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Five months after announcing its indefinite closure, CC Slaughters is preparing to return.
In October, the 39-year-old gay bar—one of the oldest in Portland—shut down after months of temporary closures and operating at limited capacity. The announcement caused an outpouring of support and grief from patrons, many of whom cited CC's as the first gay bar they ever entered.
Now, the club has announced it will be reopening in just a few weeks.
"We are excited to announce that CC Slaughters Portland will be reopening our doors to the general public in mid-April," reads the statement on the venue's website and social media. "We will be focusing all our efforts on making our bar a safe space for our customers. We will be requiring our staff as well as our guests to follow every rule put into place by the health authority as well as the bar management."
The club will reopen at 50% capacity and with the help of a Paycheck Protection Program loan. Its dance floor will still be closed for the foreseeable future, but in the meantime, CC's is planning to expand its food offerings and outdoor seating, and possibly host movie and bingo nights.
"We have been closed for many months now, and there isn't really a budget for a grand reopening," manager Kevin Hutman tells WW. "We're not going to have big party."
CC's target reopening date is April 19—a Monday, so that the newly reopened bar can hopefully ease its way into the weekend.
"We're going to take it one week at a time and slowly rebuild to the business we once were," says Hutman. In the meantime, "we're just going to be people's neighborhood gay bar."