
“The most important thing to me is trust. I fully trusted Green Hammer throughout the entire process. This was not just a business transaction. It meant much more to us,” Anh says.
She says both her kids and her parents inspired Olia Poké (pronounced “POH-keh”), named after her children Olivia and Liam. “I practically grew up at my parent’s Vietnamese restaurant on SE Powell Boulevard,” she says of the now-closed Thanh Truc. “They loved entertaining and feeding people good, healthy food.”
The idea of opening a restaurant of her own came soon after her father’s death, when she says she used cooking as a way to heal. This makes Olia Poké and Tea’s location in the Knight Cancer Research Building especially fitting, she says. “Our number one goal is to make healthy eating as easy as possible,” she says. Olia Poké and Tea’s simple menu consists of three main items: salad rolls, banh mi, and poké, a Hawaiian dish featuring rice, vegetables, raw, diced fish and condiments. Some of the sauces are family recipes passed down from her parents.
“We wanted to create a welcoming space where doctors, researchers, students, and patients and their families could all find convenient fast food that would keep them nourished throughout the day,” she says. “Green Hammer aligned perfectly with our values. The entire team at Green Hammer took such good care of us while meeting the strict requirements that the research center has.”
The LEED-Platinum-certified Knight Cancer Research Building is a high-performance, environmentally sustainable workplace with a capacity of 650 occupants. The building is home to CEDAR — Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research Center — the first large-scale early cancer detection program of its kind, according to OHSU. It meets the Architecture 2030 Challenge and features toxin- and carcinogen-free materials.
Olia Poké and Tea, is one of only two restaurant tenants in the research center. The design reflects the food being served—clean and simple. Olia Poké is committed to serving fresh food made with local ingredients, such as Ota’s Tofu. It’s working to reduce waste wherever possible—from the take-out containers it provides to energy-efficient lighting to repurposing building materials.
Above the long, simple bar, soft lighting illuminates from a low ceiling made of hemlock tongue-and-groove boards salvaged from the main building project. Customers can sit on cozy benches with built-in storage made of sustainably managed white oak, custom-made by Green Hammer carpenters. Abundant glass windows let sunlight flood into the space.
“Even on cloudy days, this bright space lifts your spirits,” Anh says. “It’s a dream come true.”