I Need Money!
Country Bill’s is for sale? I want it!
Posted by: John Chandler on Aug 04, 2009 at 07:00PM
14 Comments
Hats off to drinking buddy Leland Hanson for spotting this in the real estate listings.
Holy cow! Country Bill’s in Woodstock is for sale? I must have it. How much do I love Country Bill’s? Let’s put it this way: I’ve been writing about bars and booze in this town for almost a decade and I’ve never mentioned it in print. Why? Because it’s mine and I didn’t feel like sharing. It’s 5300 square feet of classic steakhouse (great rock facade!) with vintage red tuck ‘n’ roll upholstery that’s maintained a faithful contingent of waitresses and cooks since 1964! Now that’s cred you can’t put a price on.
The asking price is almost a million-four, but I bet I can talk ‘em down. What I’m saying is, I’m looking for investors who want to own one of the last remaining pieces of pure, unvarnished Portland before it gets bulldozed to make way for more condos nobody wants. Come on! Who’s with me?
YESSSSSSSS!!!! thanks to our crappy economy, i have about $20 i can throw in – but i’d be more than happy to invest in cocktails down the road, or bartend if you’re ever looking for fresh(er) faces!
you have to make this happen!
I am adverse to owning real estate…
but I’ll drink there if you’re pouring!!
Seems like that place could have some atmospheric live music (loungey or alt-country, not the full-on rock perhaps)
Keep the menu, but somehow use local ingredients and a cool chef. I guess there’s folks that help finance restaurants.
First the Pagoda, now this! Dang! Put me in for a quarter of million, OK?
Country Bill’s is up for sale? What is this world coming to?
Maybe we could run it like a co-op — I don’t have cash to contribute, but I’d toil there for a few hours every week, and take my profit sharing in the form of those seriously world-class steaks they sell. That place rules, on every level, and it seems to have been ripped directly from another time and place… maybe Tulsa circa 1971.
Hey! I’m IN!! I’ll throw down my share of the Economic Stimulous package!
BTW, do you think the government even thought about the name when they called it a “Stimulus Package”?? That sounds to me like one of those ubiquitous bar bands doing covers of 80’s butt rock!
I have an idea. Instead of tipping your hat, and asking people to plunk in whatever they can afford—ask them to take that same $20, and go buy lottery tickets. Everyone. Hundreds of people in the Portland area can all buy $20 worth of lottery tickets, and donate the proceeds to the cause. After convincing them with your charms, I’m betting you’ll hit the mark. Maybe even have a few extra bucks to spruce a few things up if you like. Ergo, instead of Country Bill’s cattle drive, you’ll have Country Bill’s Lotto Drive.
And, when you get the keys, don’t forget the in-house newstand complete with copies of Portland Monthly. You can even come up with neato little things like pay a quarter to ride a buckin bronco, that help feed the income. Maybe even some lotto-themed contest to win a free night on the town for you and 10 of your friends. In the spirit of how the West was won—er how Country Bill’s was saved.
This is tragic news. BEYOND tragic. One of the last, untrammeled pieces of old Portland shouldn’t even be in jeopardy. It should be a cultural-historical monument with a city plaque on the phone pole outside and a mayorial day of appreciation, for God’s sake!
But like all things truly Portland—in the eyes of an admirer of old Portland who grew up elsewhere—Country Bill’s remained hidden. We found out about the place because my girlfriend had the fortune of having a great older couple named Dale and Shirley (r.i.p.) tell her about it during one of her Basement shifts, “We started going there because of all the old people, and now we ARE the old people!” Who could resist?
We went there religiously every week, dragging as many people out there as we could, when we lived in Portland. We had our going away party there. We risked life and limb to get there for dinner while visiting during the huge snowfall. I don’t think another steak house of that caliber from that time exists.
And you said it yourself, “Let’s put it this way: I’ve been writing about bars and booze in this town for almost a decade and I’ve never mentioned it in print. Why? Because it’s mine and I didn’t feel like sharing.”
Very Portland.
But every time we went there, they told us they were desperate for new business, wondering what they could do, hoping it was cyclical.
Too bad you were too involved in keeping something this cosmic a “secret” for yourself to use your writing to support them when it might have counted. Perhaps old Portland is one of those places that has already vanished beyond the event horizon, faded away into the unknowable as if it was never there. But the gnomic insistence on secrecy that defined the city will have been one of the reasons why, even if it once kept the place alive.
Keep the prime rib! And the lady with the bluish bouffant!
@Dave. There’s always the chance (slim though it might be) that some well-heeled eccentric might want to preserve this bastion of America’s glorious meat-eating past. As for the question of my secrecy, I honestly didn’t know they were in dire straits. The last time I was there the joint was packed, and the staff didn’t see fit to confide their financial distress to me. Hell, if I knew they were in trouble I would have hired a sky writer or something.
ALMOST a mil-4?! That’s a bargain…cheaper per sq foot than buying a home in some “desirable” area of PDX. Plus you can have a steak, seafood, and drinking party every night.
lurve that place!
Thanks for the information, I had no idea and found this really interesting. What will you think of next Bar Pilot?
I am there with you, I’d invest if I could for sure!!! It’s an end of an era. :(