Candlight Room extinguishes candle, finishing with a plethora of outstanding blues bands, seeks new home to start a new era
You can call it an end of an era, but may prefer to call it the beginning of a new one. The Candlelight Room, located at 2032 SW 5th Ave, Portland, will be finishing its 28th year of providing the greater Portland area with the best of R&B and blues Portland has to offer.
The expansion of the Tri-Met line to Milwaukie will include the tearing down of the existing site of the Candlelight. The club has had the great fortune of operating as a Portland staple for local and national music artists. With the likes of Boz Skaggs, Robert Cray, Robin Trower, Jeff Healey, many more came and joined the local bands as they toured through Portland. Articles have appeared in such magazines as the Rolling Stone and Sunset Magazine, Alaska Airlines, and of course, this publication.
The Candlelight also had its own recording label called Candlelight Records. They featured the likes of Jim Mesi, Renato Caranto, Harpdog Brown, Blues Train, Margo Tufo and the gentleman of the blues, Norman Sylvester.
As a staple in Portland, most would consider The Candlelight to be Switzerland for all music lovers. It’s always amazing in a generation that changes so fast, when a youngun’ (under 45) explains to their parents about this great bar they found and their parents fill them in on “the rest of the story.” There are so many great stories about this icon. The Candlelight has only one requirement of its patrons: Enjoy the music and each other.
For a quick synopsis of the Candlelight, the building was constructed in 1949 as a neighborhood grocery store. The area was predominately Jewish with the best Kosher deli this side of New York City. The present owner, Joe Shore, remembers his parents shopping in the very store that now houses the Candlelight. Lester Beckman purchased the building in 1954. Shortly thereafter, a young entrepreneur by the name of Joe Cantonese leased the location from Beckman and converted it into a restaurant by the name of Mogal’s.
Coincidently, there is a Joe at either end of this story. Four years later, Cantonese sold the restaurant to a gentleman by the name of Sydney Porter in 1963. Cantonese then built a new place named the Hippopotamus Restaurant in the Lloyd Center Mall until the mall remodeled in 1987 and lost his lease. The present owner, out of the greatest respect for Cantonese, purchased, then installed the stained glass windows in their present location at the Candlelight. If you have had the pleasure of enjoying the Candlelight Room, you will notice three stained glass windows by the front entrance.
Porter, who was a talented well-known pianist, had performed regularly at a club on the east side of Portland known as the Chicken Coop. Porter purchased Mogal’s from Cantonese, then changed the name to Sydney’s. It soon became Portland’s finest jazz club and dinner house. It did live up to its reputation. Sydney’s entertained the likes of Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald. They would often sit in with Porter when they were in town. God bless Porter for his great contribution to the world of music.
Sadly, he passed away in 1972. A local character by the name of Bill Hills purchased the restaurant from Porter’s estate. The Candlelight Room was then born. Bill Hills tore out the stage and put in a king size waterbed. He then created the dive bar we now know and love. The clientele were mostly riff raff and cast offs from the old Red Lion Inn.
In 1977, Hills sold the Candlelight Room to a local restaurateur by the name of Ron Mead and his silent partner Al Sizer. Mead, through his flair for good food and inexpensive drinks, made the Candlelight Room a Mecca for Portland State Students. After seven years of ownership, in 1984, Mead sold his business to Shore. It took Shore going on vacation, so the bartenders could turn off the old jukebox and bring in live blues bands. The riff raff then became legit and the local musicians helped create a renowned blues bar.
Changing with the times, The Candlelight now features the best blues bands and R&B. And so it continues today. Hopefully, there will be another 27 years in a new-and-improved location. The Candlelight building is a tough act to match, but the search is ongoing. They have looked at a couple locations. The joke is that they would have to dirty it up some. Smoke the walls and put gum on the carpet to make it feel like home.
It’s great to hear all the stories of the couples who have met at the Candlelight, then married, divorced, married again, had children, etc. Most of you have seen the owner’s daughter Janelle grow from a young girl working in the kitchen, to a fabulous woman. The other employees also have worked here for years; some have grown up and some haven’t yet. “We will just leave it at that. That is why we love and thank them for creating a safe place for everybody to commingle and enjoy FREE live music!”
If you are interested in keeping up with the changing times, “Like” the Candlelight Room on Facebook and check out the web site at http://www.candlelightroom.com/
Thank you to all that have made the last 63 years at this location a time to remember for everyone. “Look for our new location.”
