Skip to main content
Permit problems are plaguing the Doug Fir Lounge, delaying its move from the Jupiter Hotel to the former Le Bistro Montage location at 301 SE Morrison St. The last official word from Doug Fir was that it hoped to be in its new home by mid-2024, but that deadline will come and go. On the morning of May 30, the new Doug Fir was still a boarded-up, salmon-colored building under the Morrison Bridge with nary a construction vehicle or worker to be found.
According to its slate of upcoming shows, the venue is continuing to book out its shows to the Mission Theater through at least the end of June. Its last show in the Jupiter space was Sept. 30, 2023, with performances by Johnny Franco and the soul band Ural Thomas and the Pain.
Doug Fir management has been mum on the delays, other than a bounce-back message to anyone who tries to email about booking:
“Booking at the venue is currently on pause until our permits come through at our new location. We appreciate your patience and hope to resume booking as soon as possible.”
Mike Quinn, owner of Doug Fir and a longtime Portland rock promoter, did not respond to multiple interview requests over several months about the permitting issues or a timeline for reopening.
The city was more forthcoming about the holdup.
Robert Layne II, senior communication coordinator at the Portland Bureau of Development Services, says Doug Fir ran into a sewer pipe issue. According to a records review at the request of WW, Layne says that the Bureau of Environmental Services—another department involved in the city’s complex permitting process—objected to the Doug Fir’s outdoor patio plan because its location would prevent access to an underground sewer pipe.
Quinn had originally planned an outdoor patio on the north side of the building but agreed to move it to the eastern side of the building to avoid the sewer pipe access issue, Layne says, also noting that Doug Fir and BES are still working through those issues.
BDS is still waiting on some additional information from Doug Fir to complete its land use review application. Layne also detected that Quinn and his team have 13 outstanding check sheets that require corrections to be turned in to BES, Portland Fire & Rescue, Portland Parks & Recreation, and others.
“Mr. Quinn has been working with a bunch of different folks within the city to move along the permit application in a bunch of different bureaus,” Layne says.
There is hope for future businesses trying to avoid permitting tangles such as the one Doug Fir finds itself in. On May 29, the Portland City Council approved a new one-stop-shop permitting bureau to help Portlanders get commercial and residential projects done safely and efficiently. Portland Permitting & Development will officially launch July 1.
In its nearly 20-year tenure at the Jupiter Hotel, Doug Fir hosted live music nearly every night in its sleek log-cabin-in-outer-space-style basement space. In 2013, Rolling Stone included it on a list of top small venues in America.
Back in February, Quinn’s spokeswoman, Annie Ostrowski at Monqui Presents, said the venue had already been tangled up in permitting issues for eight months.
“It has certainly put a strain on our staff,” she said.
