From salmon to hippies, from Marché to taco trucks, raise a glass to one rich local food culture

Food is a portrait of the American dream and the American struggle. As the United States commemorates its semiquincentennial, Lookout Eugene-Springfield traced the iconic foods and culinary figures that have shaped Eugene and Lane County — in the past 250 years and beyond. 

The bounty

It’s difficult to condense the nearly 200 crops grown in the Willamette Valley, let alone the abundance of foraged foods, seafood and big game, into one list. Below is a small representation of our region’s biodiversity. 

Chinook salmon

Chinook salmon, the largest Pacific salmon and the official state fish of Oregon since 1961, had to be first on this list. The fat reserves on these black-gummed kings give the meat its ambrosial reputation, among the ranks of a plump filet mignon and a ripe alphonso mango.

Chinook salmon, tender-flaked and juicy, is enjoyed in a variety of ways: hot smoked, canned, candied, oven-baked, seared in a pan. One Indigenous cooking method involves roasting the fish on sharpened sticks over an open fire.

The first humans to eat Chinook salmon were Indigenous peoples: The Kalapuya subsisted off, understood and took care of the Willamette Valley for more than 14,000 years. They foraged for acorns, berries, native hazelnuts and camas roots, hunted seasonally and prescribed burning for sustainable land management. When white settlers arrived in droves in the 1830s and 1840s, they decimated tribes and bands through forced removal, land grabbing and disease.

Chinook salmon populations, too, diminished over the next 150 years due to overfishing and habitat destruction from farming, logging and other industries. By the 1990s, many populations in Oregon were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

Current statewide conservation efforts — including dam removal and harvest limits — help boost fish populations and ensure a sustainable harvest for commercial, recreational and tribal fisheries. The restoration process is slow, and many threats to Chinook salmon habitats persist. This species is a lesson in the delicate balance of the natural world, and the importance of stewarding the land and waters from which you take.

Hazelnuts (filberts)

The Oregon hazelnut we know today — the one responsible for 99% of the United States’ hazelnut crop output — was a European cultivar. In 1858, an English sailor named Sam Strickland planted the Pacific Northwest’s first hazelnut tree in Scottsburg, according to Oregon State University.

As of 2022, there were about 4,000 acres of commercial hazelnuts in Lane County. As for its Oregon nickname, filbert: That came from either the German term vollbart, meaning “full beard” after its appearance, or the French settler Saint Philibert, whose feast day of Aug. 20 aligns with the start of hazelnut harvest in Europe, per OSU.

Wild mushrooms

Fungi are the unicorns of the forest. In our valley, you’ll find (if you’re lucky) morels, porcini, lobster, matsutake, golden chanterelles (the state mushroom) and black truffles. All elusive, prized and delicious in their own right. Foragers tend to keep their most bountiful locations a secret; it is a learned skill, after all, and no one wants an overharvested patch.

To paraphrase the American poet Mary Oliver, if you have ever gone into the woods with a forager friend, they must love you very much. A warning: If you’re just getting started, do not forage without an expert. Guided walks and local mycological clubs make for a safe introduction to foraging, i.e., lowering your chances of ingesting one of the area’s toxic fungi, some of which closely resemble our edible friends.

Dungeness crab

Oregon’s official state crustacean is the sweet, slightly nutty and very meaty Dungeness crab. The Northwest delicacy is a staple of fish markets across Lane County, and when the cold weather hits, cracking into the first crab of the season is a holiday tradition in restaurants and households alike.

They also represent the grit and determination of Oregon crab fishers, who battle grueling hours and frigid conditions, the physical toll of hauling 100-pound traps, the unpredictability of buyers, regulations and weather. Crabbing, particularly for Dungeness, is among the most dangerous, lucrative and demanding industries in the United States.

Marionberries

An agricultural darling of the Willamette Valley, marionberries are a raspberry-blackberry hybrid (specifically, the olallieberry and Chehalem blackberry). Building on the region’s budding berry industry, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Oregon State University developed them in the mid-20th century.

Like the Willamette Valley’s many wine grape varieties, marionberries thrive in our region’s milder climate because it allows them to grow more slowly and thus fully develop their natural sugars, resulting in a tart-sweet balance ideal for pies, ice cream, jam, even barbecue sauce and other savory applications.

Come late summer, they’re best enjoyed straight from local farmers markets with a side of cabernet-stained fingers. These berries are too fragile to be shipped fresh, making them a true local delicacy. 

Natural food movement

The 1960s and 1970s marked the dawn of America’s counterculture movement: anti-war protests, environmentalism, the rejection of capitalism and the fight for civil rights. During that period, the Willamette Valley also helped drive the natural food movement, moving toward ingredients that were organic, nourishing, gut-healthy and close to the earth.

From Organically Grown Company and Oregon Tilth to Camas Country Mill, this region continues to produce and certify healthy, sustainably grown and harvested foods. Eugene in particular was the epicenter of many natural food business launches, including So Delicious Dairy Free and Yogi Tea.

Nancy’s Yogurt 

In 1969, a bookkeeper named Nancy Van Brasch Hamren introduced her grandmother’s yogurt recipe to Springfield Creamery founders Sue and Chuck Kesey. A year later, the creamery became the first U.S. company to add live probiotics to yogurt for gut health and strong immune systems. Nancy’s Yogurt was made more iconic by The Grateful Dead in 1972, when the band played a benefit concert for Springfield Creamery, which had been struggling financially at the time. That day, with thousands of people jamming at a venue in Veneta, Deadhead culture saved probiotic culture.

Chuck and Sue Kesey both died in 2025. Alongside Van Brasch Hamren, the trio were the probiotic yogurt trailblazers of the natural food movement. Nancy’s Probiotic Food continues to be independent and family-owned, and its basic yogurt ingredient list remains small: organic pasteurized milk and a host of live cultures.

Yumm! Sauce

Ah, Yumm! Sauce. An out-of-state visitor might furrow their brows and say, “You mean, yum yum sauce?” But locals know this creamy, nondairy condiment as the unofficial signature sauce of Eugene.

Developed by Mary Ann Beauchamp in the 1990s, Yumm! Sauce rode on the heels of the natural food movement, propelling a mom-and-pop cafe into a national, multimillion-dollar company. The versatile vegan sauce has that umami, cheesy-with-a-z punch from the nutritional yeast and gets its thickness from a blend of almonds, beans and oil.

Drinks

Coffee, beer and wine are now synonymous with Pacific Northwest culture, particularly in the Willamette Valley. 

Coffee

Since Lane County was established in 1851, coffee has fueled a motley crew of loggers, anglers, farmers, students, healthcare workers, hippies and activists. The area underwent an artisan coffee boom in the last few decades, boasting coffeehouses that roast their beans in-house (often in small batches), execute precise brewing ratios, ethically source their beans and pay farmers equitably, often above Fair Trade standards. 

“It’s a very American beverage, because most of the coffee that we enjoy comes from the Americas,” said Joe Harrison, the head roaster and one of three co-founders at Farmers Union Coffee Roasters. The Eugene-based coffeehouse sources many of its beans from small farms along the “Coffee Belt” in Guatemala, Costa Rica, Colombia and Brazil

Pinot noir

In 1961, when Richard Sommer opened the state’s first post-Prohibition winery, no one thought of Oregon as a wine destination. But Sommer saw the lush rolling hills and ideal climate and planted European-style grapes at Hillcrest Vineyard in the Umpqua Valley.

In 1965, David Lett planted the first pinot noir vine in the Willamette Valley. Now, more than 1,000 vineyards dot the valley (including one of the state’s largest, King Estate), producing award-winning pinot noir, chardonnay, gamay, riesling and other varieties.

Craft beer

Oregon is a beer drinker’s haven, thanks to the many hop varieties grown in the Willamette Valley. And since the passage of Oregon’s landmark Brewpub Bill in 1985, brewers have been able to manufacture and sell their beer on site, which transformed the craft beer drinking scene.

In 2006, Jamie Floyd and Nikos Ridge leased a space in Springfield to brew the first batch of Ninkasi beer, Total Domination, a piney, intensely citrusy Northwest take on an IPA. Those Northwest IPAs, alongside funky wild ales and European-style lagers, cemented Oregon’s place in the global craft beer scene.

From the late 20th century pioneers of McMenamins and Steelhead to Alesong’s barrel-aged brews and beer-wine hybrids and the low-alcohol ale options at Drop Bear, our local craft beer scene continues to change and innovate. 

Places, dishes, people

Lane County’s food and dining scene has been shaped by pioneers, immigrants, hippies, artisans and people devoted to celebrating the dishes of their ancestors and cultures.

Marché

Out of all the restaurants in Lane County, Marché’s name pops up the most. Maybe it’s because the Eugene institution received a James Beard nod in 2019 for Outstanding Restaurant — the first in Lane County. Or that its founder, Stephanie Kimmel, was a Best Chef Northwest finalist. Perhaps it’s that Kimmel has been a chef for more than 50 years.

Excelsior Café, the first restaurant Kimmel opened when she was 27, was also revolutionary at the time for both Eugene and Oregon, with its espresso machine, curated list of Oregon wines (a still-budding industry back in the ’70s), housemade baguettes and salade Niçoise and other French classics.

But maybe, and finally, Marché has become a household name because it is a stopover for many of the area’s preeminent chefs, restaurant owners and bakers. Those include Crystal Platt and Kirsten Hansen, who opened their first restaurant, Lion & Owl, after they met and fell in love while working at Marché. 

Then there’s Rocky Maselli, a chef who brought Italian influences to Marché for 12 years before opening Osteria DOP, in 2020. And Isaiah Martinez, who worked at Kimmel’s restaurant when he launched his Caribbean food cart-turned-restaurant Yardy Rum Bar and later received a James Beard nod.

“They came, and they learned some basics, learned the joy of doing the work, of making a restaurant and creating their own culture around that,” Kimmel said. “It makes me kind of like a mom, and I love that.” 

Fried chicken

If the United States had a mascot for its diverse cuisines, fried chicken would be it. The dish began in the American South and has since been adapted by restaurants and foodways around the country (and world). Lane County alone boasts many: Korean fried wings (both crisp and sticky glaze) at Tiger Mama and Cluckin Dog, Hey Y’all’s fried chicken biscuit sandwich straight from Tennessee, the Caribbean-spiced, pan-fried plate at Yardy Rum Bar, the Japanese pub Izakaya Jinsei’s light-crisp chicken karaage, the buttermilk-brined and hand-breaded fried chicken sandwich special at Styr Kurbside Kitchen. From the dredge to the brine, frying technique to cut, fried chicken has many variations, but a few requirements unite the dish across borders and language: juicy, well-seasoned meat and a shattering crust. 

Food truck tacos

In Oregon, the American dream often fits into an 18-foot truck equipped with air fryers and a griddle. Offering everything from Chinese street snacks to Hawaiian barbecue plates, mobile eats have exploded in Eugene-Springfield over the last 15 years.

Mexican food, and tacos in particular, is among the most popular offerings. Tacos are an everyman food: affordable, street-friendly and of many styles and strong opinions. Jesús and Julia Fernandez opened their Mexican food trailer, El Tío, last year in Eugene.

The couple immigrated from Puebla, Mexico, to California in the early 2000s. At the time, the American dream meant making a sustainable wage by working long hours at chain restaurants. But after more than 20 years in the food industry, the Fernandezes took another risk: They left their jobs and home to open a Mexican food trailer hundreds of miles away in Eugene. Julia Fernandez makes the salsas and marinades from scratch, just as her mom taught her in Puebla.

“She doesn’t want to lose that touch or make it any different, you know?” said her daughter, Liz Fernandez. “You’re getting that flavor, you’re getting those chunks in the salsas. It just tastes so good.”