Per Facebook post: The side door was Steve Suss's bar.

Embers/Embers Rafters/Sidedoor is a story you have to follow closely.

Sidedoor was first, then Roman purchased The Embers, within a year, Steve Suss owned. There is thought it was sometimes called “EMBERS Sidedoor” was that it was around the corner from the Ember’s Lounge and was then easy to direct people.

Per an interview with Steven (Suss) in 2011, We had the Embers on the other side of me on the same block. [Embers, 739 S.W. Park and Morrison next to the Virginia Cafe.] Came up for sale. He wanted to sell it and I figured we shared a common back wall. And I thought maybe that I could put a hole through the wall and combine the two bars. So when I applied for it through the city – the old Embers was up on Park and Yamhill in the, where the Zell block was. The Zell block, uh...the Zell Brothers Jewelers. Now it's a big hole in the ground. [the building was demolished a new high rise has since been built] I needed more space in that hole connecting the two bars then I had so I approached the guy that owned the clothing store on the other side of me if I could maybe take a corner of his spot just like maybe two feet and he said, “Sure! No problem! Two feet? Take 10 feet!” He says, “This used to be an old bank and right in that corner is the vault. You're not going to get an inch!” He said it's impossible to cut through that steel and concrete. So the police department decided, they came back and said they weren't going to allow it anyway. It would be too hard to control something like that – having to enter through one side of the block when the main portion of it was on the other side of the block. So I decided I wasn't going to do it. And then a week later I thought well, I decided that I would do it. For one-year Embers when Roman purchased it stayed a ‘straight’ bar, then changed it. It was right next door to the Virginia Café. Per Wikipedia: While the origin of the café's name is unknown, the original Virginia Cafe was opened in 1914 at 1014 SW Stark Street by three Greek immigrant brothers (Theodore, William and Christopher Dussin) after they were laid off from their jobs. The brothers opened a second location at 725 SW Park Avenue in downtown Portland in 1922, which lasted until 2007 when it was replaced by a $150 million, 35-story office tower built by Tom Moyer's TMT Development firm.’ Suss’s attempt to connect this tavern with his adjoining Rafter’s [believe this actually was The Side Door] was rebuffed by Mayor Terry Schrunk and City Councilman Frank Ivancie, who consistently fought licensing his bars. Schrunk was afraid of the reputation that Portland was getting, and Ivancie had an innate dislike for the gay liberation movement and everything it stood for. Despite City Council’s opposition to licensing gay bars in the 1960s and ’70s (local jurisdiction could only recommend) the Oregon Liquor Control Commission continually renewed their licenses, fearing a test case in court. NOTE: Roman and Steve had 3 bars at one time [Sidedoor, Focal Point, Embers] the city, Mayor Schunk didn’t like a ‘monopoly’ on bars – it is believed that Roman would lose a license or not be renewed and Steve would apply and get them.

Per Tracey St James/Bill Looker in an oral interview October 25, 2021, “It was on Yamhill, just a red door that everyone knew was The Sidedoor.”

History/Story: It appears that the ‘announcement’ of the opening of The Side Door was an ad placed in the April 1972 in The Fountain newspaper, April 1972 edition, page 3 and page 5.