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LEE PERLMAN
THE MID-COUNTY MEMO
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| Refectory Restaurant owner Mitch Stanley goes over menu ideas with his general manager Ed Olson. Stanley, who has owned the Refectory since 1983, works closely with law enforcement to maintain a safe environment in his bar. MEMO PHOTOS TIM CURRAN |
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| Yung Nguyen, left, and Tony Truong, owners of Gossip Restaurant & Lounge pose during their restaurant's one-year anniversary party held in February. Nguyen and Truong have come under increasing scrutiny from the city; they were officially warned recently to cooperate with Portland Police. |
Since it was Eight Ball back in the 1990s, the sports bar and tavern has been the subject of problems and complaints relating to rowdy and sometimes violent behavior on and off premises. It has been under several ownerships and names.
For the last year and a half it has been owned by Tony Truong and Yung Nguyen, and has been named Gossip Restaurant & Lounge. This spring they received a letter from the city of Portland asking them to work with the Police Bureau and other agencies to deal with “problems” - and warning them that if they didn't and the problems persist, they could face action under the city's Time Place Manner law. The “problems” included noise complaints from neighbors, fights, and one on-premises shooting. The Oregon Liquor Control Commission has exclusive authority to regulate liquor sales in Oregon, but Time Place Manner allows the city to set an arbitrary hour of closing as a last resort.
That is unlikely to happen with Gossip. Theresa Marchetti, the city's liquor licensing program director from the Office of Neighborhood Involvement, says that Gossip's management is “making good progress” toward a compliance plan, with better use of security and a format change emphasizing the sports bar instead of night club activity. (Thursday nights had been Hip Hop Night). The most hopeful thing, Marchetti told the Mid-county Memo last month, is “We've had no incidents since June.”
In an earlier conversation, Truong and Nguyen told the Memo that although “If there's any concerns, we're happy to sit down and talk” with authorities, they feel they have consistently been receiving a bad rap. The charges in the Time Place Manner letter were “not all correct,” Nguyen says; in particular, both partners claim, the shooting never happened, at least not on their premises. On one occasion, Truong says, the police came to Gossip because they said they “had heard there was going to be a shooting here. They waited all night and nothing happened.” Nguyen added, “There are no drugs here, no gangs.”
The noise complaint came from a single neighbor, Nguyen says. “We investigated,” talking to residents living geographically closer, and “they didn't hear any noise whatsoever.” There have sometimes been “incidents,” but when they occur, “We make sure there's no escalation, and call the police when necessary.”
The owners made it clear they would prefer that this article not be written, regardless of its conclusions. “It hurts our business because when passed along to the public it creates a bad image of us.” Nguyen adds, “When people hear bad things about a place they say, 'Whether it's true or not, I'd rather just stay away.' ”
Although no one wanted to discuss it for the record, several people told the Memo anonymously that there is fire behind the smoke. At least, until recently, the place has drawn Asian gang members at least some of the time. D.J. Dave McAllister had bones broken in one altercation there. Marchetti, told of Nguyen and Truong's reactions to the official complaints, told the Memo, “We have good information.”
Previous owners of this location have spoken with the Hazelwood Neighborhood Association, or even hosted the group's meetings. Nguyen says he is willing to talk to Hazelwood officers “to address an issue,” but “just to do it for the record, it's not necessary.”
During their discussions, the two Gossip owners several times mentioned another establishment - The Refectory Restaurant, just down Halsey Street at 1618 N.E. 122nd Ave. “What happens at the Refectory never shows up in the press,” Truong says. “It doesn't seem right to us.”
The Refectory has had troubles - a few years back, one knowledgeable observer says, it was one of the top ten bars in Portland in terms of the number of patrons arrested for DUI offenses. However, owner Mitch Stanley told the Memo, “Every year, since 2005, our DUI violations have gone down. OLCC people recently called us and said, 'Congratulations, we just ran a sting operation (to find liquor law violations) on your place, and you passed.' ”
The Refectory is a large bar hosting different attractions that attract different clientele, Stanley says. It shows Ultimate Fighting Championships fights (mixed martial-arts) on television. Bands play a variety of live music at night, from the Blues and the Rat Pack style of music to Patsy Cline type country. The Refectory is host to an Oregonians for Nebraska football club and the bar is busy during football season. Until 10 p.m. most customers are “35 and up,” Stanley says; for the last two hours there is a younger crowd but “even late at night, we don't get the 21-year olds.”
Stanley was not happy to hear Gossip's references to the Refectory, but declined to speak about them for the record. He did say, “There are some places where they don't want the police around; we invite them in. We work with them constantly. Whatever we've been asked to do by any regulatory authority, we've done. We've even asked, 'Do you want us to do anything differently?'” The Refectory employs six to eight security people at a time, he says, and they check patrons with electric wands for weapons among other measures.
Stanley is an active member of the Oregon Restaurant Association and, he says, “My advice to other owners is always, 'Work with the police and OLCC, do what they ask you to do.' "
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