World Famous Kenton Club

The World Famous Kenton Club, or simply Kenton Club, is a bar and music venue in north Portland, Oregon, United States. The venue was established as the Kenton Club in 1947, and became a biker bar. The "world famous" tagline was acquired after appearing in the film Kansas City Bomber (1972); the venue became known as World Famous Kenton Club, and memorabilia related to the film and its star Raquel Welch are displayed throughout the interior.

World Famous Kenton Club
The venue's exterior in 2019
World Famous Kenton Club
Location in Portland, Oregon
Former namesKenton Club
Address2025 North Kilpatrick Street
LocationPortland, Oregon, U.S.
Coordinates45.582561°N 122.687537°W / 45.582561; -122.687537
OwnerDaryl and Doreen Waitt
Opened1947 (1947)
Website
kentonclub.com

Description
Exterior signage in 2018

The Kenton Club is located in north Portland's Kenton neighborhood. The music venue hosts disc jockeys, karaoke, and other live events in a variety of genres.[1][2] Kenton Club's clientele has been described as "gray-haired", but has catered to late-night and younger audiences in recent years with the addition of live music and inexpensive beer options.[1][3]

The interior has wood panelling, and in front of the stage is a large hardwood floor.[1] There are low ceilings, Formica tables, linoleum, and vinyl-upholstered chairs, as of 2007.[3] The venue's designated smoking area has been described as both "vast and intimate".[1] Billiard tables,[4] darts, pinball, trivia, and video poker machines are available for guests.[1][2] In his 2016 overview of Portland's jukeboxes, The Portland Mercury's Santi Elijah Holley described the Kenton Club's jukebox selection as "packed with plenty of classic country, blues, and punk — Hank Williams Sr. alongside Hank III".[5] The bar has happy hour each weekday, as of 2016.[2]

In her 2013 walking guide of Portland, Becky Ohlsen described Kenton Club as "an excellent lowbrow hangout with a rocky facade, a wood-paneled interior, cheap drinks, live music, and a friendly, rowdy crowd".[6]

History

The Kenton Club opened in 1947, and became a "honky-tonk and rumble-ready" biker bar shortly thereafter.[1][7]

In 1972, the venue appeared in Kansas City Bomber, starring Raquel Welch. The Kenton Club adopted the "world famous" tagline, and became known as the World Famous Kenton Club as a "permanent memorial" to the film and Welch.[1][7] Memorabilia related to Kansas City Bomber and Welch are displayed throughout the venue.[1][7]

Daryl and Doreen Waitt purchased the business in 2006.[1] Smoky Mountain BBQ began serving Southern cuisine for lunch and dinner inside the Kenton Club in 2008; the menu features brisket, collard greens, dirty rice, fried fish, hushpuppy, meatloaf, pulled pork, and ribs.[8]

Events

The venue has hosted a variety of events and performers. Recurring dance events include "Club Nitty Gritty" (rhythm and blues and soul music),[9][10] "Twirl", which caters to the queer community and features boogie, disco, funk, and house music,[11] and "Vampyros Lesbos Dance Party", described as a "goth, post-punk, and industrial dance night for femmes and allies".[12] In 2013, Kenton Club hosted Birdcloud and a queer country and honky-tonk dance party.[13][14][15] The club was a featured stop on "Anticon", a competing event to SantaCon, in 2016.[16] For New Year's Eve in 2018, the club hosted "Mutant Meltdown" featuring disco and new wave music.[17] In 2019, the venue hosted the supergroup Wtfukushima, featuring members Fur Dixon and Dusty Watson.[18] Kenton Club has also hosted the local music festivals "Booberamapaloozafest"[19] and "MedEvil Madness".[20]

Reception
Memorabilia and merchandise displayed inside the venue, 2018

The Oregonian's Seth Lorinczi described Kenton Club as "lovably shabby" and said "its notoriety derives from weekend country and rockabilly acts".[8] In his 2008 review of Smoky Mountain BBQ, Lorinczi quipped about the venue and its clientele, "Brave dim lighting and aged tipplers, or slink back to the cave with your kill."[8] In her 2019 book Walking Portland, Becky Ohlsen said the Kenton Club has a "charming bravado".[21] Barbara Mitchell of the Portland Tribune wrote in her 2007 review, "Drinks are stiff, cheap and simple for the most part – after all, this is a watering hole that pours its wine out of a box. If you're craving an artisan cocktail, you'd be in the Pearl District, not here."[3] She said the bar has a "fantastic neighborhood feel" and "welcoming atmosphere", opining:

The World Famous Kenton Club does a fantastic job of maintaining a no-fuss honky-tonk vibe, and it's easy to imagine Willie Nelson and a passel of pals meeting up here for an afternoon beer, a late night hootenanny or a morning constitutional... Leave any pretensions you've been carrying on the sidewalk before you step into the dark and laid-back environs. The world has enough hipsters: The World Famous Kenton Club is an establishment whose coolness cannot be co-opted, and whose vibe-y atmosphere may have been immortalized but can't be duplicated.[3]

Chris Sutton of The Portland Mercury described the Kenton Club as a "special kind of time machine taking you back to much simpler days—when there were fewer beer choices and hairy-chested macho men like Burt Reynolds were considered gods".[1] He said the venue "straddles the line between public house amenity and dimly lit seediness so well", and its video poker machines "only [add] to the charm of a classic watering hole dripping with historic sentimentality".[1]

The venue is ranked number 94 on Willamette Week's list of Portland's "100 best bars".[22] Zach Middleton quipped, "Get here soon, or don't. Neither Raquel Welch nor the day patrons give a shit."[2] In 2017, the newspaper's Matthew Korfhage called Kenton "one of Portland's last bars to still have hair on its chest and a swagger in its boots".[7] He wrote, "The beer is cheap, the music's almost always free from Thursday to Sunday, and somebody's always spilled some beer. It used to be a bit more rough-and-ready in here, but even slightly cleaned up for the new karaoke-and-game-night crowds, it remains lovingly imperfect in every way that matters."[7]

Historic District

The ornamental concrete block building is located within the Kenton Commercial Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places. It was built in 1949 by the Kenton Building and Contracting Company and designed by Swift & Company. The building as constructed would have made it a Contributing Property to the historic district had its exterior not been significantly modified. Exterior tile work, removal of storefronts, and the covering of some windows have "damaged its historic integrity", causing it to be classified as "historic noncontributing".[23]

References
  1. Sutton, Chris (March 9, 2016). "The (World Famous) Kenton Club: World Famous for a Reason". Portland Mercury. Retrieved April 5, 2019.
  2. Middleton, Zach (May 10, 2016). "World Famous Kenton Club". Willamette Week. Retrieved April 5, 2019.
  3. Mitchell, Barbara (June 14, 2007). "Bar of the Week: World Famous Kenton Club". Portland Tribune. Pamplin Media Group. Retrieved April 6, 2019.
  4. Korfhage, Matthew (March 17, 2015). "Cheap Life: Free Pool..." Willamette Week. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  5. Holley, Santi Elijah (September 21, 2016). "Kick Out the Jams". The Portland Mercury. Retrieved April 6, 2019.
  6. Ohlsen, Becky (April 9, 2013). Walking Portland: 30 Tours of Stumptown's Funky Neighborhoods, Historic Landmarks, Park Trails, Farmers Markets, and Brewpubs. Wilderness Press. p. 152. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  7. Matthew, Korfhage (May 23, 2017). "The Kenton Club Is Lovingly Imperfect, In Every Way That Matters". Willamette Week. Retrieved April 6, 2019.
  8. Lorinczi, Seth (October 24, 2008). "Cheap eats: feeding frenzies with pocket change". The Oregonian. p. 23.
  9. "Club Nitty Gritty", 2016:
  10. "Club Nitty Gritty", 2019:
  11. "The 30 Best Things to Do in Portland This Weekend: Dec 14–16". Portland Mercury. December 13, 2018. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  12. "Cheap, Free, and Fun: The 22 Best Bang for Your Buck Shows in Portland, April 12–18". Portland Mercury. April 10, 2019. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  13. Sullivan, Matthew W. (November 6, 2013). "Unfit for Television". Portland Mercury. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  14. Parks, Casey (April 24, 2013). "True North: Shannon Wiberg packs Portland parties as DJ Action Slacks". The Oregonian. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  15. Parks, Casey (October 4, 2013). "The Today Show visits Harper's Playground: North and Northeast Portland news". The Oregonian. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  16. "Army of St. Nicks storms North Portland for Anticon, the anti-SantaCon". The Oregonian. December 4, 2016. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  17. "Mutant Meltdown":
  18. "Cheap, Free, and Fun: The 28 Best Bang for Your Buck Shows in Portland, April 19–25". Portland Mercury. April 17, 2019. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  19. "Booberamapaloozafest":
  20. "Cheap, Free, and Fun: The 20 Best Bang for Your Buck Shows in Portland This Week, March 22–28". Portland Mercury. March 20, 2019. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  21. Ohlsen, Becky (February 12, 2019). Walking Portland: 33 Tours of Stumptown's Funky Neighborhoods, Historic Landmarks, Park Trails, Farmers Markets, and Brewpubs. Wilderness Press. p. 210. Retrieved April 27, 2019.
  22. "Bar Directory: How We Chose Portland's 100 Best Bars". Willamette Week. Retrieved April 24, 2019.
  23. "Kenton Commercial Historic District NRHP Registration Form". Retrieved July 14, 2019.
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