36
SEPTEMBER 3 2010
Everyone is welcome at
24 Hour Port y People
Two popular Northwest eateries celebrate
success and community
BY AMANDA SCHURR
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Call it a tale o f two parties. O n one side of
the 405, a chic Nob Hill bistro, set to celebrate
birthday No. 2 in late summer, Hamptons style.
O n the other, a Pearl mainstay and fine-dining
flagship, marking its 10th anniversary in fit­
tingly grand, even Large fashion.
And come Sunday, September 12, they share
more than Northwest district digs, more than
a commitment to giving back. They share a
calendar square— thanks to an uncanny sched­
uling coincidence, established in years past. Yet
for the hungry, the generous— and granted, the
monied— it’s not a matter o f either/or, it’s one
of what/when.
For Café Nells Darren and Van Creely, their
annual shindig is rooted in the where— not
surprising considering the owners had always
intended “to represent a little east coast, like
a restaurant you’d walk
into in the East Village,”
explains Darren.
“So last year when we
came up with the idea to
do a clambake it was a
real natural [thing],” he
says. Almost 300 people
showed up to the restau­
rant, transformed into a
beach complete with fire
pits, sand dunes, beach
grass and an eclectic
crowd o f revelers— short
shorts and drag queens
among
them— that’s
become a signature of
the neighborhood spot.
“There were gays on sand
dunes and old straight
people in the middle and
it was really a good mix,”
laughs Darren.
“The whole point
is that a clambake is a
generic term for a beach
party,” says Van, detailing the tradition by
which a “big hole in the sand” is filled with hot
stones and layered with potatoes, vegetables
and seafood, topped with seaweed and doused
with beer or wine, then sealed until the sun
goes down and appetites are up.
“I t’s a bunch of steamed seafood in a pot,”
adds Darren. “W e’ve got all this great stuff
coming from the coast... Crayfish from the
Tualatin River, we’re doing white shrimp off
the Oregon coast... Manila clams.” The surf
stuffs will be rounded out with standard clam­
bake, fire-pit fare: sausage, potatoes and corn.
This year’s nautically themed event brings
with it even more accoutrements, including
special sand pails doing double duty as serving
dishes and souvenirs, and silkscreened navy-
and-white t-shirts and beach towels available
for purchase (don’t forget the beach balls). An
8-by-40 foot bar will keep the libations flow­
ing, and the beats will be supplied by band
The Chapman Swifts and DJ James Edwards.
“W e’ve created more o f a dance area, we didn’t
put any extra seats in,” says Darren. “We envi­
sion it more as a mingle event.”
Darren and Van report steady advance
ticket sales, especially from folks who missed
the 2009 event. “W e’re hoping for 500,” says
Darren, adding that, after expenses are paid,
“We don’t take any profits from Clambake at
all.” Staffers donate their time, and as with last
year’s inaugural outing, which raised $2,500
for Basic Rights Oregon, proceeds from the
2010 feast go directly into the community, this
time around split between
BRO and Q C enter.
“Basic Rights Oregon
means something to Van
and I,” explains Darren.
“W e’re not even married
in the United States, we’re
married in Canada so it’s
always one kind o f pas­
sionate little drive for us,
so we want to try to keep
that going. But the Q_
Center [does] such great
things for the local com­
munity. We couldn’t really
pass them up this year. We
wanted to include some­
body else and give back to
the neighborhood.”
“It will be fun,” says
Darren, looking back
at a whirlwind couple
of years, “seven days a
week, fourteen hours a
day” since Nell opened
its doors— and looking
forward to the celebration. “For the two good
causes that we’re doing this year, and we made
it two years, and we’re a gay owned and oper­
ated business, it’s pretty good.”
Bruce Carey knows the feeling. Twenty years
after opening his first eatery, the local dining
mogul whose restaurants include Saucebox,
23Hoyt, Clarklewis and Bluehour— the latter
marking its 10th anniversary this month— is
grateful for a food scene, and city, that has con­
tinued to embrace his vision.
“The best thing about Portland for me—
somebody with a relatively short attention span,
and I’m from Oregon originally so I yearn for
the activity o f a bigger city generally— [is that]
Portland keeps me engaged cause it evolves at
“Everybody’s kickin’
their shoes off.
dancing in the sand,
says Café Nell co­
owner Von Creely.
Beach attire is
encouraged, though
os Creely’s partner
Darren loughs, “only
the drag queens did
bikinis lost year."
(Portiancf Center f o r the (Performing A rts
$25 at ‘Tïchçtmaster or PQPA (Box. Office
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