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Tall Rabbit Cafe + Community opens south of downtown Fort Wayne WANE[unable to retrieve full-text content]
'Wild Duck Cafe' closing doors in the New Year KEZI TV[unable to retrieve full-text content]
Longtime downtown Olympia cafe to shut down food service The Olympian[unable to retrieve full-text content]
Common Roots Cafe announces sudden closure KARE11.com[unable to retrieve full-text content]
Longtime downtown Olympia cafe to shut down food service The Olympian
FILE PHOTO: A sign 'Closed' seen on a closed restaurant door. (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Common Roots Cafe in Minneapolis has suddenly closed after 15 years in business, with the owner citing financial struggles before and during the COVID-19 pandemic among other reasons.
"Common Roots has served our last meal — I’m sorry to say I’ve decided to close down the business," Danny Schwartzman, the owner of Common Roots, said in a Facebook post on Wednesday. He thanked customers, suppliers, staff and others for their continued support over the years, saying they're the ones who helped make Common Roots "not just a restaurant but a community."
Schwartzman pointed to struggles with money before and during the pandemic as reasons for closing, noting over the past year he worked to make the business make sense and "operate at a manageable volume."
"While we dramatically reduced our monthly losses during the course of the year, the business still will end 2022 with a large financial loss. We are still only operating at roughly half the sales we did prior to the pandemic," the post said. "Our margins were thin in good times, but there’s absolutely no possibility of the budget working at anywhere near the volume we are at now."
Schwartzman noted at "some point" they had to "accept the reality in front of me and as soon as I've lost hope for next year, there’s no way I’ll be able to get through all of the infinite challenges that present themselves, even in the best of years."
But money isn't the only reason for this "sudden closure," Schwartzman said. He learned last week that the majority of his staff wanted to unionize. And although he wanted to run a union business, "I couldn’t commit to moving forward if I didn’t have confidence I would be able to keep the business open under all the very many different strains the business is under."
"When I took a careful look at the totality of the challenges I faced, the financial losses, the operational challenges, the personal toll of the ongoing strain of 15 years of confronting countless problems, small and large, I knew I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t keep believing I could make next year a success in the face of reality. It’s time to call it done. Nothing lasts forever," Schwartzman said.
He noted he has no plans for what's next for him or the space, but hopes a new restaurant will move into the spot on Lyndale Avenue South. As for those with gift cards, Common Roots is still honoring them through the sales of spices and dry goods, or a cash refund. All you have to do is email info@commonrootscafe.com by Jan. 15, 2023, and the restaurant will be in touch on how to get the gift card purchase refunded.
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Chico says goodbye to former owner of Upper Crust Bakery & Café KRCR
9:15 PM: Something to look forward to in the new year: Four months after we first reported that popular breakfast/brunch mini-chain Portage Bay Café was expanding to West Seattle, the opening date is set. PBC’s general manager Peter Gunnar tells WSB they plan to open the doors at 4725 42nd SW on Friday, January 6th. Portage Bay was still finalizing the deal for the new location when we first talked with them in August, but at the start of October, after Agave Cocina quietly closed its doors, the secret was out. We’re still awaiting final word on Portage Bay’s West Seattle hours, but all four of their current cafés start the day at 8 am; you can see the current menu here.
ADDED MONDAY: Gunnar tells WSB today that the hours/days will be Thursdays 8 am-1 pm, Fridays 8 am-1:30 pm, Saturdays and Sundays 8 am-2 pm, Mondays 8 am-1 pm, closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Also: “The menu will be the same as our other four locations, but like each of our stores, the chef is in charge of his monthly specials, and they differ cafe by cafe.”
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JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - The son of Primos founder Angelo “Pop” Primos has died.
On Tuesday, Primos Cafe announced that Kenneth Angelo Primos, Sr., the father of Don Primos, passed away at 98 years old.
“We rejoice that he is gone to be with his savior,” according to a social media post from the restaurant. “He had a great love and appreciation for his father Angelo... both in his life and work. He helped continue the Primos Cafe legacy as owner/operator from the late 1940s through the mid 1990s.”
“Along with the many Primos staff and patrons, he deeply cherished his family, friends and church community.”
All locations of the restaurant will be closed Wednesday, December 28, in observance of Primos’ visitation and funeral service.
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Copyright 2022 WLBT. All rights reserved.
Four years after forming a nonprofit and hosting a kickoff event, supporters behind Gerry's Cafe finally have secured a space in Arlington Heights for their coffee shop that will employ adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Brewing Opportunities, the 501(c) (3) organization, has inked a lease for its first cafe at 1802 N. Arlington Heights Road, in what was a former Starbucks location just south of the Palatine Road intersection. Renovations are underway and the hiring and training process will begin in the new year, ahead of a planned spring 2023 opening.
It's a concept they hope to expand to other suburbs in the future.
"We know the community will embrace our opening and our employees, and we're so excited about that," said Natalie Griffin, who along with Amy Philpott teamed up to create the charity and worked to raise the necessary startup funds. "We're just so pumped to be moving onto this next phase: to get in there with our contractor, to get in there with that hammer, and purchase our freezers and fridges and ovens, and really get to work on our training program and all of that."
"I think it's going to be amazing for Arlington Heights to have this."
Griffin, a former special education teacher, saw a need for a business staffed by adults age 22 and older with special needs -- a population that experiences high unemployment, she said. Her inspiration was a Wilmington, North Carolina cafe that employs people with developmental disabilities.
Griffin leaned on the small business expertise of Philpott, a one-time Arlington Heights Chamber of Commerce board president and former owner of the Tuscan Market & Wine Shop.
At the same time, Philpott told Griffin of her personal connection to people with disabilities. Her aunt, Geralyn Wehmer, was born with Down syndrome in 1958 and died shortly before her fourth birthday.
The cafe is named after Aunt Gerry, as she affectionately was called.
After holding a launch party at Tuscan Market in December 2018 and a series of successful fundraisers, organizers thought they would be ready to open the cafe at the start of 2020. But then, the pandemic took hold, and they took an 18-month pause on fundraising or major activities.
Enlisting commercial real estate broker George Frigelis, they eventually resumed the search for a location, considering both the north and south sides of Arlington Heights, but avoiding the downtown, where rents are higher and parking more difficult.
The former Starbucks seemed to be the perfect fit, with the electrical systems already in place. But much of the renovation is taking place in the back of the house, where employees will be preparing breakfast and lunch from scratch daily.
The menu likely will include yogurt parfaits, fresh-baked cookies, muffins, egg sandwiches, salads and wraps. The cafe also will offer catering.
A strategy team from Northwest Suburban High School District 214, Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 and Clearbrook -- an Arlington Heights nonprofit serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities -- has been working on a job application that will be posted in the next couple months at gerryscafe.org. A separate panel of former human resources professionals from Allstate and other businesses will conduct interviews with the goal to hire about 40 individuals, Griffin said.
Then the training process begins for job roles including cashier, sous chef, barista and greeter.
"We just want them to shine and have our community see how capable these individuals are, how valuable they are, and how they can contribute," Griffin said. "That is our main mission here ... that community engagement. And a lot of our typical everyday interactions do not happen with people with disabilities. So this gives an opportunity for people to understand how capable so many of these individuals are and how they just need to have a chance."
Partners in the popular Cafe Homestead at the Homestead Heritage community near Gholson were making plans Friday to rebuild after an early morning blaze destroyed the handmade log building.
By late morning, only the stone chimney and two or three vertical beams were left standing, the rest of the structure collapsed into a charred and smoldering ruin. But none of the nearby trees, fields or structures had been touched by the flames.
The Elm Mott Volunteer Fire Department arrived at the scene at 608 Dry Creek Road at 1:51 a.m., 11 minutes after receiving a page about the fire, and found the front porch and roof fully engulfed in flame, Fire Chief Tom Klingensmith said.
“The structure was empty at the time the fire started,” Klingensmith said. “We found no one injured when we arrived to fight the fire and no one was injured during the firefighting operations.”
The popular Café Homestead at Homestead Heritage was destroyed after an early Friday morning blaze destroyed the handmade log building. But plans are already underway to rebuild.
With temperatures estimated at about 10 degrees, fire hydrants were frozen, and fire crews had to use hoses from a tanker truck to attack the blaze, Klingensmith said.
The department got mutual aid assistance from Ross, Gholson, West, Bellmead, Waco and Lacy Lakeview departments. The chief said that when all the support was on-site, he had between 30 and 40 firefighters working.
Klingensmith said the fire burned hot enough to deform the cafe’s metal roof.
Because of the cold and the fast blowing north wind, Klingensmith had many firefighters shift their efforts toward containment and keeping the flames from spreading to nearby trees, structures and fields, he said.
The cause of the fire was undetermined as of Friday morning.
The owners of Cafe Homestead, seen here in 2018, plan to rebuild after a fire early Friday destroyed the structure.
The building was erected by Homestead artisans beginning in 1993 using cedar logs from Mexia, making it the first permanent building at the Christian community that now draws tens of thousands of tourists a year. The cafe is one of the attractions, earning a place this year on Yelp’s top 100 restaurants in Texas. Cafe Homestead officials said they served about 90,000 meals a year.
“Homestead Cafe was more than a building, more than meals it served,” general manager Andrew Taylor said Friday. “It was about relationships we made in the community.”
Taylor said the community will build the structure back, and bigger than before. The community is planning a fundraising dinner for late next month at its church fellowship hall nearby, and aims to open Cafe Homestead at the fellowship hall in February as a temporary location. In the meantime, a barbecue restaurant and coffee shop remain open at the complex, alongside its range of other stores and attractions.
Taylor was joined at the site Friday morning by partners Caleb Tittley and Asahel Adams. The partners said they did not immediately have estimates for the loss and the cost to rebuild, but insurance will help pay for some of the loss.
Taylor said in Friday afternoon text message that builders had estimated, without plans, it could cost $1.2 million or more to build back.
“We’re sorry for the loss of the cafe,” Adams said. “It was the front porch of our community. We’re committed to restore the setting for the Waco community.”
The partners sketched out some ideas for rebuilding as the sun rose over the site. Taylor said they would build a somewhat larger cafe, with a modern kitchen, but maintain the rustic look.
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Terrifier 2 Yule Log Warms Hearts With Clown Café Tune Collider
In 1956, Audrey Hepburn wore a pair of Cartier's Grain de Café earrings on the cover of Harper's Bazaar. As the name suggests, the earrings were inspired by an actual coffee bean—as were all pieces from the Grain de Café collection, which originally launched in 1938 under the creative direction of Jeanne Toussaint. Toussaint believed in finding beauty in the unexpected, so she looked to the humble coffee bean, a product of nature not typically immortalized in gold.
While the refined bean was often worn in the '50s and '60s—not just by Hepburn but by Grace Kelly—the motif is finally back in a new Grain de Café collection for 2022. Cartier celebrated the motif's return with a dinner held with Harper's Bazaar at the Fifth Avenue Cartier mansion. Bazaar's Editor-in-Chief Sami Nasr and Cartier's chief marketing office of Cartier North America, Andra Mielnicki, were the evening's hosts with a guest list that included Laila Gohar, Romy Soleimani, June Ambrose, Noor Tagouri, Sarah Hoover, and Nicole Vassell.
The theme of the evening was unexpected beauty with a very fitting three-course meal. The first course was titled "The Ordinary Turned Precious": natural double scallop shells with seared celery roit and truffle purée. The second was "A Toussaint Taste": a wild mushroom and herb still life on risotto. And the final was "An Iconic Motif": Cafe des Delices chocolate cake with blackberries and pomegranates. Espresso martinis were of course flowing as Endea Owens and The Cookout played songs like "Where the Nubians Grow" and "Feel Good."
Exclusively available at the New York City mansion, the Grain de Café collection features three rings, a bracelet, and two necklaces—all opulent reminders that the most exquisite beauty is often something that sits between the ordinary and the precious.
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In 1956, Audrey Hepburn wore a pair of Cartier's Grain de Café earrings on the cover of Harper's Bazaar. As the name suggests, the earrings were inspired by an actual coffee bean—as were all pieces from the Grain de Café collection, which originally launched in 1938 under the creative direction of Jeanne Toussaint. Toussaint believed in finding beauty in the unexpected, so she looked to the humble coffee bean, a product of nature not typically immortalized in gold.
Bazaar’s Samira Nasr with Sarah Hoover and Nicola Vassell.
Guests at the Cartier x Bazaar Grain de Café dinner at Cartier’s New York mansion.
The most recent Grain de Café collection.
While the refined bean was often worn in the '50s and '60s—not just by Hepburn but by Grace Kelly—the motif is finally back in a new Grain de Café collection for 2022. Cartier celebrated the motif's return with a dinner held with Harper's Bazaar at the Fifth Avenue Cartier mansion. Bazaar's Editor-in-Chief Sami Nasr and Cartier's chief marketing office of Cartier North America, Andra Mielnicki, were the evening's hosts with a guest list that included Laila Gohar, Romy Soleimani, June Ambrose, Noor Tagouri, Sarah Hoover, and Nicole Vassell.
The first course of scallops at the Cartier x Bazaar Grain de Café dinner.
Guests enjoying the second course of the Cartier xBazaar Grain de Café dinner.
Guest Noor Tagouri at dinner.
The theme of the evening was unexpected beauty with a very fitting three-course meal. The first course was titled "The Ordinary Turned Precious": natural double scallop shells with seared celery roit and truffle purée. The second was "A Toussaint Taste": a wild mushroom and herb still life on risotto. And the final was "An Iconic Motif": Cafe des Delices chocolate cake with blackberries and pomegranates. Espresso martinis were of course flowing as Endea Owens and The Cookout played songs like "Where the Nubians Grow" and "Feel Good."
Guest Laila Gohar at dinner.
Endea Owens and The Cookout performing at the Cartier xBazaar Grain de Café dinner.
Exclusively available at the New York City mansion, the Grain de Café collection features three rings, a bracelet, and two necklaces—all opulent reminders that the most exquisite beauty is often something that sits between the ordinary and the precious.
Tara Gonzalez is the Senior Fashion Editor at Harper’s Bazaar. Previously, she was the style writer at InStyle, founding commerce editor at Glamour, and fashion editor at Coveteur.
Kristin Houk’s Cafe Alma opened in November 2019 in India Basin, though some would consider the neighborhood a portion of Hunter’s Point. She’s run taco and burger spot Tato for five years and All Good Pizza for 11, both Bayview neighborhood staples. So it seems almost inevitable she’d try her hand at an all-day cafe for the city’s eastside residents.
The fare at her newest little shop runs the gamut from avocado toast topped with hardboiled egg and seaweed salt, to albacore tuna panini, to vegan chocolate banana smoothies. But the sweet cafe has an unavoidably short lifespan: It will inevitably be forced to close as a part of a larger project to redevelop the building. Nonetheless, Houk is proud of what she’s done with the space while she has it. “I’ve been here for 22 years,” Houk says of the Bayview neighborhood. “My partner and I have spent years walking Heron’s Head. I thought, let’s do something more.”
Haouk got involved when the owners of the building, BUILD SF, Inc., approached her to set up a pop-up food business in the space, but Houk felt like the former awning manufacturing could be better used as a permanent location. Now she uses the cafe as a place for numerous small food producers throughout the Bay to show off their stuff. It’s not rare to find one of Camisha’s Cakes on the scene, nor to pick up bread from Greg Harmon’s Outer Sunset spring water-obsessed Bearflag Bakery. Julia Street doles out her fermented chocolate creations at the shop from time to time. The food costs at Cafe Alma run from about $8 to $13, somewhat affordable by San Francisco standards, and Houk serves Sam’s Coffee — an old-school outfit that roasts just down the street. Plus, the shop might be the easternmost place in the city to get a bite to eat or a cup of coffee, perfect for long walks through one of San Francisco’s newer parks.
The cafe also plays host to local artists and musicians. Bayview funk guitarist and artist Martian Luther played at Cafe Alma in September, Luther being a resident of Zaccho Dance Theater’s Black Futures Artist-in-Residence Program 2022. In October, Houk hung paintings from Oakland artist Artemis Laura Schatzkin on the walls. She particularly enjoyed the semi-frequent tango classes hosted in the space, too. “I’m really invested in showcasing local artists,” Houk says. “The Bayview is a multigenerational community with so much to offer.”
The loss of Cafe Alma will be felt whenever it does have to close up shop, but she doesn’t really know when that will be. The San Francisco African American Faith-Based Coalition will have to find somewhere else for a food distribution center for low-income families, a key project launched during the pandemic. It’s ambiguous when and if the BUILD redevelopment will happen — it wouldn’t be the first time the neighborhood saw tremendous delays to housing projects — but the idea is to build new homes and retail spaces there in the near future. Either way, Houk isn’t too worried. “We’ll be here for a while,” Houk says.
Cafe Alma is open Tuesday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. with occasional pop-up and event hours.
Kristin Hauk’s Cafe Alma opened in November 2019 in India Basin, though some would consider the neighborhood a portion of Hunter’s Point. She’s run taco and burger spot Tato for five years and All Good Pizza for 11, both Bayview neighborhood staples. So it seems almost inevitable she’d try her hand at an all-day cafe for the city’s eastside residents.
The fare at her newest little shop runs the gamut from avocado toast topped with hardboiled egg and seaweed salt, to albacore tuna panini, to vegan chocolate banana smoothies. But the sweet cafe has an unavoidably short lifespan: It will inevitably be forced to close and flipped as a part of a larger project to redevelop the building. Nonetheless, Hauk is proud of what she’s done with the space while she has it. “I’ve been here for 22 years,” Hauk says of the Bayview neighborhood. “My partner and I have spent years walking Heron’s Head. I thought, let’s do something more.”
Hauk got involved when the owners of the building, BUILD SF, Inc., approached her to set up a pop-up food business in the space, but Hauk felt like the former awning manufacturing could be better used as a permanent location. Now she uses the cafe as a place for numerous small food producers throughout the Bay to show off their stuff. It’s not rare to find one of Camisha’s Cakes on the scene, nor to pick up bread from Greg Harmon’s Outer Sunset spring water-obsessed Bearflag Bakery. Julia Street doles out her fermented chocolate creations at the shop from time to time. The food costs at Cafe Alma run from about $8 to $13, somewhat affordable by San Francisco standards, and Hauk serves Sam’s Coffee — an old-school outfit that roasts just down the street. Plus, the shop might be the easternmost place in the city to get a bite to eat or a cup of coffee, perfect for long walks through one of San Francisco’s newer parks.
The cafe also plays host to local artists and musicians. Bayview funk guitarist and artist Martian Luther played at Cafe Alma in September, Luther being a resident of Zaccho Dance Theater’s Black Futures Artist-in-Residence Program 2022. In October, Hauk hung paintings from Oakland artist Artemis Laura Schatzkin on the walls. She particularly enjoyed the semi-frequent tango classes hosted in the space, too. “I’m really invested in showcasing local artists,” Hauk says. “The Bayview is a multigenerational community with so much to offer.”
The loss of Cafe Alma will be felt whenever it does have to close up shop, but she doesn’t really know when that will be. The San Francisco African American Faith-Based Coalition will have to find somewhere else for a food distribution center for low-income families, a key project launched during the pandemic. It’s ambiguous when and if the BUILD redevelopment will happen — it wouldn’t be the first time the neighborhood saw tremendous delays to housing projects — but the idea is to build new homes and retail spaces there in the near future. Either way, Hauk isn’t too worried. “We’ll be here for a while,” Hauk says.
Cafe Alma is open Tuesday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. with occasional pop-up and event hours.
Il Mulino in the Forum Shops at Caesars closed during the pandemic, ending Patrick Littlejohn’s 15-year run as its general manager and regional vice president for the brand. Le Petit Café & Bakery in southwest Las Vegas also shuttered during the pandemic, ending Emily Palmer’s culinary dreams just as the restaurant was hitting its stride.
But when life handed them a pandemic, Littlejohn and Palmer made Lemon Tree Cafe & Market, which the business partners are debuting in the euphonious Evora development taking shape on Buffalo Drive in the southwest. The cafe is opening Monday; the market is set to launch in January, as exclusively shared with the Review-Journal.
Littlejohn said the pandemic and the closing of Il Mulino inspired him to start his own business away from the Strip.
“I wanted to offer a one-stop place for quality products and cafe-style food that I couldn’t find in the area. With her cafe background, Emily proved to be the perfect partner, and we are both excited to share what we hope will be a neighborhood standby. ”
The cafe menu features dishes like brioche French toast topped with oozy burrata and berry coulis, made-to-order sweet and savory crêpes, pies emerging from the wood-fire pizza oven, salads, daily vegetarian-vegan bowls, marinated skirt steak with chimichurri and house fries, and housemade pastries.
There are also coffee beverages and cold-pressed juices, with beer, wine and high tea planned for 2023.
When it debuts, the market will offer items like imported pastas, caviar, foie gras, charcuterie, craft sodas, fine wine and beer, plus products from the butcher counter.
Lemon Tree Cafe & Market is at 6111 S. Buffalo Drive. Call 725-205-2323, visit www.lemontreecafelv.com or follow @lemontreecafeandmarket on social media.
Contact Johnathan L. Wright at jwright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ItsJLW on Twitter.
Qualia Café / Atelier Waterside
Text description provided by the architects. Invited by the coffee and dessert brand “观粼QUALIA” o design its first store., We had the chance to renovate a historical tenement ’s ground floor on the road Wei Xin Heng Lu（维新横路）. The road Wei Xin Heng Lu is in a historic district on Pearl River’s north bank, named because it runs perpendicular to a main north-south Wei Xin Road (维新路. “Wei Xin”means restoration)，which now has changed its name to Qi Yi Road ( 起义路. “Qi Yi” means revolution) in 1966. It is flanked by a row of tenements that are three or four-story and constructed in concrete frame during the 1930s and 40s.
The brand “观粼QUALIA” specializes in luxury coffee and French desserts. Our design concept starts with the presentation of the French dessert-making process. Two black boxes, one large and one small, are carefully placed in the old rectangular building. The boxes were finished differently inside and outside, nested and covered in layers to make an image of French desserts’ cut-out sections. It provides people with a heterogeneous experience and also a sense of wrapping.
Starting from the entrance, the store rises step by step, dividing into three elevations in the section. The variation in elevation is to eliminate a sense of oppression by the entrance’s long depth. Separated from the original walls of the old building, the newly elevated floor creates a contrast between new and old while storing the pipes and lighting.
There are other actions taken to create an old-new contrast. The ceiling retains the details of old plaster and concrete structure. A loft was newly constructed above the entrance to increase seating capacity, by which guests can look at the Madagascar almond trees and old tenements’ façade on the other side of street.
The loft extends outward as a platform for the air conditioning unit. Light aluminum-made customized wind-driven louvers fluctuate with the heat and air exhaust of air conditioning, trimming the equipment, and also making the doorway fluctuate. The fluctuation echoes metaphors of water, of which the brand’s name “GUAN LIN” is reminiscent in Chinese. In the coexistence and connection between old and new, in the interval of dessert and coffee, we can see and touch each other.
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P¡nq, a queer cafe and bar in Portland’s Old Town neighborhood, announced its eviction Nov. 17 via social media, just two months after opening.
“[People] didn’t fuck with the vision, and those who did were too economically maligned to save us,” P¡nq’s Instagram account stated in the comments section of the announcement. “Just regular failure under capitalism.”
P¡nq, also spelled Pinq, opened in late September, billing itself a worker-owned cooperative opposing gentrification, racism and oppression. Pinq wanted to fill the void left by The Roxy, the legendary Old Portland all-night diner that closed in March, and whose owner, Suzanne Hale, died Nov. 8. The business’s planned vigil for Transgender Day of Remembrance on Nov. 20 was canceled due to the bar’s closure.
Pinq took on the remainder of the lease on an Ankeny Alley space from The Queen’s Head, a gay Atlantic-style pub that opened last November. The Queen’s Head then-owner, Daniel Bund, sought investors for his business in March and renovated the club’s kitchen equipment, bar and outdoor seating throughout the spring. A group called The Queen’s Collective then ran the location between The Queen’s Head’s July closure and Pinq’s September debut. Pinq also operated a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Cqnnectiqn, that accepted donations to help achieve Pinq’s goals, which included “provocative artistic expression, rad economics, anti-oppression organizing and Queer culture keeping.”
The Queen’s Collective had 15 employees at its height. General manager Antha Pereira, public relations and social media manager Ti Rayn, and self-described “jack of all trades” Astrid Stark led the crew and worked with a network of more than 50 drag artists and event producers. The trio were the only employees remaining by the time Pinq opened. Pinq hosted drag and burlesque shows, open mics, makers markets, viewing parties for shows like The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula, and even bake sales to generate enough funds to stay afloat. A GoFundMe campaign run by The Queen’s Collective collected almost 6% of its goal, while a similar campaign for Cqnnectiqnn collected 3%.
The Queen’s Head and Pinq hosted drag artists who were displaced when Northeast Portland queer bar Local Lounge abruptly closed last November after more than a decade in business. When Pinq took over, it sought to fill more than 50% of its entertainment bookings with trans and nonbinary performers of color. The menu shifted from British pub fare to Southern soul food, like berbere chicken sandwiches, okra etouffee and oxtails. Pinq’s team purchased The Roxy’s espresso machine from Hale’s liquidation sale this past fall.
Facebook posts from Pinq and The Queen’s Head’s shared account detail severe financial setbacks. Pinq couldn’t open for three weeks in September, costing the new business vital revenue. Then, on its first weekend open, the refrigerator failed, racking up equipment and food costs. In October, a daylight break-in destroyed one of the bar’s doors. Stark lost a relative days later. Events were canceled throughout the summer due to low attendance.
“We refuse to bring a priority party of this caliber to a community that isn’t able to support it at the level it deserves—with the BIPOC performance and arts community here in PDX NEEDING excellence, and receiving less than too often,” The Queen’s Collective wrote on Facebook in July.
Marigold co-owners Aubriana MacNiven (left) and Gena Banducci inside their new Mission-area cafe. Photo: Mariko Reed
Something exquisite has emerged out of a former garage in the Mission.
What's happening: Known first for its flowers, Marigold expanded last month into the world of coffee, opening a new cafe near the corner of 21st and York streets — next to its retail shop and production space.
What they're saying: "From the beginning, this was always part of our plans," Marigold co-owner Gena Banducci told Axios. "It's a ritual to enjoy … and take in the comfort of both flowers and coffee. They just go hand-in-hand in so many different ways."
Flashback: Banducci and business partner Aubriana MacNiven opened the flower side of Marigold in 2018 with a model mostly focused on weddings and events.
Details: Marigold's cafe serves Portland-based Heart coffee, and their tea comes from Leaves and Flowers, based in Berkeley.
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takanadalagi.blogspot.com Two new sibling bars are opening in far south Austin sometime this year. There’s cafe and cocktail bar Drifters S...
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