Portland Restaurants Honor ‘Day Without Immigrants’

Several Portland-area restaurants are holding fundraisers or closing their doors today, February 16, in support of Day Without Immigrants, a nation-wide boycott and/or strike designed to raise awareness for the role immigrants play in American society. Here are the restaurants that will remain closed today in Portland (if you know of a restaurant not on the list, let Eater know by emailing portland@eater.com):

• Du's Grill
• Isabel restaurant
• Por Que No Taqueria (both locations)
• Revolucion Coffee House
• The Sugar Shop food cart
• Rose City Taqueria

Other restaurants are showing their support by staying open and donating some or all of the day’s proceeds to nonprofits that support immigrant communities. In Portland, the list so far includes:

• Verde Cocina (donating 10% of today’s sales from all of its locations to the ACLU)
• Beast and Expatriate (donating 13% of today’s beverage sales to ACLU)
• The American Local (donating 100% of tonight’s profits in its employees’ names to Causa Oregon)
• Mother’s Bistro (will match the earnings of any Latino staff member who comes to work and make a donation to Causa Oregon)

On Facebook, Mother’s Bistro chef-owner Lisa Schroeder explains her decision:

I offered to close Mother's Bistro & Bar in solidarity with striking workers tomorrow, but some staff were concerned about loss of income. Mother's will therefore be matching the earnings of any Latino staff that comes to work tomorrow and donating it to Causa Oregon, a non-profit devoted to helping protecting immigrant rights. We appreciate everything immigrants do for us and this country and are ready to put our money where our mouth is!

All of the above restaurants will reopen for business Friday, February 17, except Por Que No, which will remain closed tomorrow for General Strike. Por Que No tells Eater “all scheduled employees will be paid” both days.

• All Day Without Immigrants Coverage [Eater]