Bars, Restaurants, & Taverns

RAINBOW GRILL

Note: Per https://www.portlandmercury.com/feature/2018/01/10/19597137/a-city-scandalized Theo Kruse closed the Louvre and, to much celebration and fanfare, opened the glamorous Rainbow Grill in the Morgan building on Southwest 7th and Washington. Perhaps having learned nothing from the gay sex scandal (or in spite of it), the Rainbow featured a “Special Men’s Grill” where a gentleman could select his own cut of meat, have it cooked to order, and eat it in the company of other gentlemen. Lagging profits (very likely due to what was, after the Vice Clique scandal, an even more deeply closeted gay population) led the Rainbow to close less than two years after opening. Another year passed, and it reopened again as a new restaurant and candy store. The Sunday Oregonian reported it thusly: “Grill Site to Grow Gay.”

Below is the announcement of The Rainbow Grill Oregon Journal September 28, 1913.

S.W. corner of Sixth and Washington (Morgan Building). 

Years: October 2, 1913-1915

[later would be come Jolly Joan’s in 1937)

Later would become Morgon’s Alley.

Ad in Northwest Gay Review December 1976-January 1977 

As mentioned in the above ad, “See the $2000 Painting. See Below the article from the October 5, 1913 Oregon Journal. Below Right, an interesting ad in Oregon Journal February 8, 1914 “Chinese Festival”.

The opening received rave reviews such as the one published in The Oregon Journal October 3, 1913 see Below Left. But, within two years the press brought bad news as stated in the Oregon Journal October 3, 1913. See Below Right.

Then, more bad news In the Oregon Journal July 3, 1915 “Adam Mueller files Bankruptcy Petition” see Below Left.

But out of this was an announcement Per the Oregonian March 12, 1916 See Below Left.

Per the National Register of Historic Places (September 12, 1996 #96001003), The first floor was occupied by a series often stores facing on Washington Street, while the full 200 feet at the rear ofthe building was occupied by the Rainbow Room, the most ornate and unique restaurant/club of itskind in Portland. The basement contained the 16-chair Murphy Brothers barbershop, the Elite Billiard Parlor and the Rosarian Cafeteria.

Later on the NPS documents, One major ground floor tenant was the Rainbow Grille. It occupied most of the south half of the ground floor and much of the eastern portion. Developed by Theo Kruse and A. Mueller, the owners boasted that the Grill was the most handsome and unique on the Pacific Coast, if not the United States. The interior decorator was Jack Drew with R. E. Heine. Drew was designer for the interior for the Lipman-Wolfe Building. The rainbow theme predominated. With a dozen or more ornamental pillars in the main dining room, each pillar featured panels of ornamental glass tinted with the seven colors of a rainbow back light by incandescent lights. Along the sides of the room were a series of false windows which replicating the affect and between the false windows were mirrors. Opposite the main stairwell on the north side of the dining room was a mural of an Oregon rainbow. The stairwell led to a large balcony overlooking the dining room, which could seat up to 160 people. Along the south side, which ran from Park to Broadway, the Rainbow Grill featured an orchestra stand and dance floor. The intent was to provide a venue for high class musical and dramatic entertainment for the patrons. The Rainbow Grill had three entrances: the main entrance was a marble entry off Broadway. Secondary entrances were off the lobby and off Park. In total, the restaurant seated 800. Upon completion on October 5, 1913, the Oregonian hailed the building: People of Portland: Accept herewith your newest toy, your newest treasure. It is the Morgan Building. Use it freely, but not carefully. It is safe, solid, substantial and mil stand a lot of 'wear and tear, use and abuse. It cost nearly $600,000 and appears to be worth the money. In designing it and creating it, its owners and builders have had no thought other than to satisfy not only your needs, but your wants, aye, even your -whims as well The name of the building is notable. William Morgan was a real estate developer credited with constructing the first apartment house in Portland. Within a ten year period, he developed over 35 different office and apartment complexes, most of which his company continued to manage. The Morgan Building was to be his crown jewel. Despite the grand aspirations, the building faced a checkered history generally following the vagaries of Portland real estate on the west side of downtown. The first major problem came with the failure of the Rainbow Grill, which closed in 1915. For the next two decades, the space was occupied by restaurants of varying levels of success. The Hazelwood, a ladies tea room, occupied the space during much of the 1920s. Jolly Joan's opened in 1935 and remained for thirty years.

Further in the NPS:

In 1963, the land lease expired and the building reverted to the landowners, now W. I. and Robert M. Fletcher. The Fletchers sold the land and building to William F. and Richard H. Roberts. In 1966, the Robert embarked on a $2 million renovation, in part to reposition the office building away from its traditional market of medical tenants and toward legal, real estate and accounting tenants. To that point, little work had been done on the building. Work involved steam-cleaning the exterior, totally modernizing the interior upper floors, installing a 75 car parking garage in the basement, and creating the space known as Morgan's Alley in a major portion of the Rainbow Room area along the south end between Park and Broadway. The architect for the project was Edmundson, Kochendoefer, Kennedy and Travers.

Per Wikipedia: The Morgan Building is an office building located in downtown PortlandOregon, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[3][1]

The Morgan was home to Theodore Kruse's Rainbow Grill, which opened in October 1913. Kruse had closed his Louvre restaurant, a hotspot in the gay community, after it was a focal point of the 1912 Portland vice scandal. The Rainbow advertised "fat, juicy, delicious" oysters and a "Special Men's Grill" with meat of the diner's choosing. It closed in June 1915.[4][5]

Story: Per GLAPN website: After closing the Louvre, Theodore Kruse opened the Rainbow Grill in the Morgan Building.  It was so named because its design with prisms set throughout spread arrays of color all about.  The Rainbow was described as a place of unsurpassed otherworldly beauty that took a beholder’s breath away.  Like the Louvre, the Rainbow had a separate grill just for men.  Unlike with the Louvre, Kruse was not able to sustain the Rainbow financially, and he filed for bankruptcy in June 1915, after only a few months of operation.

The Rainbow Grille image, as show at the beginning of this page, appeared on the cover of a piece of sheet music, The Rainbow Waltz-Tango, written for the opening of Theodore Kruse's Rainbow Grille. The image is from the collection of George Painter.

citations & references: