PORTLAND, Ore. — Former Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch was going to open a new Portland restaurant called Beast, but the name has changed because a local chef already had a popular restaurant with the exact same title.
In September, BPM Real Estate Group said the restaurant Beast by Marshawn Lynch & Kama’aina had taken a long-term lease at Broadway Tower, with plans to open later in the year. It was an apparent play on Lynch’s Beast Mode nickname.
But Portlanders recognized the name from another place: Chef Naomi Pomeroy had opened a restaurant called Beast in Portland years earlier, though it closed in the pandemic.
“It was dismaying this morning to learn that a trio of owners intend to open a restaurant called Beast in downtown Portland,” Pomeroy said in a statement reported by Eater Portland at the time.
“We opened our restaurant Beast in Northeast Portland in 2007. ... We have always been transparent about our intention to reopen Beast in a new space when feasible,” she said in the Eater statement. “The Beast brand remains a great source of pride, for both me and the City of Portland, as we worked for 13 years to build and nurture it, both locally and nationally.”
Now Lynch’s Broadway Tower restaurant goes by the name Beastro. State business records also list it as Beastro by Marshawn Lynch.
The spot, marketed as “a Hawaiian cuisine and sports-themed restaurant,” is located at 1455 S.W. Broadway. It opens at 6:30 a.m. daily.
