Images by Luke Allen Wylde
Some of my favorite moments in OK Omens have been before the self-dubbed “wine-focused restaurant” opens for the day. Light pours through large windows, feeding healthy plants and illuminating the well-appointed environs. The din of traffic speeding by the Southeast Portland restaurant dims to a hum, and the space takes on a reverent cathedral-like silence before diners and employees arrive with stories to share. Those quiet times have always been opportunities to show new vintages of wines I had a hand in making to Brent Braun, the co-owner of OK Omens and decorated wine director for Monique Siu’s former juggernaut, Castagna.
Since our first meeting in 2016, I have had the opportunity to grow closer to Brent in our shared industry and partner with him on beverage projects for his Post Familiar wine label over the years. In many ways, writing this piece is as much a love letter to this person I am so incredibly inspired by but also to let those who don’t know him (yet) have some insight into the gem he is in our community. Most of the quotations in this article are from an interview I had the pleasure of doing this summer with Brent inside OK Omens on a sunny July day.
Those lucky enough to know Brent Braun personally are fortunate to enjoy this man who is wonderfully engaged, bright, informed, and not the least bit heavy-handed in his approach to sharing the wealth of knowledge he has amassed about the world of wine he is so enthusiastically passionate about. His partner, Kaitlin, describes him as “the kindest person I have ever met.” She knows him better than anyone, and my limited time with him confirmed her assertion. Kaitlin also says, “What drew us to each other was a common passion for the things we care about, and for Brent, That’s wine.” One look at the OK Omens’ menu shows precisely how intellectually invested Braun is in this topic while making an often intimidating subject feel approachable to all walks of life.
Brent first moved to Portland after college after, in his words, “broadly majoring in history,” around 2009 to pursue music when this town was well known for the scene it was cultivating. He had some success playing the keyboard in a few bands, but like most musicians, he needed to make ends meet while waiting for one of his projects to take off. He started working lunch shifts in local restaurants to play music at night.
Around the age of 22, Brent began working Friday nights at Portland Wine Merchants off of Hawthorne and 35th having established an interest in wine in college via a “hipster” interest at the time. Because of his interest in the “history of intellectual thought,” he found more of an immediate payoff to learning about wine. He said, “Except there’s like this payoff every day of being like, ‘Cool, I just spent a day digging into Barbera. Now, I’m going to go grab a bottle of Barbera and taste it.’”
Bouncing around to different opportunities, a brief stint with a distributor, an urban ersatz tasting room, and industry tastings eventually led him to develop an affinity for Blackbird Wine Shop in the Beaumont-Wilshire neighborhood on Fremont. Andy, the owner and local legend in his own right, was opening another new shop in the Pearl, and Brent jumped at the opportunity to run Blackbird. Braun says of Blackbird, “It’s like everything a great neighborhood shop should be: cheese, charcuterie, dry goods. And it has a neighborhood culture. Andy is still there. He’s built a thing; it’s a really special spot. It gets no hype or anything, but it’s like all homegrown.”
Eventually, he would become the wine director for Castagna and had the career-making role of pairing wines with chef Justin Woodward’s tasting menu. For those who never had the opportunity to see the inside of Castagna and its eponymous Café, there was a soothing richness to the feel of it all that translated through to the service and execution of every detail. The restaurant and café closed during the COVID pandemic, and from that, OK Omens was born, which is still thriving today.
OK Omens is the perfect example of how Braun makes wine more approachable to all walks of life. The uniquely laid out wine list, signature tasting notes that paint vivid images of scents and flavors, and a staff trained to be completely unstuffy all create an equally comfortable and inspiring scene. At the core of whatever Brent touches is a note of warmth and appreciation for those around him.
Throughout our interview about Brent’s humble upbringing in this industry, he focused on the Portland locals who helped him get where he is today. There were far too many to name in this article. Despite being nominated for a James Beard award for his OK Omens wine list, winning the Food & Wine Magazine’s Somm of the Year award, leading the wine program of a restaurant named Portland Magazine’s “Restaurant of the Year,” and much more, Brent has never changed his communityminded approach.
Brent started a wine label with his business partner, Jordan Sowers, several years ago named Post Familiar. This project wasn’t about elevating his name or even a vanity project for someone who could easily have gone the route of many other famous sommeliers. Instead, Post Familiar was born to lift smaller wineries with a barrel or tank of wine with no final destination in mind. Brent and Jordan step in to give these wines new life and prop up those smaller wineries that could use the help.
It’s rare to find individuals in the wine industry who approach it with such altruism. Brent and his business partner, Jordan Sowers, speak with pride about the wines they support through Post Familiar. Their focus on recognizing the value in the family tree and our local restaurant and wine scene is truly admirable.
Brent Braun maintains a constant joy in supporting others. It is an excellent reminder that we are not alone when surrounded by a community that we individually work to uplift.
Ok Omens
1758 SE Hawthorne Blvd
Portland, OR 97214
