# Javelina (restaurant)

Javelina is a restaurant in Portland, Oregon, United States. Chef Alexa Numkena-Anderson and her husband Nicholas Numkena-Anderson launched the business as a pop-up in November 2023, initially serving meals at Morchella in northeast Portland's Sabin neighborhood. The residency Oraibi by Javelina is slated to operate at Kolectivo from mid December 2024 to February 2025. Javelina began operating at Lil' Dame in January 2025. It serves pre-colonial and post-colonial cuisine such as tacos with frybread. It is the city's only Native American restaurant, as of 2023.

## Description

The restaurant Javelina serves pre-colonial and post-colonial cuisine. The menu includes frybread tacos with beef chili, shredded cheese, salsa, and sour cream, as well as potato soup with bacon, corn, and green chilis. The powwow (or pow wow) burger has a beef patty with American cheese, lettuce, and onion between two pieces of frybread, as well as "tombstone sauce", which mixes ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard, Secret Aardvark hot sauce, and Hatch green chiles.
According to Street Roots, the Three Sisters Baked Potato is "a nod to the Indigenous method of farming beans, corn and squash together so they grow in harmony". The dish has roasted sweet potato with butternut squash, cranberries, herbs, refried hominy, quinoa, white beans, and maple chard butter. Javelina also serves huckleberries, Sonoran hot dogs, and frybread with cinnamon, sugar, and honey.
Javelina's logo depicts a rainbow-colored javelina, a pig-like ungulate.

## History

Javelina was launched by chef Alexa Numkena-Anderson (Cree, Hopi, Skokomish, and Yakama) and her husband Nicholas Numkena-Anderson, who manages front-of-house operations. The restaurant's menu reflects her Indigenous and Mexican heritage. The restaurant's first meal was served at Morchella, in northeast Portland's Sabin neighborhood, on November 12, 2023. Javelina sold out of food on the first day and during multiple subsequent pop-ups through the end of the year. The business is among several Indigenous-owned and operated restaurants in the Pacific Northwest serving Native American cuisines in recent years, and has been described as Portland's only Native American restaurant.
Javelina has been a vendor at the Indigenous Marketplace. In 2024, Javelina was featured on Oregon Public Broadcasting's food series Superabundant.
In November 2024, owners announced plans to host the residency Oraibi by Javelina at Kolectivo in southeast Portland from mid December until February 2025. Javelina moved into a brick and mortar location at Lil' Dame on January 23, 2025. The restaurant will operate via counter service until February 8, when the "multi-course dinner concept" Inɨ́sha (which translate to "my daughter" in Yakama) will launch. According to Eater Portland, Inɨ́sha will use ingredients native to North America. The restaurant plans two seating for 22 people each, available by ticketed reservations only. In March, owners announced plans to leave Lil' Dame early and relocate to Northeast 42nd Avenue in the Cully neighborhood in May.

## Reception

Oregon Public Broadcasting has said that Javelina "blends Indigenous comfort foods and non-colonial ingredients creating a uniquely Indigenous fine dining experience". Andrea Damewood included Javelina in the Portland Mercury's overview of the "best bites" from restaurants and pop-ups in Portland in 2023. She said, "The whole menu is great, but the Pow Wow burger is the stand out for me", adding that the burger's frybread "elevates the decadence without going over the top".