Award-winning Portland chef identified as bicyclist killed in crash
By FOX 12 Staff and Drew Marine
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PORTLAND Oregon (KPTV) — The Portland Police Bureau has identified the bicyclist killed Tuesday near Cleveland High School as accomplished Portland chef Sarah Pliner.
At about 11:49 a.m. Tuesday, emergency crews responded to the crash at Southeast Powell Boulevard and Southeast 26th Avenue. Officers arrived to the scene and found Pliner who was hit by a semi-truck. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Pliner came to recognition beginning her career in the ‘90s at local restaurants like the Heathman and Giorgio’s. After leaving the city to work at Michelin-starred restaurants, Pliner returned, opening the now-closed Aviary in the Alberta neighborhood. During her time at Aviary, Pliner was a semi-finalist for the James Beard Award for Best Chef Northwest.
Aviary closed permanently in 2020.
FOX 12 spoke with friends of Pliner who say her death is a huge loss for the restaurant community in Portland.
Her friend tells us Pliner was working at a few places before her death, including at Bluto’s, which closed Wednesday night, saying on social media they’d be taking the night off to begin healing.
“We’re all totally devastated,” says friend Gary Okazaki. “Very few chefs can make pig ears delectable, but she did. She paired it with Chinese sausage and coconut rice. She was incredibly gifted.”
Okazaki knew Pliner and says she was an avid cyclist, biking to work daily in all of Portland’s conditions which is what makes her death especially heartbreaking.
“Rain, snow, ice and it didn’t really seem to matter to her. I had never heard of her getting into an accident over all those years,” Okazaki says. “I just couldn’t imagine this is how she would go.”
Okazaki started as an Aviary guest back in 2011 but became a friend of Sarah’s, who was also part owner.
“I had gone about, probably over 150 times to Aviary and we became friendly and we’d go out to dinner or lunch and talk about our lives.”
He says he’s going to miss her friendship and can’t believe her career and life were cut short.
“I think she had more to say when it came to food.”
The nonprofit Street Trust put out a press release Wednesday demanding the city and ODOT take immediate action to separate bikers and pedestrians from traffic and asking that they put a sign at the intersection saying it’s a high-crash corridor.
Leaders with ODOT tell us they will consider further safety improvements in the area once they learn more about the crash.
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