It's official. This will be the last summer Portlanders and visiting music lovers can accidentally bonk their faces into the mirrored bathroom walls of the Doug Fir Lounge.
After 19 years, the restaurant and venue will leave its retro and wood grain territory at 830 E Burnside. But it's not moving out of Portland—it's moving further in.
Documents filed with the Secretary of State confirmed rumors that the Doug Fir's new home will be at 301 SE Morrison—a building that formerly housed late night restaurant Le Bistro Montage. Montage closed in June of 2020, citing financial difficulties brought upon by the pandemic, but returned as a food cart less than two months later.
The Mercury also confirmed the news with Doug Fir staff who said the team had planned to announce the move in the second or third week of March and promised schematics, photos, and further clarifications in the coming weeks.
Early on in the 2020 COVID-19 shutdown, the Jupiter Hotel—which surrounds the Doug Fir venue space—formed a partnership with Multnomah County, allowing the Joint Office of Homelessness Services to use 81 of the hotel's rooms as distanced shelter spaces for short-term, isolated recovery and people where were accessing shelter services, but whose medical conditions left them too vulnerable to risk shared housing.
The fate of that hotel (recently rebranded the Jupiter Original) is not yet clear, but it underwent a million dollar renovation—"from the furniture in the rooms to the bathroom tiles, to a modern upgrade to the DreamBOX and music murals on the walls"—before reopening just last summer.
This is a developing story and the Mercury will continue reporting as more information becomes available.