Portland's historic Hollywood District is starring in its own revival

Back in the 1930s, you could gaze eastward from downtown Portland and spot the huge, flickering sign at the opulent Hollywood Theatre all the way out on Northeast Sandy Boulevard.

Not only did the H-O-L-L-Y-W-O-O-D sign become a flashy beacon on the city's east side, the vaudeville theater and movie house became the namesake of the surrounding district.

The word still conjures images of glitz and glamour, mainly because of its association with that more-famous movie capital of the same name.

But Portland's Hollywood also shares the other Hollywood's familiar story line of prosperity, decline and, now, renewal.

Today, there are plenty of reasons to visit this strip of Northeast Sandy Boulevard, which is to Portland what Highway 99 is to Seattle, a catch-all thoroughfare where mid-century architecture, cheap ethnic restaurants, bright signs and an eclectic residential base make for a head-turning road trip through Americana.

Mixed in with the cool dive bars, inexpensive Chinese and Vietnamese eateries and, bizarrely, a 1960s-era German restaurant/beer hall, there's a cozy new wine lounge, a French bakery, a vintage furniture store and one other sure sign that Hollywood is again a destination spot.

"This neighborhood now has not one but two sushi restaurants," Ellen Bergstone Beer said during a walk through the corridors of the Hollywood Theatre, which she and her husband Richard Beer now run as a nonprofit cinema and haven for the city's filmmaking community.

Next door to the theater at Sandy and 41st Avenue, she adds, a historic brick building is becoming a restaurant and will soon offer a reincarnation of the Yaw's hamburger, the specialty of a defunct drive-in that was constantly packed with Sandy Boulevard cruisers in the 1950s and '60s.

Traveler's tip


The historic Hollywood Theatre, 4122 N.E. Sandy Blvd., runs independent domestic and foreign films and frequently hosts small, themed film festivals. Call 503-281-4215 or visit www.hollywoodtheatre.org for information.

"This is the kind of thing that if you suggested it 10 years ago, people would have said, 'Oh yeah, right,' " Bergstone Beer said. It was around that time, 1997, that the group Film Action Oregon took over the cinema and kick-started the strip's revival.

"Do you want me to tell him about the hookers?" Richard offered jokingly as Ellen talked about all the changes in the neighborhood.

She had already covered that ground. Hollywood, where children's book author Beverly Cleary lived as a kid and later set some of her stories, had fallen on hard times. Even the theater, where Buster Keaton filmed "The General" in 1926, was down and out.

"When we took it over, you could pay a buck fifty for two second-run films," Bergstone Beer said as she strolled through the once stunningly ornamented, now faded cinema. "I mean, that's really bottom of the barrel. It also had a lot of deferred maintenance."

The theater recently received a $30,000 grant from American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation to repair the huge sign out front, which was barely working 10 years ago. Now the chaser lights that wrap around the letters that spell out Hollywood twinkle again.

"It's like the community got a piece of its identity back," Bergstone Beer said.

Mixing old and new

On a wall in the theater's office, a sign reads, "The Hollywood District. We're more than a Max stop!" And while the scruffiness of the old days remains, that sentiment is increasingly true.

"Now we actually have a nightlife that's legal," Richard Beer quipped.

A year and a half ago, Hollywood Wine & Espresso opened across the street from the theater, offering retail wine sales, afternoon tastings and a few tables to enjoy the shop's wide selection. Next door, Shag Midcentury Furniture sells the type of groovy couches, chairs, lamps and tables that were popular when Hollywood was the place to take the family on a weekend drive around town, and when Sandy Boulevard was cruise central.

The meshing of old and new businesses — indeed old and new tastes — is fascinating.

The Rheinlander German Restaurant, a 1960s fantasia of Bavarian kitsch right down to the half-timbered exterior and German-themed wall murals, houses a traditional beer hall where the Warsteiner Dunkel comes dark and smooth and the accordion player comes on the house, and sometimes on the bar.

Pal's Shanty, a tavern that opened in 1937 at Sandy and Northeast 47th Avenue in the district's initial heyday, is still going strong, its orange-neon sign casting a glow on passers-by. Ditto for Sam's Billiards, with its rows of pool tables, dark ambiance and great diner food.

One of the wackiest signs in a neighborhood defined by them is the one just inside the entrance to Blackwell's Grub Steak Grill. It depicts a waitress winking insouciantly as she balances a drink tray on one hand. The text bubble reads: "OK TOOTS, What'll it be?"

Up Sandy along Portland's "Pho Restaurant Row," Thien Hong restaurant serves a steady stream of regulars craving excellent Vietnamese and Chinese food in an unpretentious setting. Some of the newer spots trade in a swankier kind of cool. Take the just-opened Tony Starlight's Supper Club-Lounge, located in a triangular building near 37th and Sandy, where live jazz and a Saturday night "Vegas-style" show by Tony Starlight himself are the main draws. On the lounge's Web site, patrons are cheekily urged to dress to impress: "Don't embarrass yourself. It should be noted there will be a $3 surcharge for men in open-toed shoes and a $1 fee for each item of Patagonia on your person."

Hollywood ending

Breathing new life into a former library branch off the main drag is Fleur de Lis Bakery and Café, owned by baker extraordinaire Greg Mistell, who founded Pearl Bakery in the downtown district of the same name that is years into its own boom.

Mistell and his heavenly pastries — including buttery, fruit-filled specialties from Eastern Europe — have turned the café into a hub of daytime activity where customers can sit at long tables, a set of couches or on a large patio in nice weather.

Like the resurgent neighborhood itself, Mistell said this latest venture is his way of starting over after a nasty divorce in which he lost his more well-known downtown business several years ago.

But Hollywood is also the neighborhood Mistell and his current wife, Lisa O'Leary-Mistell, call home, which is the case with many of the area's small-business people.

"The Hollywood district I've always been excited about because it's at the center of so many different neighborhoods," said Mistell, who also serves on the board of the district's farmers market. "I figure we know 75 percent of the people who come in. See that guy in the corner? He got his learner's permit today."

Two other high-school students walk in, and Mistell says one is a chess champion.

"That guy that just walked in," he continues, looking toward the door, "that's Dr. Bob. He's learning Spanish."

Clearly humbled by the past few years, Mistell nevertheless seems at peace in the new digs and pleased about the area's revival.

"This is such a mom-and-pop kind of place," he says about the homey atmosphere at Fleur de Lis. "I think places like this are becoming more obsolete."

Maybe. Fortunately for both Mistell and Hollywood, though, comebacks are still possible.

Tyrone Beason: 206-464-2251 or tbeason@seattletimes.com

If you go

the district

Hollywood lies on either side of Northeast Sandy Boulevard, roughly between Northeast 37th Avenue and Northeast 60th Avenue. The side streets to the north of Sandy, around 41st, are dotted with shops, bars and eateries, and one- or two-hour street parking is available. From downtown Portland, cross the Willamette River on the Burnside Bridge and head east. At 12th Avenue, merge left onto Sandy Boulevard and drive about 2 miles to reach Hollywood.

Restaurants

• Fleur de Lis Bakery and Café, 3930 N.E. Hancock St., 503-459-4887, open Tuesday-Friday 7 a.m. -6 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 8 a.m.-3 p.m.

• J Spot Café, 4502 N.E. Sandy Blvd., 503-860-5775, breakfast and lunch.

• Hollywood Wine & Espresso, 4075 N.E. Sandy Blvd., 503-459-4081, small plates served at lunch and dinner.

• Sam's Billiards, 1845 N.E. 41st Ave., 503-282-8266, pool, food and drinks.

• Rheinlander German Restaurant and Gustav's Bier Stube, 5035 N.E. Sandy Blvd., 503-288-5503, dining rooms on one side, pub on the other.

• Chameleon Restaurant & Bar, fine dining, 2000 N.E. 40th Ave., 503-460-2682, www.chameleonpdx .com.

• Hama Sushi, 4232 N.E. Sandy Blvd., 503-249-1021.

• Pal's Shanty, 4630 N.E. Sandy Blvd., 503-288-9732, historic tavern.

• Tony Starlight's Supperclub-Lounge, 3728 N.E. Sandy Blvd., 503-517-8584, www.tonystar light.com.

• Thien Hong, 6749 N.E. Sandy Blvd., Vietnamese and Chinese food just up from Hollywood along "Pho Restaurant Row."