How can be lounge

But Chow and his wife's Chopsticks III, in the upper reaches of Portland on Northeast Columbia Boulevard, was a whole different and often equally vital experience—an industrial zone drinking haunt for warehouse workers and far north rockers, the kind of place where Bon Jovi and the Crue may or may not not be ironic, and where both Christmas and Christmas Eve filled to the sidewalks with holiday orphans belting their hearts out.

The New York Times visited the bar, improbably, in — as part of a love song to Portland karaoke:. It's the kind of awful nightspot where if your watch was broken, you could keep time by the diminishing height of the melting heap of ice dumped in the urinal in the men's room.

When the heap of ice read , Chopsticks III was jammed with 50 people or more: groups of women out for a night away; a dwarf with an Afro who submitted his power ballads under the stage name Micro; a group of four buddies whose Monday-night karaoke club requires them to sing any song a friend challenges them to, blind.

Also, a troupe of puppeteers from a local children's theater, their snakes, ducks and cowgirls laid carefully across a table in the back of the bar. But as the bar announced Thursday night, the puppet part is over. Come in and say goodbye! Karaoke will start at , hope to see you all one last time! One great thing I learned about Chow were the origins of his catch phrase. Chow also loves to use his image, a close up of his face in his advertising.

He has always wanted to be a respected businessman. Rich steered me to his inspiration, car sales tycoon Scott Thomason who used his face in his advertising and has since left Portland under a cloud of controversy. A tall chain link separated the ample parking lot from the neighboring trucking business.

While I was taking photos a pick-up truck drove unto the lot and headed behind the defunct bar. I grabbed a few more shots bracing myself for a confrontation. An older man approached. He told me he was the new owner. This surprised me. I assumed the place would be demolished for the parking spaces. He told me he was reopening the building as another bar.

I mentioned that I had questioned whether this location was ever suitable for a bar. His revelation of being a strip club owner made me comfortable to confess that I was a blogger writing an obituary for the previous business.

This made me feel good. After that he excused himself to work on getting his club ready. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. April 5, August 13, Like this: Like Loading