Friday, July 8, 2022 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com • A5
Newman, owner of Newman’s at 988,
remembered as an infl uential chef and mentor
Restaurant owner
died in crash
‘JOHN
NEWMAN WAS
A CHERISHED
RESTAURATEUR
WHO ACTUALLY
HELPED
DEVELOP,
TO ME, THE
QUALITY OF
RESTAURANTS
THAT WE HAVE
IN TOWN
BECAUSE
HE COOKED
AT SEVERAL
OF THEM
THROUGHOUT
HIS CAREER
HERE, CREATED
HIS OWN AND
BEYOND.’
By ERICK BENGEL
The Astorian
John Newman, the owner
of Newmans at 988 in Can-
non Beach, was remem-
bered by friends and fam-
ily as an infl uential chef
and mentor with a generous
spirit.
Newman, 58, of Pacifi c
City, died in a car crash
in Tillamook County. He
was driving west on Ore-
gon Highway 130, went off
the road and struck a utility
pole. His vehicle went into
a river near Little Nestucca
County Park, according to
Oregon State Police. The
submerged vehicle was
reported on June 20.
Bob Neroni, who owns
EVOO, a recreational cook-
ing school and restaurant
in Cannon Beach, with his
wife said, “We’re all kind of
in a mortifi ed, surreal state
right now. Just can’t believe
it.”
The Astorian named
Newman’s fi ne dining eat-
ery, which served French
and Italian cuisine, “Restau-
rant of the Year” for 2006,
the year the midtown estab-
lishment opened. Before
that, Newman was the exec-
utive chef at the Stephanie
Inn in Cannon Beach.
Chris Holen, the chef
and owner of Nekst Event
and former owner of Baked
Alaska in Astoria, called
Newman one of the most
infl uential chefs on the Ore-
gon Coast in a generation.
“Every chef worth his salt
in Clatsop County has been
touched by John Newman at
one point or another,” Holen
said.
Newman’s wife, Sandy,
said in a message that he
was the love of her life.
They met in college on Cal-
ifornia’s central coast and
would have celebrated 30
years of marriage in Octo-
ber, she said.
On June 21, Cannon
Beach Mayor Sam Steidel
remembered Newman at a
City Council meeting.
“John Newman was a
cherished restaurateur who
actually helped develop, to
me, the quality of restau-
rants that we have in town
because he cooked at sev-
eral of them throughout his
career here, created his own
and beyond,” Steidel said.
Geoff Gunn, the execu-
tive chef and general man-
ager of Bridgewater Bistro
in Astoria, has been talking
with area chefs in the wake
of Newman’s death.
“We thought that he
would just outlast every-
one,” Gunn said. “His soul
was just bigger than life,
and it’s a huge hit to the
community and the culinary
world.”
In his profession, New-
man was remembered as
ambitious yet humble. Inso-
far as he competed with his
fellow chefs, he did so with
aff ection.
And Newman respected
their work.
Peter Roscoe, the founder
of Fulio’s in Astoria, said,
“If he was going to borrow
a recipe, he wouldn’t just
do it. He’d call up and say,
‘Hey, I’m thinking of put-
ting this on the menu — is it
OK with you?’ Of course it
always was.”
Neroni said Newman was
“always there as a resource
and just always gave.He was
not just an incredible culi-
narian, but just an incredible
individual.”
Newman learned his craft
globally. An alum of New
York’s Culinary Institute of
America, he also studied on
Oahu in Hawaii and worked
in Europe, according to his
restaurant’s website.
On the North Coast,
Newman became a men-
tor for young chefs, open-
ing doors for people pursu-
ing careers in the restaurant
industry.
Newman once asked
Holen to join him as a cook
at the James Beard House in
New York City. For a chef to
— Sam Steidel, Cannon
Beach mayor
Our Coast
Sous chef Dru Shaff er with chef John Newman in 2021.
be invited to ply his or her
trade at that house, which
Newman did several times,
is “one of the biggest honors
you can have,” Holen said.
“It was John’s way of
presenting what the North-
west has to off er to the world
on the biggest culinary stage
in the country,” Holen said,
“and it was a really big deal
for us.”
As a board member of
United Way of Clatsop
County, Newman helped
found the Iron Chef Goes
Coastal competition, a fund-
raiser that raised many thou-
sands of dollars annually for
the nonprofi t, which serves
struggling individuals and
families. He won the com-
petition several times.
Newman served as a chef
and culinary consultant at
Cannon Beach Conference
Center and as an instructor
at Tongue Point Job Corps
Center and Seaside High
School. Under his tute-
lage, his Seaside students
cooked competitively on the
national level.
Newman’s friend, John
Sowa, the executive chef
at Silver Salmon Grille
and former Cannon Beach
restaurateur, was impressed
by how Newman — with his
business, teaching and other
activities — extended him-
self in the community.
“I couldn’t fi gure out
how he could do as much
as he did in a given day, and
still go surfi ng,” Sowa said.
Newman was indeed a
passionate surfer. “We’d
always say, ‘Oh, where’s
John?’” Gunn said. A com-
mon answer: “He’s at a
‘board’ meeting.”
Newman’s older brother,
Matt Newman, who lives
in Chicago, recalled grow-
ing up in a family with six
children in the 1960s. He
said his parents got divorced
and that their mother, an art-
ist, traveled for her work.
Matt Newman said his
brother overcame a tricky
childhood, moving through
numerous new schools and
with little money.
“To me, the fact that he
has just a humble and pos-
itive demeanor in spite of
the challenging obstacles
is truly amazing,” he said.
“You know, so many people
break and they don’t get up
from those situations.”
Matt Newman didn’t
realize the extent of his
brother’s infl uence until
reading online comments
after his death.
Jonathan Hoff man, the
owner of The Nest Bakery
in Warrenton and Dough
Dough Bakery in Seaside,
said Newman could take
people that no other estab-
lishment wanted or thought
they could use, people
who got overlooked by the
industry, and turn them into
professionals.
“He could take a monkey
into his kitchen and train
them to make amazing food
like he did,” Hoff man said.
The number of people he
did that with, who are still in
the community doing what
Newman taught them, is
part of his legacy. The next
person who will fi ll that
role will be diffi cult to fi nd,
Hoff man said.
When Gunn was living
in Hillsboro and decided
to relocate to the coast, he
called Newman, whom he
had met at a cooking com-
petition. Newman got Gunn
an interview with Martin
Hospitality, which owns the
Stephanie Inn.
“I always told him he
was the best chef that I’ve
ever known,” Gunn said.
“And then he would look at
me and say, ‘No, no, no —
you’re the best chef that I’ve
ever known.’”
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