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The Building Housing Portland Legacy Restaurant Jake’s Famous Crawfish Is for Sale

It’s unclear what will happen to the seafood standby inside the building, one of Portland’s oldest restaurants

The lit sign at Jake’s Famous Crawfish, with its small crawfish illustration. Jake’s is located in Portland, Oregon.
The sign at Jake’s Famous Crawfish. The building that houses Jake’s, one of the city’s oldest restaurants, is now up for sale.
Mark Youso / Shutterstock
Brooke Jackson-Glidden is the editor of Eater Portland.

One of Portland’s oldest restaurants may be caught in the middle of a shakeup. The building that houses Jake’s Famous Crawfish, the longstanding Portland seafood spot downtown, is now for sale, the Portland Business Journal reports.

Commercial Integrity NW has listed two buildings on SW 12th, including a number of apartments and Jake’s, which is located at the base of one of the buildings. According to the Business Journal, a pair of limited liability companies own the buildings, with a connection to the McCormick and Schmick families. The buildings are fully leased, including the 43 apartments above the restaurant.

Jake’s Famous Crawfish has had a number of different owners in its lifetime. Jacob “Jake” Lewis Freiman opened Jake’s Famous Crawfish in 1892; Bill McCormick, of the famous seafood chain McCormick & Schmick’s, purchased Jake’s in the 1970s. Landry’s Inc. — which owns chain restaurants like Chart House, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., and Joe’s Crab Shack — purchased McCormick & Schmick’s in 2012. Jake’s Famous Crawfish and its sibling restaurant, Jake’s Grill, remain standbys for tourists and old-school Portlanders seeking Dungeness-bay shrimp cakes, popcorn crawfish, and blue plate specials with grilled steelhead. It’s unclear what will happen to the restaurant once a new buyer closes on the building; so far, representatives from Landry’s and Commercial Integrity NW principal advisor Justin Poor have yet to respond to comment. This story will be updated with more information.

Jake’s Famous Crawfish [Official]
Jake’s Famous Crawfish building, downtown apartments go up for sale [PBJ]