Bars, Restaurants, & Taverns
CRUSH BAR
Per website updated 2021: Celebrate Crush's 20 anniversary @ 1400 SE Morrison St. Portland OR
Per Just Out December 17, 2004, page 35 “NEW QUEER EVE” The eastside will be party central, too. For another non-smoking option, check out the gay owned wine and martini bar Crush at 1412 SE Morrison St. No admission, $3 well drinks from 7 to 10 pm and a balloon drop at midnight.
Just Out did a large article on Crush in the June 3, 2005 page 42 “Crushing a modern blend” The go-go boy wears a penciled-in mustache, a white shirt and black pants buttoned well above the waist level. Tonight he’s a salsa dancer. And his soul lives in his hips, where he bounces back and forth, drawing with it the eyes of half the men in the bar. He doesn’t accept tips like those in downtown bars. No, like the bar he dances in, he is the perfect blend of class and camp.
The go-go platform stands unassumingly to one side of the center room of Crush’s new three-room complex. The two new rooms’ overarching simplicity accentuates each flourish of character: the question mark sweep of the lounge’s bar, the found art installation, the beautiful sculptures that are each room’s lighting fixtures. The design has all the freshness of modernity with none of its cold hearted pretension.
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Woody Clarke and Mitch Calhoun, partners of eight years, opened Crush in 2001 to create an alternative to the gay bars of downtown.
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Like the venue, the Crush crowd is refreshingly unique for Portland. Men and women, straight and gay, not united by a single defining factor except, perhaps, an urbane palate. They include neighborhood folk, families for dinner, lesbian parties of 12 and solo gay men on the prowl. (Clarke claims interested parties have ‘no problem getting laid,” although one of his bartenders qualifies that: “While it’s easy to meet people, it’s not a pickup joint.)
1412 SE Morrison 503–235–8150
Years: 2001 – 2024
photos from article in Just Out December 17, 2004, page 35
Per: June 19, 2019: The lack of a proper “Gayborhood” in Portland is a complicated issue, but that doesn’t mean there’s a lack of pro-LGBTQ+ bars situated throughout its many quiet residential districts. Crush is the platonic ideal of a neighborhood bar, and it just so happens that many queer events and proudly out staff makes it a great place for groups of all sexual preferences and identities to have a good time. And if you’re feeling a bit more tawdry, it’s about a $10 Uber or Lyft to any number of clubs Downtown that cater to specific interests, if that’s where the night is headed. (x)
As cited in Portland’s 2005 Columbia FunMap, Page 20, “Bars/Dance Clubs/Lounges/Piano.”
Crush Bar – A hip and slightly kitschy gay bar dedicated to inclusivity and welcoming everyone from neighborhood friends and out-of-town travelers. Everyone can find a home here and enjoy fun nightly events from burlesque to dance parties to queer meetups and more! Every night Happy hour specials run from 3 pm - 7 pm – and all night until midnight on Mondays. Delicious classic American foods are also served. (x)
Crush Bar Is Closing - Posted on Facebook page and on Portland LGBTQ+ Lounge Crush Bar Will Close After More Than 20 Years Open - Eater Portland
“It is with very heavy hearts that we are announcing Crush will be closing the doors on decades of business after New Year’s Eve.
We are hoping that with this announcement, people will come out to support and help us get through December so we can go out on a high note. Let’s make a few more memories before we go.
Thank you for everything. We will miss you and are truly grateful.
Our final party and last day of business will be 12/31/23-come say goodbye.”
After announcing it’s closing, it at this time is still in operation. April 3, 2024.
THEN…
A Devastating Year of Closures Has Left Portland in the Midst of a Barmageddon - Eater Portland “At the end of 2024, one of Portland’s foundational queer bars, Crush Bar, will close after 23 years in business. Crush Bar is the latest third place to fall during Portland’s 2024 barmageddon, a seemingly nonstop barrage of bar closures as operators struggle with rising costs, falling attendance, a flattening nightlife scene, and other woes related to running a business.
This isn’t the first brush with closure for Crush Bar. At the end of 2023, the bar announced that it would close before it narrowly avoided that fate through an investment from a staff member. Although the staff member was supposed to take over permanently to allow owner John “Woody” Clarke to retire, dwindling sales made a future for the bar less possible. “The decision to close is ultimately motivated by Woody’s retirement from the bar industry in combination with a rough economic climate,” a representative for Crush wrote in a statement to Eater Portland. “It is the end of an era and sad to lose another queer bar in a time going forward when we all need community the most.”
citations & references:
Listed in Damron’s Men’s Travel Guide 2007 Under: Bars
Listed in Damron’s Men’s Travel Guide 2010 Under: Bars