St. Johns Music Venue The Fixin’ To Is Fixin’ to Become an Arcade

St. Johns bar and music venue The Fixin’ To is fixin’ to go pinball wizard, starting this summer. Owners Marli and Bart Blasengame are installing a bunch of video games—retro cabinet games, modern racers, and over 30 pinball machines—in the 2,000-square-foot space currently being used as a music venue.

The new venture is a partnership with Chris Rhodes, owner of the barcade Wedgehead on Northeast Sandy Boulevard. But the St. Johns bar will retain The Fixin’ To’s name, location and “disheveled honky-tonk vibe,” Bart Blasengame says.

The Blasengames opened The Fixin’ To in 2010 and constructed the attached music venue, the soon-to-be arcade, in 2016. In 2018, WW named it the No. 3 best bar in town, and called it “a cornerstone of Portland’s indie music scene.”

Some aspects of the old bar will remain, including karaoke nights, DJs and event rentals. But the pivot to video games will be near-total, with machines playable 1 pm to midnight seven days a week (all ages welcome until 6 pm). The final shows at The Fixin’ To will happen the last week of June and the first week of July.

Bart Blasengame says the pivot is a financial decision.

“Having to borrow more money to stay alive during COVID just kind of pushed us over the monetary abyss, and we’ve been hanging on for dear life since,” Blasengame says. “We’re proud of what we’ve done. Really proud. But we had to face reality.”

GO: The Fixin’ To, 8218 N Lombard St., 503-477-4995, thefixinto.com. 4 pm-2 am daily.