Naomi Pomeroy’s business partner on chef’s ‘shocking’ death, plans for Portland bistro

A makeshift memorial of flowers and lemons leans outside Cornet Custard in Southeast Portland on Tuesday.

A makeshift memorial of flowers and lemons leans outside Cornet Custard in Southeast Portland on Tuesday.Michael Russell | The Oregonian

Luke Dirks last saw Naomi Pomeroy late Friday night. The duo were wrapping up one of the first iterations of their Garden Party, a dinner series launched in a secluded Southeast Portland garden near the neighborhood bistro they planned to open this fall.

“We closed this place up together around 1:30 a.m.,” Dirks said. “We were both going to try to take a weekend to be with our families and decompress. We had talked loosely about what we were going to do on the weekend. Both of us had plans to be out in nature. We gave each other a hug and said, ‘See you on Monday.’”

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