Produce Row Café

Produce Row Café
Produce Row Café
	The restaurant's exterior in 2020
Restaurant information
Established	1974
Food type	Pacific Northwest
Street address	204 Southeast Oak Street
City	Portland
County	Multnomah
State	Oregon
Postal/ZIP Code	97214-1018
Country	United States
Coordinates	45°31′12″N 122°39′49″W / 45.51994°N 122.663495°W
Website	producerowcafe.com

Produce Row Café, or Produce Row, is a restaurant and craft beer bar in Portland, Oregon's Buckman neighborhood, in the United States.

Description

In 2016, Martin Cizmar of Willamette Week wrote, "Before it closed in 2014, Produce Row was a 40-year tradition of beer and music—home to multiple generations of Portland's music scene, going from the de facto homebase of Portland's pre-millennial indie-rock crowd to an unlikely IDM/EDM hang in the 2000s, before being revamped in 2008 into a New Portland beer hall and unlikely patio DJ hub—hosting international hip-hop night the Do-Over."^[2]

History

Signage for the cafe in 2017

The building was built in 1951 and opened as a breakfast café for produce dockworkers in 1953; it was also a barbershop at one point.^[3] Produce Row originally opened in 1953 as a breakfast café for the produce dockworkers.^[4]

Mike McMenamin had worked as a sandwich maker in college and was interested in a career in the food industry; after graduating from Oregon State University with a degree in political science in 1974, he and two college friends bought the landmark Produce Row Café, which was Portland's warehouse and wholesale district.^[5] The brothers sold "The Row" to the employees in 1978.^[6]

It was purchased by Alan Davis in the 2000s. In 2014, Produce Row closed after operating for more than forty years.^[7]^[8]

In 2015, Davis sold Produce Row to Josh Johnston and James Hall, who reopened the restaurant and bar in May 2015.^[9]

References

^ "Produce Row Café". Portland Monthly. Archived from the original on 2022-02-22. Retrieved 2022-02-22.
^ Cizmar, Martin (2016-05-10). "Produce Row Cafe". Willamette Week. Archived from the original on 2021-06-20. Retrieved 2022-02-22.
^ Chilson, John (2010-06-10). "Produce Row Cafe: Rebirth of the cool". Lost Oregon. Archived from the original on 2021-03-02. Retrieved 2021-02-06.
^ "Produce Row Cafe". Willamette Week. Archived from the original on 2022-02-22. Retrieved 2021-02-06.
^ Waterbury, Margarett (2018-04-27). "Vision and Versatility: The Story of McMenamins". Spirited Magazine. Archived from the original on 2021-03-01. Retrieved 2021-02-06.
^ "Thebeerchaser". Thebeerchaser. Archived from the original on 2021-01-24. Retrieved 2021-02-06.
^ Russell, Michael (2014-09-02). "Produce Row Cafe closing after 40 years in SE Portland". The Oregonian. Archived from the original on 2016-03-11. Retrieved 2016-02-24.
^ Russell, Michael (2014-09-05). "Produce Row Cafe owner says shuttered bar 'might go on,' but not on his watch". The Oregonian. Archived from the original on 2016-03-11. Retrieved 2016-02-24.
^ Bakall, Samantha (2015-04-09). "Southeast Portland's Produce Row to reopen in May". The Oregonian. Archived from the original on 2016-03-11. Retrieved 2016-02-24.