Dining • Culinary Shop

Our journey

Motivation to move to Cannon Beach began in early the 1990’s when the owners, Bob Neroni and Lenore Emery first traveled through the beach community on the way to see Lenore’s family in Seattle. After visiting the quaint artsy town, the two daydreamed about the many ways they might live where they loved to visit. And visit they did, every year there after until finally, after building their own beach bungalow in Cannon Beach, they moved in full time spring of 2004.

The idea of opening EVOO was very appealing. Both Bob and Lenore had spent many years teaching or training in the food industry. Both admit that teaching the craft of cooking is one of the most satisfying experiences of their career. When the former little beach cottage became available on the main commercial street in Cannon Beach, their motion to the ocean gained momentum.

The EVOO mission hasn’t changed since we opened in 2004—to create menus and dishes that inspire guests to cook them again at home.  We know the best way to do that is to focus on taste! And the best way to do that is to use the best ingredients we can find. Naturally, local flavors are the place to start.

EVOO events celebrate the PNW bounty of our rivers, ocean, fields, trees and vines and the people who harvest our foods. Chefs Lenore and Bob Neroni invite you to their dinner show in three acts to both entertain and inspire you. In a world where so much food is supersized and/or processed you rediscover the joys of fresh local flavors prepared with simplicity and style. During the show, you’ll notice tips on food safety and sustainability, best practices in your kitchen, wine as a food, and the benefits of a congenial dining environment. Come watch & learn, sip & dine as we showcase foods of the PNW, and challenge you to create more local flavors in your daily life!

Chef Bob Neroni

Bob got his formal education at the Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, New York. But long before he was a graduate of the CIA, it was the influence of his Jewish-Italian family that fostered his love of cooking. Both Bob’s parents loved cooking and were comfortable in the kitchen. His grandfather owned delis in Cleveland where Bob grew up, and his Italian grandparents on his father’s side taught him the family’s Italian favorites. Bob held many prestigious positions as Executive Chef for Lowe’s, L’Enfant Plaza Hotel, Wash DC, The Seattle Sheraton Hotel and Towers, and Marriott Hotels around the country. Both Bob and Lenore became interested in Share Our Strength, an organization started in Wash DC dedicated to eliminating childhood hunger in our country, and they are still involved today. Other interests include fly fishing, hanging out with their poodles, power dining with other foodies, and shopping the farmers markets of the world. After marrying, Lenore and Bob moved back to Lenore’s home town, Seattle, where he worked as executive chef, culinary educator, consultant, and regional director of events and catering for the world’s largest food management company, Compass Group USA. Now that he is back, hands-on in the kitchen, all is right with the world.

Lenore Emery-Neroni

Lenore has been a culinary educator all her life and she still enjoys her teaching role at EVOO. Along with genuine love of hospitality, designing educational experiences is what she enjoys the most. A graduate of the University of Washington and later University of Maryland, Lenore focused on food and nutrition for her degree in education, and taught as a chef-instructor in high school culinary arts for several years in Montgomery county Maryland. Bob was one of the Marriott Corporate executive chef team in Bethesda, Maryland at that time and became a frequent guest chef in Lenore’s classes. She also extended her culinary education by attending Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island during the summers.  After moving back to the Seattle area, Lenore became director of the Children’s Kitchen, a whole foods catering kitchen in Seattle, where her clients were barely two and three years old; she was adjunct faculty in the Nutrition department of Bastry University in Bothell, WA; and she served as adviser and trainer of food safety quality assurance for the food service vendor on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, WA. The choice to be a small business owner-partner at EVOO is both humbling and exhilerating, and the most satisfying endeavor she has done to date.

PICTURE ON THIS PAGE: Taken October 2012 on tour with our guests to Piedmont, Italy.