Another PDX pub bites the dust. But was it Irish?
Though its footprint on SW Jefferson was small, the Leaky Roof was a big presence for generations of Portlanders until last week. (Photo courtesy of Leaky Roof facebook page.)
The first thing Mike Heffernan thought when he saw online that an “Irish gastropub in Portland” had suddenly closed was, “I never called it an Irish pub.”
In the 1980s, when Mike owned and operated The Leaky Roof Tavern in Goose Hollow, I worked across Jefferson Street at 62 KGW, just a few steps away from Lincoln High School. In those days, Mike was the first (or second) publican in Portland to pour Widmer Hefeweizen at his place; Pokey Allen’s PSU Vikings were great for business by drawing capacity crowds to nearby Civic Stadium and the radio station’s department head meetings would convene (informally) at “the Roof” over pitchers of beer.
When I saw the same headline, I called Mike, a longtime Portland Hibernian, and asked him when “the Roof” became an “Irish gastropub.”
“I don’t really know, but it wasn’t called that while I owned it. Maybe I should have called it an Irish pub,” he said.
Mike Heffernan, Portland restaurateur and loyal Hibernian.
Its apparent demise was a surprise
“I can’t imagine that someone else won’t have a go of it there. Premises that have had a food operation can be reopened a lot less expensively than a new business. It is not a bad location (SW 16th and Jefferson), just small. It probably can’t make someone rich, but one guy working the place could make a living,” Mike wrote in an email. There have been at least half a dozen different owners since it opened right after World War Two ended.
Heffernan owned The Leaky Roof from 1985 to 1995, running it with his wife Gail for the first six years. In his career as a Portland restaurateur, Mike has owned The Harvest House (59th & Halsey), The Leaky Roof, Tuddy’s Deli (NW Yeon), Kornblatt’s Deli (NW 23rd) and Howard’s Barbecue (also on NW Yeon).
The Leaky Roof first opened in 1947. Here’s Mike’s abbreviated version of its history.
“A woman named Vi owned it with her brother. They sold it back and forth to each other, then sold it to a painting contractor who bought it for his daughter. She set up a catering business called Eat Your Heart Out. But running that business out of the Leaky Roof didn’t work out. It had been vacant for six months when I bought it in 1985.”
The owners after Mike did a major upgrade after a fire and replaced outdated facilities from 1947. (“They even improved the bathrooms. But they were still really small.”) They also launched an attraction that became a trademark of The Leaky Roof: Open mic comedy nights.It was only this century that the rebranding as an “Irish gastropub” began. NOTE. For an uninformed person like me, a “gastropub” is a English term for a “public house” that serves really good food and even has a real chef in the kitchen. Menus feature more than just burgers, chicken strips, fries and (for those feeling guilty) salads. Which pretty much describes the fare at the Leaky Roof in the Eighties. The food was not why we went there.
Running while running a tavern
The entire time Mike was running The Leaky Roof, he was a serious runner. Serious enough to run the 1986 Portland Marathon in two hours and 24 minutes. (That’s a five minutes and 30 second pace per mile. For 26+ miles.) He was just two minutes off the 2:22 needed to qualify for the Olympic Marathon in 1988. He says he could have won the Portland Marathon if he hadn’t been running a restaurant and raising a family with Gail at the time. Mike was a star on the local running scene well into the 21st century. Now he rides his bike all over NE Portland. And faithfully attends Portland Hibernian Society meetings on the third Thursday of the month at Kells Restaurant. Go raibh maith agat, Mike.