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After Tyrone Hendrix performed for the first time at Alberta Street Pub, the long-standing venue at the corner of 11th Avenue and Alberta Street in Northeast Portland, he vowed never to return.
“That was in 2016, 2017, sometime in that time frame,” he says in his typically speedy, clipped tone. “It was not pleasant at all. It was some racial stuff that went down, and I was not feeling it at that point. I said, ‘I’ll never play here again.’”
The irony of Hendrix’s hard-line feelings about the venue is not lost on him. Not only because he eventually returned to play at the Alberta Street Pub multiple times in the years since that one-off incident, but also because he is now part owner of the club.
“No, absolutely not,” Hendrix responds with a laugh when I ask him if being a business owner is something he ever saw himself doing. “Trust me, I can’t believe I’m the owner of a venue. It’s pretty, pretty cool.”
The new role really doesn’t feel like a huge leap for Hendrix. Since relocating to Portland from Oakland nearly 20 years ago, the 47-year-old drummer has been a fixture in the local R&B, hip-hop and jazz communities.
During that time, he has served as the backbone for Dookie Jam, a beloved monthly funk jam session that bounced around the city for the better part of a decade, and landed himself plum gigs like backing Stevie Wonder and Prince. (He’s currently serving as the touring drummer for neo-soul artist Allen Stone.) And once the bad actors that tainted his view of the Alberta Street were gone, he became a fixture at the club, backing his many friends and helping put together the regular Lunch & Soul series during the pandemic.
Still, Hendrix never considered taking a stake in the venue until one of its previous owners, Ezra Holbrook, encouraged him to consider taking over. Hendrix took the leap last year, joined by his friend and business partner Monica Mast.
“I have known Tyrone for over 15 years,” Mast writes in an email. “Through those years of supporting him as a musician, and absolutely having no musical gifts myself, when he approached me about this business venture, it was a no brainer! This was a way for me to personally contribute to the music community in Portland by providing a space that all people feel safe, from all backgrounds, orientations and colors.”
Hendrix’s stake in the club feels especially monumental in that, according to Jim Brunberg, founder of the Independent Venue Coalition, the Alberta Street Pub is now the only Black-owned music venue in the entire state of Oregon.
Hendrix’s involvement also returns the business to Black hands for the first time in decades. In the ‘70s, the club, then known as the Love Train, was part of a string of Black-owned bars and clubs that lined Alberta catering to the majority Black populace of North and Northeast Portland with regular performances by local funk and R&B artists.
“I never knew,” Hendrix admits. “I was like, ‘This was Black-owned at one point?!’ When I started talking to the building manager, Django [Amerson] and Ezra, they explained to me what it was. That’s been the cool magic of this place. The kids of the parents that used to come here back in the day are coming by saying, ‘I remember this place! My parents and my uncles and aunties used to come here and hang out.’”
Hendrix and his team have been doing their part to keep the legacy of the space alive, like keeping signs advertising the Love Train prominently displayed by the front door and in the covered patio. And they’ve done a great job honoring the vast history of the venue in their booking decisions, welcoming an impressively diverse roster of artists to their stage with an emphasis on the huge array of Black talent in the city like gospel-inspired soul singer Aléa Lorén on May 24 and jazz vocalist Donna Jones on June 7.
“I’ve definitely felt the love from the neighborhood,” Hendrix says. “I’ve seen Alberta change since I came here in 2004. Being that we’re on the forefront of resurrecting the area and being Black-owned, it’s not a weight, but it’s a responsibility that I take seriously.”
GO: Alberta Street Pub, 1036 NE Alberta St., 503) 284-7665, albertastreetpub.com. 3 pm–2 am Monday–Thursday, noon–2 am Friday, 11 am–2 am Saturday–Sunday.