Oregon’s ōkta restaurant takes farm-to-table one step further

The ōkta farm would be easy to miss if you weren’t looking for it. Tucked among dozens of vineyards about 15 miles outside of McMinnville, Oregon, the former cherry orchard sits at the top of Ribbon Ridge, giving full view of a rainy and overcast day.

“Okta is a British meteorology measurement. It’s eight grades [indicated by] circles, so the more the circle is filled in, the more cloud cover there is,” said Christine Langelier, the general manager of ōkta and Tributary Hotel, a boutique hotel and tasting menu restaurant that’s the brainchild of Katie Jackson and Shaun Kajiwara, both vineyard owners in Sonoma County, California, and Michelin-starred chef Matthew Lightner. “So today — a beautiful rainy day here in the Pacific Northwest — would be eight okta, a perfectly sunny day would be zero okta.”