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The Central Eastside Portland lesbian bar Doc Marie’s announced through social media that its last night serving up cocktails would be on Halloween. The bar’s statement attributed its impending closure to financial constraints.
“This has been a devastating year for small businesses and for our community and we don’t have the finances to keep our doors open,” the statement reads. “We want to send so much love and gratitude to our community and all the people that helped us create so much queer joy and magic over the last three years.”
Doc Marie’s opened in July 2022. Named for early 20th century political activist Dr. Marie Equi, Doc Marie’s was the first bar in recent memory to market itself as a full-time lesbian bar. When the bar closed for repairs after its opening night, it also came out that two Doc Marie’s managers quit over tensions with its co-owner, Olga Bichko, while an anonymous Instagram account purportedly run by ex-employees aired other grievances, according to the Oregonian. Doc Marie’s would reopen a month later, but not before right-wing media outlets reported the story as an example of queer Portland leftists attacking their own.
This is Portland’s fifth LGBTQ+ bar to announce its closure within 365 days, or roughly a third of all of Portland’s queer bars. The Buckman neighborhood video bar Sissy Bar closed last October, while its neighbor Crush closed after more than 20 years of business. Misfits, which was located off of SE 82nd Avenue and Russell Street near McDaniel High School, closed in May, while Scandals—the last surviving bar on Portland’s storied Vaseline Alley—closed in September, though it has pledged to reopen in the Alberta Arts District. (CC Slaughters announced new ownership in July, roughly a month before its previously announced closure.)
The two-story bar, which previously housed bars such as The Elvis Room and Good Luck Charm, has not yet shared its Halloween programming, but will have karaoke, DJs and Latin dance parties into October.
GO: Doc Marie’s, 203 SE Grand Ave., 503-235-5690, docmaries.com. 5 pm–1 am Thursdays, 5 pm–2 am Fridays and Saturdays, 5 pm–midnight Sundays.
