Dante's
Encyclopedia
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
and live music venue in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, that opened in February, 2000. Since opening, the club has hosted numerous internationally-famous bands, solo-acts, troupes and performance artists.
Many now-famous performers honed their acts at Dante's including the "lounge-core/mash-up" band Storm & The Balls featuring Storm Large
Storm Large
Storm Large is a singer best known as a contestant on the CBS reality television show Rock Star: Supernova.-Personal life:...
. The band had a regular Wednesday night show at the club for nearly five years. In addition, the SuicideGirls
SuicideGirls
SuicideGirls is a website that features softcore pornography and text profiles of goth, punk and indie-styled young women who are known as the "Suicide Girls"...
Burlesque Troupe and The Porcelain Twinz neo-burlesque act both performed regularly at Dante's well-known Sunday night "Sinferno Cabaret."
Dante's is popular locally, and has received numerous "people's choice" awards, such as Best Live Music from AOL.com
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
, "Favorite House of Rock" from Willamette Week
Willamette Week
Willamette Week is an alternative weekly newspaper published in Portland, Oregon, United States. It features reports on local news, politics, sports, business and culture....
, and "Best Live Music Venue" from Portland Citysearch.com. Dante's located in downtown Portland
Downtown Portland
Downtown Portland, the city center of Portland, Oregon, United States, is located on the west bank of the Willamette River. It is in the northeastern corner of the southwest section of the city and is where most of the city's high-rise buildings are found....
near Old Town
Old Town Chinatown, Portland, Oregon
Old Town Chinatown is a neighborhood in the Northwest section of Portland, Oregon. The Willamette River forms its eastern boundary, separating it from the Lloyd District and the Kerns and Buckman neighborhoods...
and is housed in one of Portland's many historic buildings.
Club history
Dante's opened in February 2000 by Frank Faillace, and is currently owned and managed by Frank Faillace and Paul S. Park.The club has staged well-known acts, like Bo Diddley
Bo Diddley
Ellas Otha Bates , known by his stage name Bo Diddley, was an American rhythm and blues vocalist, guitarist, songwriter , and inventor...
, X, Big Star, Nina Hagen
Nina Hagen
Nina Hagen is a German singer and actress.-Early years:Hagen was born as Catharina Hagen in the former East Berlin, East Germany, the daughter of Hans Hagen , a scriptwriter, and Eva-Maria Hagen, an actress and singer...
, Lemmy of Motörhead, George Clinton
George Clinton (funk musician)
George Clinton is an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and music producer and the principal architect of P-Funk. He was the mastermind of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic during the 1970s and early 1980s, and launched a solo career in 1981. He has been cited as one of the foremost...
& P-Funk
P-Funk
P-Funk is a shorthand term for the repertoire and performers associated with George Clinton and the Parliament-Funkadelic collective and the distinctive style of funk music they performed...
, The Killers, Concrete Blonde
Concrete Blonde
Concrete Blonde is an alternative rock band based in the United States. They were initially active from 1982 to 1995, and again from 2001 to 2004, and once again in 2010.-Biography:...
, Peaches
Peaches (musician)
Merrill Beth Nisker , better known by her stage name Peaches, is a Canadian electronic musician and performance artist who lives in Berlin, Germany. Her songs are noted for disregarding traditional gender norms and their use of sexually explicit lyrics...
, The Reverend Horton Heat
The Reverend Horton Heat
The Reverend Horton Heat is the stage name of American musician Jim Heath as well as the name of his Dallas, Texas-based psychobilly trio. Heath is a singer, songwriter and guitarist....
, Drive-By Truckers
Drive-By Truckers
Drive-By Truckers are an alternative country/Southern rock band based in Athens, Georgia, though three out of six members are originally from The Shoals region of Northern Alabama, and the band strongly identifies with Alabama. Their music uses three guitars as well as bass, drums, and now...
, Hank Williams III
Hank Williams III
Shelton Hank Williams, known as Hank 3 , is a neotraditional country and punk metal singer, drummer, bassist, and guitarist. In addition to his honky tonk recordings, Williams' style alternates among country, punk and metal...
, Matisyahu
Matisyahu
Matthew Paul Miller , better known by his Hebrew name and stage name Matisyahu, is an American Hasidic Jewish reggae and alternative rock musician....
, My Morning Jacket
My Morning Jacket
My Morning Jacket is an American rock band from Louisville, Kentucky.The band consists of Jim James , Tom 'Two-Tone Tommy' Blankenship , Patrick Hallahan , Carl Broemel , and Bo Koster .-History:My Morning Jacket was...
, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club is an American rock band from San Francisco, California, now based in Los Angeles. BRMC is known for their garage rock, blues, folk revival, neo-psychedelia sound. They are influenced by bands such as: The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Verve, The Rolling Stones, Oasis, T...
, Mini Kiss
Mini Kiss
Mini Kiss is a Kiss tribute band made up entirely of people with a form of dwarfism. The founder was band leader Joey Fatale . It is one of the most popular little people tribute bands in existence. They made an appearance on the Game Show Network revival of I've Got a Secret. No commercial...
, Patton Oswalt
Patton Oswalt
Patton Oswalt is an American stand-up comedian, writer, actor and voice actor. He is best known for portraying Spencer Olchin in the popular sitcom The King of Queens, voicing Remy from the film Ratatouille and Thrasher from the Cartoon Network original series Robotomy.-Early life:Oswalt was born...
, Doug Stanhope
Doug Stanhope
Douglas Gene "Doug" Stanhope is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and author known for his abrasive comedy routines.-Life and career:Stanhope quit high school after his freshman year...
, Tommy Chong
Tommy Chong
Tommy Chong is a Canadian-American comedian, actor, writer, director, activist, and musician who is well known for his stereotypical portrayals of hippie-era stoners...
and director John Waters
John Waters (filmmaker)
John Samuel Waters, Jr. is an American filmmaker, actor, stand-up comedian, writer, journalist, visual artist, and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films...
.
1890s through 1960
The building at the corner of SW 3rd and Burnside has gone through many incarnations. One of the confounding factors, when researching the history of this building, is that in 1891, Portland annexed territories east of the Willamette RiverWillamette River
The Willamette River is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States...
, and enacted an ordinance for numbering the streets, but in 1931, the north-to-south division of the city was shifted from SW Ankeny Street to Burnside Street, which necessitated yet another change in the numbering system of streets. The Oregon Historical Society
Oregon Historical Society
The Oregon Historical Society is an organization that encourages and promotes the study and understanding of the history of the Oregon Country, within the broader context of U.S. history. Incorporated in 1898, the Society collects, preserves, and makes available materials of historical character...
has a directory that effectively translates the old addresses into the newer format. For example, an address that was formerly at 13 Northwest 3rd Avenue, was now "shifted" south and became simply number 3 Southwest 3rd Avenue, the current site of Dante's pizza window. Properties on the south side of Burnside were "shifted" east. The three story structure at 314 SW Burnside was formerly numbered as 264 SW Burnside. While this re-alignment was confusing at the time, it laid the groundwork for the modern Portland street system as it is currently aligned.
In transcribing the history of the building, it is important to remember that Dante's is composed of two structures with a rich and intertwining history. The main room is in a one-story structure and comprises the eastern half of the venue. The Limbo Lounge sits to the west and there are an additional two stories above it, that are currently in use.
Examination of Oregon Historical Society documents indicates that the parcel of land that Dante's currently sits upon are lots 5 through 8 of the block in Couch
John H. Couch
John Heard Couch was an American sea captain and pioneer in the Oregon Country in the 19th century. Often referred to as Captain Couch, he became famous for his singular skill at navigation of the mouth of the Columbia River. He is one of the early residents and founders of Portland,...
's Addition, and were owned by various members of the Jorgensen family, beginning sometime around the 1890s to 1900s, and possibly earlier. This is further corroborated through the City of Portland's Bureau of Buildings, which is in possession of several building permits for the property, filed by various members of the Jorgensen family or estate. The earliest dates to October 19, 1921 at the 3-story property at 314 West Burnside Street (formerly known as 266 West Burnside Street under the pre-1931 street system), which references the ground floor property as a "Soft drink
Soft drink
A soft drink is a non-alcoholic beverage that typically contains water , a sweetener, and a flavoring agent...
and Lunch."
Further examination of Oregon Historical Society photographs of the intersection of SW 3rd and Burnside, dated from May 1927, clearly show the landmark Union Theater (now the Paris Theater) just across the street from the eastern half of Dante's which is where the main room, bar, and kitchen are currently situated. There is a second and third story on top of the existing structure which is labeled as the Winchester House. It is this property that was reputed to be a brothel
Brothel
Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...
, but in the parlance of the times it was also known as a "flophouse
Flophouse
A flophouse , doss-house or dosshouse is a place that offers very cheap lodging, generally by providing only minimal services.-Characteristics:...
". Interviews with persons of this era also indicate that this was where day-laborers could be found, in addition to a host of other characters. The 1929 phone book also lists tenants of the first floor of the block to be a restaurant owned by Fred Soller and a clothier named Julius Breall. Prior to the appearance of the Winchester House, this building is reported to have been a liquor distribution warehouse.
On October 2, 1930, Pauline Jorgensen, the listed owner of the Winchester House had the Rose City Wrecking Company demolish the Winchester House's wooden structure down to the existing one-story structure that forms Dante's main room. The last existing inspection records of the 3-story property referencing Jorgensen ownership are dated March 24, 1959 and specifically cite the installation of fire doors and wooden partitions in the current 3-story structure that forms Dante's Limbo Lounge. The City's last record of Jorgensen ownership or activity of the one-story structure is dated June 29, 1983 and lists a Victor Hugo Jorgensen as the owner of the one-story property.
1960-present
There have been several owners and incarnations inside of the one-story and three-story structures that form Dante's. At some point, fill-brick was used to partition the once contiguous ground-floor space. This was later removed and the original brickwork was restored and structurally upgraded.From the 1960s onward, records on the 3-story structure are sparse, but a series of documents dated to 1979 indicated that the building was owned by Rip City Realty. There are additional documents dated January 8, 1982 that list a Lanny Swerdlow as the owner of the aforementioned structure. Swerdlow came to rather infamous notoriety in Portland after opening a series of alternative-lifestyle nightclubs for teens, running afoul of the law on numerous occasions. In the 1990s the ground floor was home to the infamous Dr. Bill's Learning Center. Following Dr. Bill's retirement in 1996, it became Aja's Lingerie "modeling shop," which is a nice name for what is known in the business as a "jack shack". Finally the lingerie shop was moved up to the third floor to make room for Dante's expansion in 2001.
The one-story structure has primarily served as a restaurant since the 1960s, but appears to have been unoccupied for several long stretches. Permits from 1984 indicate that the restaurant was legally known as the New Canaan Restaurant (corporate name), doing business as Chang's Mongolian Grill. From 1985 to 1999, the one-story structure comprising Dante's main room, at the southwest corner of West Burnside and Third Avenue, was the original Chang's Mongolian Grill. On April 1, 1999 Frank Faillace took over the lease from Chang's, remodeling and opening on February 3, 2000.
Prior to 1984, there are virtually no official building or inspection records that help to identify the activity in this particular property. In the 1970s up until 1984, it was a punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
music venue called The Metropolis or "The Met", which featured underground punk bands like The Cramps
The Cramps
The Cramps were an American rock band, formed in 1976 and active until 2009. The band split after the death of lead singer Lux Interior. Their line-up rotated much over their existence, with the husband and wife duo of Interior and lead guitarist Poison Ivy the only permanent members...
and The Wipers. The Met was a favorite hangout of a diverse crowd including punk rockers, drag queens and strippers including a soon-to-be-famous Courtney Love
Courtney Love
Courtney Michelle Love is an American rock musician. Love is the lead vocalist, lyricist, and rhythm guitarist for alternative rock band Hole, which she formed in 1989, and is an actress who has moved from bit parts in Alex Cox films to significant and acclaimed roles in The People vs...
.
The building is currently owned by J.A. Atwood Investments.