After Tuesday’s bulk announcement of closures around Portland, there’s one more to add to the list: Willamette Week is reporting that 35-year-old Hollywood bar Blackwell’s Grub Steak Grill is closed for good, after owner Jan DeLorme died this past week.
The NE 41st venue was the epitome of a classic dive, from its cigarette vending machine to well liquors and house band Bayou Boyz. According to WWeek, DeLorme bought it in 1982 when it was Chinese restaurant the Mandarin, converting it into Blackwell’s.
DeLorme was in poor health and entered palliative care earlier in January — a celebratory memorial for DeLorme happened last Saturday.
Her son Charlie told WWeek’s Matthew Korfhage that DeLorme’s family only made the decision to close the bar after her death, apparently having considered keeping it open. And potential buyers for the space are approaching Charlie DeLorme — there’s no word about what might happen to the bar’s premises since it’s not officially on the market yet, but in any case, Blackwell’s is definitively gone.
