Southeast Portland’s Red & Black Cafe Closing Its Doors

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Byron Beck, GoLocalPDX Features Editor

Red and Black Cafe

The Red and Black Cafe announced via Facebook that it’s closing its doors on its "workers managed collective."

In the letter posted to The Red and Black's Facebook page it stated, “The time has come announce that the small but mighty Red & Black Collective will be shutting down. This year we would have turned fifteen years old. In those years, using our collective labor, we have served a lot of vegan dragon noodles and sandwiches. We’ve also made decisions together and taught each other so many skills.”

Other accomplishments by the all-vegan, anarchist-aligned cafe were stated in the post as well: “We’ve created and maintained some of the only and last low-income housing in inner Southeast Portland. We’ve housed & supported Portland Books to Prisoners as a collection point and by hosting their library & workspace in our basement. We’ve hosted countless local and touring bands and other DIY, all-ages events. We’ve kept our space as safe we could as workers and as a community -- even when that's been controversial.”

That statement was likely in reference to the incident in 2010 when one of the members of the cafe/collective asked a Portland police officer to leave the building.

The post concludes: “With incredible gratitude and sadness and pride,See you in the streets, The Red & Black Cafe Collective.”

No word was given in the post on why The Red and Black Cafe, which moved into its current Southeast 12th Avenue space (once occupied by Anne Hughes Kitchen Table Cafe) in 2007, was closing its doors at this time.

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