Gossip should have no friends

[May 28th, 2008]

• MISSISSIPPI GROWING: Pint-sized North Portland venue Mississippi Studios will host its last show on June 12 , news that would prompt candlelight vigils among touring singer-songwriters if there weren’t a twist: The club will reopen in October at the same location, but in a new, larger building. “Given the extreme puniness of our bar & seating area, it’s miraculous that we’ve been able to stay open as long as we have,” owner Jim Brunberg wrote in an email late last week. The current plan calls for Portland icon Storm Large to begin the demolition project “wearing a hardhat & wielding a sledgehammer” after her show at the intimate venue on June 11, and for full-scale demolition to begin on June 16. While the image of Storm smashing shit is sexy, we’re going to miss the current cozy incarnation of Mississippi Studios and the bitchin’ imitation Airstream trailer out back. Maybe the expanded menu, seating area and bar of the future Mississippi Studios space will be enough to make us forget.

• VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! Time is running out to vote in WW’s 2008 Best of Portland Readers Poll . Fill out your ballot at wweek.com/bop2008 by Saturday, May 31 , and you could win a bike from River City Bicycles, $200 in books from Powell’s or a day in a Mini Cooper convertible from Zipcar—not to mention recognition for your favorite people and businesses.

• EMAIL TIP(SY): The Oregon Liquor Control Commission caught Scoop’s attention recently with new and improved press releases that describeoffenses committed by local restaurants and bars in explicit detail. What kind of offenses, pray tell? Well, according to the OLCC, “an employee pushed a patron and hit the patron on the head with a pool cue ,” at downtown bar Shanghai Steakery . At Santorini West, problems include: “fights, stabbing, shots being fired , altercations, public drunkenness, harassment, excessive noise and public urination.” Holy crap! OLCC spokeswoman Christie Scott says the more detailed, tsk-tsking press releases are intended, in part, to make all businesses more responsible with alcohol sales . Read more samples of recent press releases from the OLCC below.

» BUT WE WERE DRUNK: In last week’s Drink Guide, we mistakenly wrote that Candlelight Cafe and Bar is “owned and operated by the same folks as Twilight Cafe.” While Candlelight Cafe owner Joe Shore’s daughter, Janelle, did once own the Twilight Cafe, she no longer does. We described Marianne Udall, the bartender at The Wishing Well, as a “70-year-old grandmother.” She is only 63. Also, we listed Produce Row Cafe as having strippers. It does not. But it should. We regret the errors.