Today we’d like to introduce you to Joey Gibson.
Hi Joey, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’ve spent my career in kitchens, and over the years, my approach to cooking has been shaped by a love of technique, a respect for ingredients, and the satisfaction of making things from scratch. I’ve always been drawn to food that’s thoughtful and creative without being overly complicated or pretentious.
My wife, Stacey, has spent her career in the wine industry as a sommelier and wine director. Between the two of us, we’ve spent most of our adult lives working in restaurants, and food and wine have always been a big part of our life together. We’d talked for years about opening something of our own, a place where we could combine our different backgrounds and create the kind of restaurant we’d want to spend time in ourselves. Eventually, that idea became Parallel Food & Drink in Portland, Oregon.
The concept behind Parallel is a little different from a traditional restaurant. Instead of creating a menu and then choosing wines to complement the dishes, we often start with the wine and work backward. Stacey selects wines that she’s excited about, and I create dishes that bring out something interesting in each one. It’s a collaborative process that pushes both of us creatively and has led to some combinations we might never have explored otherwise.
For me, Parallel has also been an opportunity to cook the way I want to cook. I love traditional techniques, particularly things like sausage making, but I also enjoy playing with unexpected ingredients, flavors, and cultural influences. Our menu is constantly evolving, and I think that freedom to experiment is one of the most rewarding parts of what we do.
Of course, there’s a big difference between dreaming about opening a restaurant together and actually doing it. We’re not just business partners. We’re married, we’re raising a daughter, and we’re trying to balance all of that with the demands of owning a small restaurant. Food and wine have always been what brought us together professionally and creatively, but Parallel has given us a chance to build something around those shared passions. It hasn’t always been easy, and we certainly don’t agree on everything, but I think our different perspectives are part of what makes the restaurant interesting.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I don’t think anyone who has opened an independent restaurant in the last few years would describe it as a smooth road. We’ve both spent most of our careers in hospitality, so we went into this with a pretty realistic understanding of how demanding the industry can be. But there’s a big difference between managing someone else’s restaurant and being responsible for absolutely every aspect of your own.
One of the biggest challenges has been learning how to balance the creative side of what we do with the realities of running a small business. We opened Parallel because we love food, wine, and hospitality, but suddenly we were also responsible for bookkeeping, marketing, maintenance, staffing, and a hundred other things that have nothing to do with why we fell in love with restaurants in the first place. And in an industry where margins are already incredibly thin, the rising costs of food, labor, and just about everything else have made that balancing act even more difficult.
We’ve also had to learn to adapt. The restaurant we operate today isn’t exactly the restaurant we imagined when we first opened, and I think that’s probably a good thing. We’ve experimented with different offerings, expanded into brunch, and continued to figure out what works for our guests and what makes sense for us as a business. Some ideas have worked, others haven’t, and we’ve had to get comfortable with that.
On a personal level, owning a restaurant with your spouse while raising a family adds another layer to everything. It’s difficult to leave work at work when the business belongs to both of you. There are plenty of nights when we’re still talking about menus, staffing, or finances long after we should have stopped working. We’re still figuring out how to create boundaries around that. But we still like hanging out with each other and are celebrating our 15 year wedding anniversary soon, so we’re doing something right so far.
As you know, we’re big fans of Parallel. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
I’m the chef and co-owner of Parallel Food & Drink, where I have the freedom to cook food that’s rooted in traditional techniques but doesn’t necessarily follow traditional rules. Our menu is constantly changing, and I draw inspiration from a wide range of cuisines, ingredients, and cooking styles. I don’t feel particularly compelled to define my cooking by one specific cuisine. I’m more interested in what tastes good, what makes sense together, and what might surprise someone.
One of the things I particularly enjoy is making things from scratch. Sausage making has become something of a specialty for me, and we’ve featured everything from traditional Käsekrainer served with spätzle, roasted cabbage, and apples to duck sausage with cassoulet beans, fennel, and cherries. I love the process of taking something with a long culinary history, learning the techniques behind it, and then finding ways to make it my own.
Our hush puppies with uni honey butter are probably one of the dishes we’re best known for. They were recognized by Michael Russell of The Oregonian as one of his 25 best dishes of 2025, which was a particularly exciting moment for us. I think they’re a good example of how I like to cook: taking something familiar and comforting and introducing an unexpected element that makes it a little more interesting.
What really sets Parallel apart, though, is the relationship between the kitchen and the wine program. Because Stacey and I approach the menu collaboratively, I’m often developing dishes around wines rather than the other way around. That can be a really interesting creative challenge. Sometimes a wine will lead me toward an ingredient or a preparation I might not otherwise have considered, and sometimes we end up with a pairing that surprises both of us.
I’m proud that we’ve created a restaurant where we can take food and wine seriously without taking ourselves too seriously. I want people to feel comfortable coming in for a glass of wine and a snack, but I also want someone who loves food to find something on the menu that genuinely excites them. I think there’s room for a lot of creativity between those two things.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I think I’ve always been comfortable taking creative risks, but opening a restaurant has given me a completely different understanding of what it means to take a risk.
As a chef, taking risks is part of what makes the work interesting. I like experimenting with ingredients, techniques, and flavor combinations, and I’m not particularly afraid of trying something that might not work. Sometimes the best dishes come from an idea that seems a little strange at first. In the kitchen, the stakes are relatively low. If something doesn’t work, you learn from it, make adjustments, and try again.
Opening Parallel with my wife was a very different kind of risk. We both had established careers in hospitality, and deciding to put our time, money, and energy into building something of our own was a huge leap. We weren’t just taking a chance professionally. We were making a decision that would affect our entire family.
I think one of the things we’ve learned is that there’s a difference between taking a calculated risk and being able to control the outcome. You can have decades of experience, a concept you believe in, and a willingness to work incredibly hard, but there are still so many factors outside your control. The economics of running an independent restaurant are challenging, and sometimes even good decisions don’t produce the results you hoped for.
My perspective on risk has definitely evolved. I still believe that taking chances is important, and I don’t think we would have created something as distinctive as Parallel if we’d always chosen the safest option. But I’m also much more conscious of what we’re risking and who is affected by those decisions. There’s a certain freedom in taking creative risks, but when you’re responsible for a business, your employees, and your family, you have to think about risk differently.
I don’t regret taking the chance to build something of our own, but I have a much greater appreciation now for the difference between having the courage to take a risk and knowing when a risk is worth taking.
Pricing:
- Hush Puppies with Uni Honey Butter | $12
- Blind Wine Tasting Flight (3 mystery wines) | $18
- House-Made Käsekrainer Sausage with Spätzle, Roasted Cabbage & Apples | $22
- Paired Up Five-Course Tasting Menu | $65 per person
- Optional Wine Pairings for the Tasting Menu | $35
Contact Info:
- Website: https://parallelpdx.com
- Instagram: @parallelfoddanddrink
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/parallelfoodanddrink
