Today we’d like to introduce you to Brett Meyer.
Hi Brett, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
We used to say that opening a restaurant was our retirement plan, generally as a joke after a dinner party when someone asked why we didn’t have one already. As our careers in tech became more impersonal — all Zoom meetings and AI — we decided that moving into a field that required human connection would be more rewarding.
But this wasn’t just a random urge. Brett started cooking as a pre-teen, as his mother Linda made sure he and his sister had kitchen skills by having them cook family dinners once a week. After we — Brett and Melissa — met in college, cooking became an obsession; we liked good food but didn’t have much money, so we learned to make all sorts of things. We’ve cooked for big groups of friends for decades, and from that, started doing pop-ups in Portland and Astoria before opening Civil as booth at the Astoria Sunday Market in 2024.
Over the years, we’ve been lucky enough to eat all over the world, from big cauldrons of stew on the side of dirt roads in West Africa to 20+ course tasting menus in Barcelona, Tokyo, and Portland. We love food and we’re thrilled that we’ve found a place in Astoria that we can use to share that with others.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Smoother than we expected! It did take a full year to find a physical space, and then we had to figure out how to turn it into a functioning restaurant, in terms of kitchen layout, systems, and — somewhat unexpectedly — storage. Without a lot of refrigeration or freezer space, we pretty much start over every week. That does help us keep everything fresh!
Anytime we did encounter a problem or a question, however, we always had somebody to ask. Friends and colleagues from Buoy, Fede, the North Coast Food Web, Obelisk Beer Co, Fort George Distribution and more were always happy and available to answer questions, provide help, and in some cases, even give us equipment to help get us off the ground. We have a wonderfully supportive community here. Without that, we’re sure we would have encountered more struggles along the way.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Civil is a small restaurant in the old YMCA building in Astoria, Oregon. We combine local and regional ingredients with flavors and techniques from the Mediterranean, inspired and informed by Brett’s experience growing up in Spain and Morocco.
We settled on the name Civil in part as a play on the British pronunciation of the Spanish city Sevilla (or Seville), but also informed by our hope that people can be nicer to one another. Our food is meant to be shared and we strive to create an atmosphere of conviviality, like a Spanish taverna, where everyone chats and connects over something delicious.
What matters most to you?
We believe good, local, healthy food should be accessible to everyone. We’re not a farm-to-table restaurant, but we do try to source as many local ingredients as we can while keeping our menu affordable. We’ve been lucky enough to try a lot of interesting, sometimes challenging, flavors in our lives, from so many different cultures and food traditions. We hope to share some part of those experiences with our community without the associated travel and budgetary constraints.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.civilastoria.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/civilastoria/
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/share/1KNVEZm8iS
- Other: https://www.opentable.com/r/civil-astoria
