Hawthorne's Fall Split: The Block Going Quiet and the Block Filling In

"Well, I am 74," Monique Siu told Eater Portland in a phone call the morning she announced that OK Omens would close. "It's a really challenging time to be in the restaurant industry. It's a young person's game."

The last service at 1758 SE Hawthorne Blvd is Saturday, October 17. Eleven days before Siu's announcement, an overnight fire across the street had already closed three storefronts. The 1700 block of Hawthorne will head into winter missing businesses on both sides of the street. About twenty blocks east, the 3600 block took on two new businesses in three weeks, right next door to each other. This fall the boulevard's news is happening at two ends, and the two ends are moving in opposite directions.

The 1700 block, five weeks apart

The fire began at Gol, the Eurosports bar at 1739 SE Hawthorne, early on Tuesday, September 15. Portland Fire & Rescue crews arrived around 1 a.m. and had the blaze out by 1:30, and no injuries were reported. Gol's own account said smoke traveled through a crawlspace running the length of the building and damaged the neighboring businesses.

Here's where each business on that row stood as of early October:

• Gol, 1739 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Owner Peter Mahr told Eater the bar will be closed "at least several months." A restoration company at the site told KOIN 6 that repairs could take "six months to a year." Mahr has said his main focus is supporting his staff. His GoFundMe covers fire-related expenses and staff pay during the closure.
• Likely Ivy, 1725 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Owner Ivy Nacol told KOIN that corrosive soot covered most of the vegan bakery's equipment, and much of it may need replacing. The bakery's fundraiser asks for help with repairs, new equipment, and lost income. It says Nacol intends to reopen but gives no date.
• Big Top Tattoos, 1729 SE Hawthorne Blvd. The shop's fundraiser says structural repairs could take months and the shop won't reopen soon. The artists may have to rebuild at a different location.
• Devil's Dill and No Fun Bar. Both reopened the same Tuesday as the fire.

None of the three damaged businesses had announced a temporary location, a pop-up, or a reopening date by early October. For now, the fundraisers are the clearest way to help.

Gol had been changing shape for a long time before the fire. It started as a European corner grocery in the early 2000s. In the 2010s it became 4-4-2, a soccer bar with a Bosnian menu. Mahr, a 4-4-2 regular and amateur soccer player, bought the business when it closed in 2019. After some early experiments with Peruvian food, he turned it into the Eurosports neighborhood bar that made Eater Portland's list of the city's best sports bars.

Why the reopening dates are so open-ended

Property records date the Gol building to 1925. It's one of many Hawthorne and Belmont storefronts built during the wave of streetcar lines that pushed into Southeast Portland in the early 1900s. The building isn't on Portland's historic building inventory. A crawlspace running the length of the row is how smoke from one bar damaged a bakery and a tattoo shop, and it also helps explain why the repair estimates run from months to a year.

This stretch has been through this before. In 2021 a fire destroyed a similar row of vintage storefronts at SE 13th and Hawthorne, and two firefighters were injured. On Belmont, the Monte Carlo restaurant, built in 1927, burned down in 2002. The vacant lot it left became grazing ground for the Belmont Goats, which is how the Goat Blocks got their name.

The corner across the street

OK Omens is the final form of Castagna, the fine dining restaurant Siu opened next door in 1999. Cafe Castagna followed soon after, known for its burger and butter lettuce salad. In 2018, chef Justin Woodward helped Siu turn the cafe into the neo-bistro OK Omens. Castagna announced its permanent closure in 2023, which left OK Omens to carry the name forward. Siu's farewell post counts "25 years of great food, wine, and incredible memories" on that corner.

The restaurant isn't fading out. Chef Joseph Papas took over the kitchen after Woodward left in 2024, in his first executive chef role. His seafood earned the restaurant fresh praise, including a cured trout toast on Portland Monthly's Top 50 list and a Dungeness crab endive salad tossed in crab fat that Eater PDX named in its most recent 38 Essential Restaurants. If you've been meaning to go back for either dish, you have until October 17. No farewell event and no plans for the space had been announced as of early October.

Twenty blocks east, two new doors side by side

The 3600 block is having a different kind of fall. Bar Scorpio opened at 3638 SE Hawthorne Blvd on Friday, August 7. Owner Aurelia Bardel runs it with a mostly female bartending staff of Aurelia, Rosie, Pavel and Mia. The menu is cocktails, dessert, and hot dogs.

Three weeks later, on Thursday, August 27, Jade Rabbit opened next door at 3632 SE Hawthorne Blvd. The queer- and worker-owned restaurant serves vegan dim sum, pan-Asian dishes, and tea service. Jade Rabbit has moved several times in its nine years. It started as Ichiza Kitchen in Goose Hollow in 2017, then went through a rebrand, location changes, and a pop-up residency before settling on Belmont in early 2025. The Hawthorne space is its newest home.

Two places opening a door apart within a month gives the block a natural evening route: dim sum at Jade Rabbit, then a cocktail and dessert at Bar Scorpio.

Belmont fills the space Jade Rabbit left behind

Jade Rabbit left Belmont, and Belmont picked up something new nearby. Patufet, a "wine + vermouth + treats" bar inspired by Barcelona's vermut bars, opened in the former Foreland Beer space at 2511 SE Belmont Street. It held a friends-and-family night on Friday, an industry and Belmont neighbors night on Saturday, and a full public opening on Sunday, October 4, from noon to 9 p.m.

Secret Sauna, a wood-fired sauna business, is moving into the same address after a search that at one point included Montavilla. Bridgetown Bites puts the spot at the eastern edge of the Buckman neighborhood. As of October 2, the only timing given was "early October." Once it opens, that will be vermouth and a wood-fired sauna under one roof on Belmont.

October on the corridor, in date order

The month's calendar covers the whole length of the street, from Ladd's Addition to the Bagdad. October 17 is the busiest day on it.

Tour de Ladd is a school-day bike, scooter, and skate ride through Ladd's Addition. The Abernethy PTA hosts it to raise money for Abernethy Elementary, and families collect pledges for their student riders. The ride starts at 2421 SE Orange Ave, a few blocks from the stretch of Hawthorne where Gol and OK Omens sit.

The Bagdad's October 10 listing notes that some ghost tour content may be scary for younger visitors. Theater and venue schedules change, so check the listings before you plan a night around one of these dates.

If you own on Hawthorne or Belmont and you're tracking how a block's mix of businesses affects your home's value, Green Buck Real Estate follows these changes block by block, and we can show you how the businesses near your address factor into its value. Request a free home valuation.