Queer Old Town Cafe and Bar P¡nq Has Been Evicted From Ankeny Alley

P¡nq, a queer cafe and bar in Portland’s Old Town neighborhood, announced its eviction Nov. 17 via social media, just two months after opening.

“[People] didn’t fuck with the vision, and those who did were too economically maligned to save us,” P¡nq’s Instagram account stated in the comments section of the announcement. “Just regular failure under capitalism.”

P¡nq, also spelled Pinq, opened in late September, billing itself a worker-owned cooperative opposing gentrification, racism and oppression. Pinq wanted to fill the void left by The Roxy, the legendary Old Portland all-night diner that closed in March, and whose owner, Suzanne Hale, died Nov. 8. The business’s planned vigil for Transgender Day of Remembrance on Nov. 20 was canceled due to the bar’s closure.

Pinq took on the remainder of the lease on an Ankeny Alley space from The Queen’s Head, a gay Atlantic-style pub that opened last November. The Queen’s Head then-owner, Daniel Bund, sought investors for his business in March and renovated the club’s kitchen equipment, bar and outdoor seating throughout the spring. A group called The Queen’s Collective then ran the location between The Queen’s Head’s July closure and Pinq’s September debut. Pinq also operated a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Cqnnectiqn, that accepted donations to help achieve Pinq’s goals, which included “provocative artistic expression, rad economics, anti-oppression organizing and Queer culture keeping.”

The Queen’s Collective had 15 employees at its height. General manager Antha Pereira, public relations and social media manager Ti Rayn, and self-described “jack of all trades” Astrid Stark led the crew and worked with a network of more than 50 drag artists and event producers. The trio were the only employees remaining by the time Pinq opened. Pinq hosted drag and burlesque shows, open mics, makers markets, viewing parties for shows like The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula, and even bake sales to generate enough funds to stay afloat. A GoFundMe campaign run by The Queen’s Collective collected almost 6% of its goal, while a similar campaign for Cqnnectiqnn collected 3%.

The Queen’s Head and Pinq hosted drag artists who were displaced when Northeast Portland queer bar Local Lounge abruptly closed last November after more than a decade in business. When Pinq took over, it sought to fill more than 50% of its entertainment bookings with trans and nonbinary performers of color. The menu shifted from British pub fare to Southern soul food, like berbere chicken sandwiches, okra etouffee and oxtails. Pinq’s team purchased The Roxy’s espresso machine from Hale’s liquidation sale this past fall.

Facebook posts from Pinq and The Queen’s Head’s shared account detail severe financial setbacks. Pinq couldn’t open for three weeks in September, costing the new business vital revenue. Then, on its first weekend open, the refrigerator failed, racking up equipment and food costs. In October, a daylight break-in destroyed one of the bar’s doors. Stark lost a relative days later. Events were canceled throughout the summer due to low attendance.

“We refuse to bring a priority party of this caliber to a community that isn’t able to support it at the level it deserves—with the BIPOC performance and arts community here in PDX NEEDING excellence, and receiving less than too often,” The Queen’s Collective wrote on Facebook in July.