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About The Southwest Portland Post. (Portland, Oregon) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 2008)
March 2008 fEatuRES The Southwest Portland Post. • 5 Old-timers remember Lair Hill Bistro as neighborhood market By Polina Olsen The Southwest Portland Post Sara Hart likes the “Turkey Peach Chutney” sandwich but others prefer the “Lair Hill Veggie.” Each weekday neighborhood regulars order their fa- vorites at the cozy storefront cafe. “Students spend a lot of time sipping coffee and having their meals here,” Hart says referring to the nearby Na- Massage Healing Touch Massage Dorothy Cundall, LMT, CNA, MA; LIC #5316 Energy healing • reiki • therapeutic massages • reflexology • pranic healing • care facilities Holiday Specials • Gift Certificates • Visa & Mastercard Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy. 503-297-1360 Naturopathic tional College of Natural Medicine. She opens her laptop at a quiet back table. The one next to the ancient woodstove. Since 1914, the old Lair Hill market has served the community, first as a grocery for Jewish and Italian immi- grants, and later as a trendy café—Lair Hill Bistro. Artifacts and mementos throughout the restaurant reveal the neighborhood and building’s interest- ing history. Cheryl Riegler and her husband, Richard Varner bought the café 10 years ago after owner, Esther Schulhaus, de- cided to sell. Schulhaus lived upstairs from the grocery like her parents, Abra- ham and Rose Weinstein. When Riegler and Varner took over, they moved in. “She was my great-aunt, we called her Tanta Raizel,” says Leo Greenstein remembering Rose Weinstein and her five daughters. When Greenstein grew up, the neighborhood was mainly Ital- ian and Jewish immigrants. The Weinsteins and his parents were from Russia. He remembers “an old fashioned store” where the owner col- lected groceries as customers stood at the counter and read their list. “They had a little room in the back near the kitchen where we’d go and talk. She had a terrific collection of china.” Marvin Wolf, the Schulhaus’ neph- ew, often visited his grandparents, the Weinsteins. “Abraham was a strong, handsome gentleman with a white mustache,” he recalls, “and she had a great beer stein collection. They had both a gas and wood stove in that lower kitchen; It was regal - a beautiful wood stove.” When daughter Esther Weinstein married Albert Schulhaus, they moved upstairs and closed the store. Schul- haus was slender, maybe skinny and about six foot seven. He arrived from Germany in 1940 at age 33. When the couple reopened the grocery in 1977, Katya Varner makes change for a customer. The sign Slim's Grocery belonged to a previ- ous owner. (Post photo by Polina Olsen) they called it Slim’s. The café still dis- plays the sign above the bar. Paul Payton, 75, has lived in the neighborhood all his life. “I remember horses and a vegetable cart,” he said. Payton, a handyman, often helped Es- ther Schulhaus with her rental proper- ties, including the home he now owns. “It was one of the last grocery stores in the neighborhood. It looked just like it does now on the outside,” Payton said. “On the inside, the counter was on the left, and they stood behind it all the time.” Payton carried Slim Schulhaus up- stairs toward the end of his life. Esther Schulhaus gave him her husband’s hat when he died. Esther Schulhaus never understood how her neighborhood gentrified. “This is an old, shacky neighborhood, not historical,” she said in a 1977 Or- egon Journal interview. “To me, some- thing historic should be something elegant.” Still, by 1990 “the quiche- eaters were moving in” according to then neighborhood association chair John May. By that time, Erika Steinhardt had replaced the old market with a trendy place for soup, sandwiches and cof- fee. She had a small seating area and shelves of groceries off to one side, mostly stocked for the Schulhaus’ who still lived upstairs. “They had Mani- shewitz, stuff like that,” says current owner Cheryl Riegler. “We expanded it from a deli to a sit down bistro kind- of restaurant.” Today, most customers are from neighborhood businesses and schools, Riegler says, including OHSU, ADP, and the natural medicine college. The small dinner menu includes pasta and pizza, and they serve the lunch menu all evening. A wooden bar accommo- dates people stopping for cocktails, wine, or beer on their way home from work, and neighbors come for breakfast and coffee before leaving. Eli Head takes a coffee break and sits outside with friend Angela Schroeder. A recent arrival to Portland, he would “come get coffee before I’d go down- town and drop off resumes.” He found the café a focal point for the neighbor- hood and finally decided to work here. He explains, “It’s a cool way to meet the neighbors.” The Lair Hill Bistro (formerly known as the Old Lair Hill Market) is located at 2823 S.W. First Ave. Hours are Monday – Thursday 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Closed Saturday and Sunday. Their telephone number is 503.279.0200. Dr. Yvonne Justine Kreger Naturopathic Family Physician • Wo m en ’ s Health • Natural Men o pause O ptio ns • B io iden tical Ho rm o n es/ Ho rm o n e B alan cin g • Allergy Testin g & Treatm en t • Fatigue & I n so m in ia COmPRehenSive & inTelligenT Add Your Business! Call Don or Harry at 503-244-6933 nATuRAl heAlTh 1616 S.W. Sunset Blvd., Suite E Portland, Oregon 97239 (503) 293-5000 Podiatry O’CONNORS Restaurant & Bar Since 1934 Breakfast including Eggs O’Connor and other notables. 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