Three months after the venue’s closure, it appears that celebrated jazz club the 1905 may soon reopen under new management.
Although there isn’t yet a hard date set, a Monday morning press release from the 1905 announced the venue and pizzeria expects to reopen its doors to musicians and patrons “within the next four to six weeks barring any complications.”
The 1905’s former owner Aaron Barnes shuttered the business this past November, after many years of financial instability—some of which was exacerbated by pandemic shutdown. In interviews with the Mercury, Barnes spoke of hocking his personal musical instruments and missing car payments to keep things afloat. Add to that bounced pay checks to staff and some of the musicians who played there, and it’s a wonder the 1905 survived as long as it did.
The Monday release emphasized that Barnes is no longer involved in the space. Instead, the LLC that operated the club—the Bridge PDX—will now be under the leadership of Chris Pfeifer, current managing partner for 404 Entertainment, LLC, an organization that is developing two music venues in the downtown building that once housed the Greek Cusina.
Quoted in the release, Pfeifer says, “When you get an opportunity to re-open one of Portland’s best-kept secrets… it’s kind of hard to pass. Not much will change because not much needs to. We found the troubles to be more the prior leadership than financial, as reported.”
The release goes on to say that the 1905 is also bringing back two previous employees, Joshua Madrid and Holly Resnick, to serve as bar manager and program director, respectively. “The club also plans to announce kitchen and CFO [roles] shortly,” it continues.
Much like Pfeifer’s comments, the announcement paints a hopeful portrait of a now-righted ship: “[Members of the Bridge PDX] were informed of significant mismanagement of the North Portland jazz club late last year,” it explains. “Upon this discovery, [they] immediately moved to remedy the issues. This included paying back wages and tips to employees, as well as squaring up with the musicians.”
The Mercury has reached out to Pfeifer and the 1905 team, as well as Barnes, for further comment on this news and will update this article with the latest developments.