This landmark Northwest 23rd Avenue coffee shop was open 24 hours a day, making it a haven for 1980s punk rockers and club kids, who would flock here after bars closed for pre-dawn scrambled eggs. Before Oregon’s indoor smoking ban, this was a restaurant that eagerly welcomed smokers, and it seemed like everyone at the counter took drags of cigarettes between sips of strong coffee. “QP,” as it was called by regulars, closed in 1992 after 58 years of great people-watching.

https://www.oregonlive.com/dining/2016/12/tasty_memories_97_long-gone_po.html#0

Quality Pie – a 30-something Portlander’s flashback (#3) (daveknows.org) Quality Pie – a 30-something Portlander’s flashback (#3) September 16, 2008 by Dave 19 Comments Ah, Quality Pie.  On NW 23rd across from the hospital. In the late 80s I was a wide-eyed, parochial-schooled suburbanite. Quality Pie, in addition to Powell’s and the McDonalds (now Rich’s Cigars) by the Galleria, was my introduction to the city.  Sipping coffee into the wee hours, we observed eccentric late night Portland while we shared grilled cheese sandwiches, french fries, or a slice of truly quality pie.

1992.  The reprehensible Measure 9 made it to the ballot in Oregon, the Blazers lost to the Bulls in the NBA finals, and the legendary Quality Pie closed.  The Willy Week, at the time, summed it up:

Portland loses another dining institution when Quality Pie, a 24-hour haven for hipsters, scenesters, scamsters, hamsters, rock stars (pre- and post-nova), street people, alcoholics in various stages of recovery, poets, gamers, insomniacs and other assorted creatures of the night, serves its final cup of joe.

But the year wasn’t all bad.  The abnormal, wrong, unnatural and perverse Measure 9 was soundly defeated by the citizens of Oregon, I turned 21, and Dot’s started serving up jalapeno cheddar fries.

Quality Pie Archives - Slabtown Tours - N & NW Portland Walking Tours “In this age of rapid development (3-14-16), tour-goers and locals alike are puzzled that this corner storefront—on arguably the hottest tourist drag in Portland—stands neglected.  Why has this building in the heart of a high-rent commercial corridor remained vacant for nearly 25 years?  According an article by Peter Korn in a November 2007 Portland Tribune, the owners are a family operation that is only willing to lease to proprietors who have cash up front to do all the improvement and upkeep.  Nine years later the site still languishes.

Quality Pie 1940 Care of Mike Ryerson

Quality Pie once occupied the entire frontage.  Known as “The QP” by regulars, this 1950s-style diner was 23rd Avenue’s late-night hot spot.  Quality Pie was the quintessential place to people-watch, where New Wave/Punks would come after Satyricon shows to eat day-old pies, seated next to Portland’s finest who were filling up on coffee.

The corner storefront of the building at NW 23rd and Northrup has stood unoccupied since Quality Pie shut its doors in 1992.  Fans of lost Portland’s eccentric nightlife have created a Facebook group with 298 members (https://www.facebook.com/groups/59025722653/).  QP was where people came together from every walk of life in Portland.

Quality Pie not only was a beloved “coffee spot”, it also baked pies which it delivered to commercial operations citywide.  Paul Baker scanned some wonderful pictures family album pictures from the ’50s and ’60s which include shots of his aunt Hilda Langston, a tall brunette.  These images are amazing documents that are akin to Mr. Rogers Neighborhood’s segments on production assembly lines.  Interior images such as these rarely surface and these early color images give us a window into the creation of the pies.