While watching the Cubs game this morning, I saw an ad for Denny’s Grand Slam breakfasts. It reminded me of something I saw in the NW Examiner a week or so ago, regarding national chains on 23rd Avenue. Three decades ago, Northwest 23rd was a lot like the Belmont/Sunnyside neighborhood is now. (Hawthorne is fast becoming the new 23rd, and 23rd is becoming, well, Portland’s Rodeo Drive.)
NW 23rd wasn’t always fancy-shmancy…
On the corner of 23rd and Burnside, currently a real estate office, there used to be a Sambo’s. It may have been a Denny’s at some point, I don’t recall. I do recall many a late night spent in a booth, drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes while returning to normal after, um, ‘cerebral vacations’. We’d end up there because Quality Pie was always overcrowded.
Quality Pie was a fun spot. (The closest thing I can compare it to these days is Montage, the hip mac & cheese place where you get your leftovers in aluminum origami.) An eclectic mixture of cops, hospital workers, pimps, hos and the nighthawks with nowhere better to go. Snarky waitresses? The trend started here, I think.
Reading down the NW Examiner’s list of failed or moved national chains, I noticed Winchell’s Donuts. (I’d link to the whole list, but the Examiner’s website is a little behind the times, as you can see. You can get a copy at the NW library.) Winchell’s was located on 23rd and NW Glisan, across the lot from a Plaid Pantry which is still there. (It was my first job as an adult.) After locking up the Plaid, I’d go hang out with Maria at Winchell’s. With maybe two customers on the overnight shift, there was plenty of time for creating mischief. Once we were raided by the manager, who interrupted our game of strip poker. We managed to get out the door or into the bathroom without being caught, but he knew something was up. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had in a donut shop.
Across the street was Rose’s Restaurant. There’s a new model down near Kearney, but it’s not the same. We went there for rum balls and maple bars the size of my shoe, albeit better tasting. Once we figured out that we could go to Rose’s Bakery, across from Stadium Fred Meyer’s, we shopped there. We could score oversized goodies without doing battle with diners suspicious that we were cutting the always-present line.
I spent many a night in Calvert’s Tavern on Hoyt. The recently shuttered Music Millenium used to be a tavern and pool hall; the name escapes me at the moment. I courted my ex-wife there.
Another favorite spot that no longer exists, except in photographs and memories, is the old Westover Hospital. We’d sneak past the chain-link barriers and crawl up to the top to drink quarts of beer and admire the view. Quite a view it was. I guess other people have noticed. The little bit of wilderness has been replaced by condos.
23rd sure has changed since those days. Hippies are now the exception, not the rule. Those old crash pads have either been torn down or converted into expensive rooming houses.
And there’s not an all-night diner along the strip. Where will the nighthawks land?
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That’s rich, CC.
I too dated a gal that worked at that Winchell’s. Never experienced the mid-shift strip poker though.
I hear ya on Quality Pie. I have this dream that things come full circle and the Tik Tok on 82nd becomes the new QP.
Who knows…
But the grand prize goes to the Westover Hospital anecdote. Fine work, sir.
I lived on 21st back then – around 1980 it seemed like 23rd was actually less prosperous somehow. Well, slightly. I recall that amid a lot of vacant storefronts around 23rd and Hoyt or Glisan a cappuccino type place opened up that baked these really great croissants – at the time that seemed SO sophisticated and “edgy.” And Quality Pie was total diner perfection, but what was really hot was Eve’s Buffet in Fred Meyers. So cheap, and so hilariously gross, like hospital food. The bar was unbelievable. And let’s not forget the Esquire Theater on 23rd/Kearney. Strange how the same building is there, just remodeled into shops and cafes or whatever it is now. I just wish I’d taken pictures.
The Ram’s Head Bar (or whatever that McMenamin’s bar is on Hoyt & 23rd) used to be the Campbell Hotel, a halfway house for the mentally challenged.
I never dined at Eve’s, but remember that’s where the oldsters went for cheap drinks. The Foothill Broiler was the best local burger joint at the time, IMHO. The trail behind it was great for climbing up to view the city, and for late night naughtiness best left unmentioned on a family-friendly blog.
Perhaps my favorite bar was the Coyote Club on NW 21st. (Marshall St. maybe?) It’s the only bar I managed to spend the entire day in, from 7 AM until 2:30 AM. $2 large pitchers and free pool most of the day, with a $1.75 spaghetti feed at 6 PM. I could see no reason to leave!
The place really lost its charm when QP left.
I remember the taco omelettes there were unbeatable. Now. the only place I can think of to get such a thing is the Tik Tok on 112th and Divsion … but you need to order a cheese omelette and tell them to add taco meat.
That said, we find the McMenamins on 23rd to be quite delightful.
Still, it’s just not the same. I lived in a room in a house on Flanders Street just off 21st Avenue during the 80’s. Parking was hell, but I biked all over the place. $150/month that room cost. Shopping at Thriftway (Trader Joe’s today) was a 5 minute walk away. Those were good times.
An easy way to revisit the old neighborhood? Rent Gus Van Sant’s Drugstore Cowboy. It was filmed in the Cinema 21 area, and has tons of sights from back in the day. ‘My Own Private Idaho’ does the same thing with the West End area, and gives you a grand tour of the Governor Hotel before the big redo. I had been inside before it closed, (don’t ask)and it really captured the feel of the place.
For whoever said they wished they had photos at these place.
Email Mike Ryerson at mikeryerson@comcast.net and he’ll send them to you free.
I enjoyed the QP, on 23rd. Was a neat place to hang out at late night. I bartended at the Silver Fox, now a bagel place on 23rd. When closing the tavern, I would walk down to QP, and get a great juicey burger. And also the waitresses that were there on the late shift, was awesome……
Alot of different people hung out there, great for people watching, alot of drag queens hung out there too at times……nothing like the good old NW Portland……And plus dont forget the dougnuts they had there, would buy some on the way to work………..
Oh man! I was a QP regular back in the day. Nothing like heading there after a long night at the City, having a snarky waitress with a cigarette hanging from her lip asking you “What’ll you have, dear?”
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