632 E Burnside: The B-Side Tavern
Originally posted on August 5th, 2006
Updated on July 5th, 2008
The B-Side has recently become one of my frequent haunts; it's in the neighborhood, and when I'm coming home from the westside job , it's the halfway point. It has one of the best bars in town for drawing comics at, at least until it gets busy and people start asking you what you're working on. Anyway, above the bar they have a dinner menu and a wrestling advertisement from the mid-century. I was asking Tanya, one of the owners of the tavern, about them, and she told me that they were found during the remodel. We talked a little bit about the history of the place, and I told her that when I had a chance, I'd do some research on the joint.
To-day I had a chance to do some research.
The building that the B-Side resides in was built in 1909 (this information comes from one of my favorite websites, portlandmaps.com) . I researched the history of the location back to 1929. In 1929, the storefront was the property of Springer & Ott Auto Accessories. By 1931, it was transitioning to the Eastside Battery Service and Baker Radio Service, although it still housed the Auto Accessories shop. Basically, it looks like Springer & Ott were transitioning out of ownership while the new owners were trying to specialize their market niche. Apparently, this model didn't work out in the long run, as they quit the business entirely by 1936.
In 1936, the location re-opened as the Blue Lagoon, a beer parlor. Comptetition wasn't particularly easy, as there were already a few other taverns within a couple of blocks, but the owner, Waino A. Sade, appeared to have some experience in the service industry. I wasn't able to find much information about Mr. Sade, but he was apparently in his early fifties when he opened the Blue Lagoon. Prior to the tavern, he'd been running a "restaurant" for several years down on NW 2nd & Couch. Interestingly, the entry for his restaurant in the reverse directories of the time just lists his name rather than a restaurant title. This, combined with the location and his subsequent opening of a tavern, makes me wonder if his "restaurant" was in fact a speak-easy. Portland was known as a "wide open" town during Prohibition, and the North End (as Old Town/Chinatown was known then) had a reputation as a welcome host for various houses of vice. I wasn't able to find an obituary for Mr. Sade, but I did find a listing for his wife Hilma, who died in 1973 at the age of 88. The library closed before I had a chance to pull her obituary up on the micro-fiche.
Mr. Sade only ran the Blue Lagoon for a couple of years before selling the tavern and retiring. Ownership went to one Emil Wahl , who I was not able to find any information on. Mr. Wahl ran the bar until sometime between 1944 and 1950 (the Central Library doesn't have reverse directories from those years), when he transferred ownership to Milton Ramberg, who is another person that I couldn't find any information about.
An interesting thing about the various owners of the bar are their respective residences. Mr. Sade and his wife lived pretty much across the street, over at the Alice Court Apartments (729 E. Burnside). Mr. Wahl and his wife, Anna, lived a little farther away, over at 2215 SE Ash, about 17 blocks away. Mr. Ramberg and his wife Jeanne lived across town at 4516 NE Fremont. I think that this is interesting because these increasing distances seem to demonstrate the effect of automobiles on the American way of life.
Anyway, at some point around 1958 or '59, Mr. Ramberg sold the bar to the tri-umverate of Samuel Conratt, Robert Beckett , and Samuel Simich, who renamed the bar the Boondox . I wasn't able to find any information on any of these three. Apparently the partnership was shaky, because by the next year ownership had transferred hands to another trio: Frank Mattson , Warren Leash, and Jack Radebaugh. I relied on the Library's Oregonian card catalog for this information, which contains references to articles about people written about in the Oregonian during the periods of 1851 to 1989. The fact that I was unable to locate any information about these people indicates two things: 1) they had no significant trouble with law during the time period covered, 2) if they died during this time period, they were not considered notable enough to have a card catalog entry listing their obituary. [Another possibility here is that they may have moved out of the area before their deaths. -K 07/05/2008]
Ownership changed hands again the following year, going to one Mrs. Gene G. May. She passed the bar along to "Miels and Mrs. Golda Robinson" the following year. I am not certain if Miels is a first name or last name, and could not find any information to verify one or the other. I found no information about any of these people, actually, which implies that either they are still alive, or died after 1989 (I'm still looking into this). In 1964, a gentleman by the name of Kenneth D Makarounis took possession of the Boondox, and the business stayed in his family for at least the next 25 years.
The 41-year-run of 632 E Burnside being a tavern of some sort ended in 1977, when the Makarounis family moved the Boondox half a block west to 616 E. Burnside. From incidental conversations with Tanya, this seems to coincide with the family purchasing the building possessing the 616 address. Also of note is that the Makarounis' family opened a second Boondox in 1977 (the same year that they ended the 632 E. Burnside run) on NE 92nd, towards Dekum. Members of the family apparently own the jazz club Jimmy Mak's.
After the Boondox moved out of the 632 E. Burnside location, the site was used intermittently as a storage space until it became an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting space in the late 90's.
The B-Side Tavern opened at 632 E. Burnside on January 27th, 2006, after two and a half months of remodeling.