About Us
Astera is a love poem to Oregon’s vinified, farmed and foraged created by Chef Aaron Adams. We offer a multiple course tasting menu built on flavors utilizing classic and modern techniques with an emphasis on local and seasonal and sustainable.
Astera inhabits a historic brick building in the Buckman neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. Our kitchen utilizes craft fermentation techniques in novel ways to accentuate our cuisine, including the production of interesting misos, shoyus, vegetable ferments, koji charcuterie, vegan cheesemaking, water kefir, and kombucha.
Our service
We offer service Thursday through Sunday from 5pm to 9pm. Each dish is made to build on and transition to the next. We encourage conversation and engagement with our guests. We eschew the stuffiness often associated with fine dining and instead offer a friendly and energetic hospitality.
We offer a wine, beer, cider, and temperance list featuring many local makers.
We are proud to serve our cuisine on pottery made by Aaron Dick, Steve Kelly, Careen Stoll, and Alexandria Cummings.
Farms And Foragers
We source our produce direct from local farms and the farmer’s markets. Most of our produce comes from Groundwork Organics Farm, Gathering Together Farm, Sunrise Organic Farm, and Campo Collective. Additionally, we grow many of the herbs and some vegetables and fruits for our service in our own garden.
We are committed to represent our region by utilizing farmers that employ sustainable practices.
ZERO WASTE & Carbon sequesTration
We are always striving to reduce our waste to zero. In this effort, we continue to learn how to utilize vegetable waste into new opportunities for flavor. This is mostly achieved through drying, fermenting, and culturing with the remainder being composted.
We also collect 1% of sales and donate to Zero Food Print. ZFP offers grants to supply farmers the funds they need for regenerative agriculture projects, ensuring healthy soil build up and in turn sequestering carbon from the atmosphere. As programs like ZFP grow, we can restore our soil, one meal at a time.
Animal WELFARE
To do a small part for the welfare of local farm animals, we are donating a portion of sales to Lighthouse Sanctuary each month. Lighthouse Sanctuary, located in Scio, Oregon, allows animals to roam on their 54 acres with a second lease on life after being saved from their existence as farm animals.
Chef and Owner
Aaron Adams Casañas
Born in Livermore, California, and growing up in Hayward, Aaron spent most of his youth exploring The Bay Area, watching cooking shows on KQED public television, putting on dinner parties for his pals, and dreaming of some day being a chef.
After a move to Seattle in the early 90s, Aaron started his career washing dishes at a steak house. From these beginnings he worked his way through different positions in various kitchens until his move to Guam in 1996, where he worked at the Westin Resort as a chef de partie. From there, he went to Johnson and Wales, graduating in 1998, before moving to New York to work as a saucier at Park Avenue Cafe.
After his time in New York, working at Park Ave but spending time staging in other fine kitchens, he moved to Jacksonville, Florida to open his first restaurant, Spontane.
Longing for the west coast, Aaron took the opportunity of his brother moving to raise a family and joined him in Portland, Oregon. It is in Portland that he has felt most at home, deciding this was the place to build his life.
After opening some of Portland’s most well known vegan establishments, including Portobello, Farm Spirit, and Fermenter, Chef Aaron opened Astera in 2024. Astera has been been the culmination of all of his passions, binging together a team of talented and passionate folks to execute the vision: the elevation of local, seasonal produce with a service that feels sophisticated and personal.
MAÎTRE’D HÔTEL
MONTANA ZARDEN-BENSON
Hailing from Wisconsin and raised in the hard working carpentry business of his parents, Montana learned the value of quality and craftsmanships at an early age.
Whether working in the coffee world to plying his current trade in fine dining service, Montana has continually strived to offer his own unique and personal take while demonstrating a reverence for the classic points of service.
With stages at world acclaimed restaurants Benu and Atelier Crenn to his eventual position as service captain at Matt Lightner’s celebrated ōkta, Montana brings an unparalleled passion for service to Astera.
EXEC SOUS CHEF
SEBASTIAN MORRIS
Sebastian leads the kitchen team at Astera, upholding our standards for excellence, zero waste, & high level vegetable cookery. He provides leadership to the kitchen team, working closely with Chef Aaron developing the ever evolving menu.
Born and raised in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Sebastian grew up loving food, with dreams of being a chef watching shows like Hell's Kitchen and Chopped. He started cooking at the age of 10 in his aunt’s 24-hour diner and was instantly hooked. Since then, Sebastian has worked his way through kitchens in California, Washington DC, and Denver before joint Astera here in Portland
Sebastian is driven by his love of food, a pursuit for excellence, and a passion for zero waste. He is dedicated to offering memorable experiences to our guests every night while furthering the art of vegetable cookery.
And while cooking is his career passion, his true passion lies with his beautiful and wonderful partner, Hannah “Banana” Hartzheim, for whom he plans to spend the rest of their glorious life together raising many beautiful and perfect babies along with their puppy Nandor.