Flipside Hats recently moved one door down within the same building, taking over 7848 SE Stark Street from a previous tenant. The hat company relocated to Montavilla from SE Belmont Street in November 2021 after an extensive remodel of the building. Endure Vintage Furniture rented the smaller retail space at the hat-maker-owned building in February 2023 but closed the business last April. Flipside Hats and its related brands moved their operations out of the building two years ago, relocating to Tucson, Arizona, while maintaining Portland-based production. Since then, the company only used the showroom space on SE Stark Street. Flipping storefronts in the building allowed the owners to rent to a new furniture company, Storied Vintage, which could use the expanded floor space as they increase capacity.
Kori Giudici and Jacob Wollner co-own Flipside Hats and have had strong ties to Portland. The couple bought the Montavilla building at the beginning of 2021 and renovated it to serve as a showroom, warehouse, and design shop. However, after a year, circumstances changed, and they needed to move out of the state. “We moved most of our operations like our offices and our warehouse and our design to Arizona,” explained Wollner, adding, “We still have our production in Portland.”
When the last tenant vacated, Giudici and Wollner had the opportunity to consider leasing out the smaller space again or switching locations based on interest from prospective tenants. They found Storied Vintage looking for dedicated showroom space with a backroom workspace, prompting the change in locations. Wollner said the last occupants left significant repair work, so they would have already needed to invest in that space, further incentivizing the storefront swap. They have also seen a decrease in foot traffic walking into the shop and saw this as a way to update operations.
Empty Flipside Hat space at 7850 SE Stark St and the future home of Storied Vintage
The new storefront space will have slightly reduced operating hours but offer an increased product selection. “We are planning to expand our specialty item offerings from the shop, making it more interesting and engaging for people based on what they want,” said Wollner. The store will carry more items produced by maker partners, offering jewelry, cards, and other small craft items complementary to the hats on display. Flipside Hats will also expand its apparel lines and have a specialty line of Portland hats. They expect these changes will bring more people into the shop and keep their four store employees busy with guests seeking the right accessory.
Flipside Hats is open from noon to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the weekends. They are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Customers can shop for the current hat collections online or in the store. The shop has unique items that are not always available online.
Article and photos by
Jacob Loeb
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Miller Paint’s newest location at 9312 SE Stark Street will officially open on July 15th, with a week-long celebration running through the 20th. On Thursday, July 18th, people can join the paint store staff for a BBQ event from 11 a.m. through 3 p.m. Cookout guests will receive free grilled food and refreshments and could win raffled giveaways. Customers will receive discounts on all paint and painting supplies throughout the opening week.
Miller Paint began installing signage at its new Montavilla store at the beginning of the year. The 4,000-square-foot shop replaces the decades-old 10114 SE Division Street store that was recently closed to allow staff to transfer operations to SE Stark Street. Crews created a new shopfront for the store, which was previously part of Cascade Athletic Clubs and had no defined entrance. Demolition workers removed the dance studio stage and mirrored the wall to make way for the showroom and warehouse space. Around 1,000 square feet of retail floor area shows off paint colors and specialty supplies, while the remaining 3,000 square feet provide sufficient storage space to keep home improvers and professional painters working.
Miller Paint relocated this paint store to SE Stark Street due to its improved visibility and easy access. The Taco Bell adjacent building’s proximity to Interstate 205 makes it an accessible stop-off location for customers all over the area. Although the business district has several paint supply buying options, Miller Paint touts its Pacific Northwest-formulated paints and stains as a better choice for Portland buildings. The 1890-era Portland-based company was the first paint producer in the region and has gradually grown its network of stores across the Portland metro area and the Northwest. However, Miller Paint is committed to serving customers close to home, keeping its operations and management local.
Customers of the SE Division Street shop will recognize the store staff at the new location, including the shop dog Archer, named after the Star Trek Captain Jonathan Archer character. The store is open from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. Employees began working from the new location on Monday, July 8th, and can help with many needs now but will not have the store fully stocked until opening week.
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Matthew Jacobson, co-founder of Sizzle Pie, purchased a multi-building property at 7323 NE Glisan Street in August 2022. Months later, Jacobson purchased a second property on the block at the corner of NE 74th Avenue and Glisan, currently serving as the construction office for a neighboring affordable housing project. Over the last few months, a new anchor tenant in the Glisan Street frontage has reshaped the prominent space to serve as their architecture firm’s regional office, while other trades-related businesses occupy the building spaces located between NE 74th Avenue and NE 73rd Avenue.
Jacobson purchased the properties with other investors through his whimsically named companies Jackie Glisan LLC and Buford T Justice LLC. In a December 2022 interview with Montavilla News, Jacobson explained that it was a general investment in the property outside his other restaurant ventures. The popular local chain Sizzle Pie sold to Sortis Holdings several years ago, and Jacobson now only works as an employee of the organization. He remains active in other investments, including Wayfinder brewery. However, outside of possible storage space for those businesses, he had no active plans to extend those businesses to this site. Instead, Jacobson has recently focused on supporting other growing businesses by dividing the space into smaller units, including a personal office for himself.
The site’s most visible transformations will support a new tenant moving into one of the NE Glisan Street storefronts. Evident Architecture Office (EAO) has offices in Portland and Cleveland, Ohio. Owner Bill Neburka spent many years as one of the principal Architects at Works Progress Architecture, where that firm designed several distinctive buildings, including the Blackbird building on E Burnside Street. Crews are slowly removing the industrial cladding on the NE Glisan Street building to reveal the classic painted brick facade.
Google Earth image with real estate listing illustrations
Jacobson said he has around 11 tenants in the “T” shaped building, including EAO. There are plumbers, contractors, and people who create props for film and television, all of whom share the commercial building. He is happy with the mix of creative people working from the space. Jacobson hopes the upgrades to the building will add to the transformation at this intersection driven by the affordable housing buildings under construction. “I’m really interested to see how the development across the street is going to impact things. I think generally it’s probably gonna be good,” said Jacobson.
Crews will continue working on the building through the summer as they customize tenants’ spaces. Jacobson indicated that he plans to keep this investment for a while with an eye on enhanced future uses. For now, it will serve as another commercial complex suitable for a variety of businesses looking for flexible space.
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On May 22nd, City Noise Records relocated from a small storefront on NE Broadway Street to 7033 NE Glisan Street. Within a few weeks, a new beer and wine bar called Replicant will open next door to the punk and metal music shop, allowing customers of both establishments to commingle through a central passageway. These complementary businesses renovated the century-old storefront to create a complete experience for people to become immersed in music while enjoying their favorite drinks.
Lydia Crumbley and Gianpiero Milani co-own Replicant Beer & Wine PDX, creating the new bar as an extension of Milani’s other business, City Noise Records. The 810-square-foot bar’s name originates from the 1982 sci-fi movie Blade Runner. The film featured synthetic humans known as replicants, hunted in a futuristic Los Angeles. Milani is a fan of the film and will use it for some of the bar’s theming as it develops. The bar’s owners did not attempt to create an immersive movie experience but instead captured the Film Noir dim and focused lighting with pops of vibrant light spilling from the glass-fronted refrigerators. The dark-stained wood design supports over 40 guests at bar seating, group tables, and booths.
Replicant offers wine by the glass, draft beers, and non-alcoholic cocktails from the bar. They will sell a wide selection of canned beer and wine by the bottle for people to take home or drink on-premise. They will also have non-alcoholic beer but only in cans to start with. “We’ll gauge how interested people are in that before we get a keg,” remarked Crumbley. Soon after opening, they plan to offer cafe seating out front and will eventually complete a backyard gravel patio area accessed from a back door. That space is not yet clear of construction materials from building renovations underway in the apartments above the record shop. When completed, that outdoor space will extend the bar’s seating.
Customers at Replicant can enjoy a modest food menu to compliment the drink selection that includes pretzels from neighbor business Fressen Artisan Bakery and cheese boards with mostly vegan cheese, olives, and almonds. Crumbley, who eats a plant-based diet, explained that food options at other establishments often had little for her to enjoy. “I want to go to a wine bar and eat cheese, so that was part of the inspiration” for the vegan-friendly menu. The owners created a small commercial kitchen behind the bar and intend to grow the menu over time.
Replicant co-owners Lydia Crumbley (left) and Gianpiero Milani (right)
Several of the features planned for Replicant will come later this summer. Renovations took longer than expected due to contractor delays and an unanticipated need to refinish the concrete floors, which pushed the opening back. Consequentially, the team is focused on opening and will lean into all the finishing touches over the coming months. Crumbley and Milani anticipate a soft opening as soon as they receive the county health inspection paperwork, and they will host a grand opening for both businesses in July. By then, they want to have more theming and album listening stations ready. “In the near future, you can buy a record, buy a beer or glass of wine, and play the record. Listen with your headphones, drink your beer, and have a complete experience because drinks and records usually go together,” said Milani.
In addition to promoting music appreciation, Replicant will feature a small gallery space in the back with track lighting to feature the hung artwork. By the grand opening, they’ll display work from Alexander Heir. The Brooklyn, New York, artist has produced many album covers and has a clothing line. The location is open to minors until 8 p.m., allowing visitors of any age to view the gallery in the bar area.
City Noise’s four employees are still unpacking in the new storefront. The Montavilla location is a dramatically larger space than the original spot that opened on NE Broadway in 2021. They are still expanding into the space, growing the selection of vinyl and cassette-based albums, books, magazines, jewelry, and apparel. One record store staff person has bartending experience and will work shifts at both businesses. Although linked through ownership and some employees, they are separate entities and will keep slightly different hours. Crews working on the renovation found an old barn door buried in the wall and repurposed it to close off access between the two storefronts when one is closed. However, Milani explained that most of the time, customers will feel that it is just one big connected space with the wide door fully open.
Soon, Replicant will serve guests from 3 to 10 p.m. every day except Mondays. City Noise Records is open from noon to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and Noon to 6 p.m. on Sundays. People should watch the Replicant Beer & Wine PDX’s Instagram page for updates about the soft opening date and other announcements.
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In February 2024, Arts for Learning NW relocated its downtown offices to East Portland at 8911 SE Stark Street, sharing space with another youth-supporting organization. The decades-old group began sparking schoolchildren’s artistic interest in 1958 under the name Young Audiences of Oregon as a regional chapter of a national arts-in-education organization. What started as a program exposing students to classical music expanded to encompass various art styles with diverse cultural origins. Arts for Learning NW offers educators a roster of 80 programs, including individual artists or artist ensembles. The 120 participating artists have skills in visual arts, performing arts, digital media, and culturally specific arts like Peruvian dance or West African drumming.
In 2023, after 65 years, the group changed its name to reflect a new priority, moving away from its passive roots where students were only audience members. “That’s shifted in the last 20 to 30 years to be much more about hands-on experiences for the kids, giving young people a chance to try different art forms,” explained Arts for Learning NW’s Executive Director Lauren Jost. Eighty percent of their in-school engagements are artist residencies, with the remaining twenty percent focused on performances. New programming is more accessible and engaging for the students. Residencies usually provide five sessions either on specific days spanning weeks or every day in one week.
Arts for Learning NW’s Executive Director Lauren Jost
For example, residencies could focus on digital media, with artists teaching stop-motion animation or muralists guiding student-made art installations in schools. A theater ensemble can lead improv sessions or devise scene work. Visiting artists might work with all students in a particular grade or with the classroom of a teacher who requested it for a learning module.
Funding for these programs comes from various sources, often with Arts for Learning NW working at the district level to secure partnerships. It has agreements with North Clackamas School District, Vancouver School District, and Hillsboro School District to cover program costs for its schools. That approach allows individual schools to request the services for free while the district uses Student Success Act money and other funding sources to support the program at all schools. However, district support is not always required, and the organization has decades of experience working with individual educational institutions. “Some schools use their discretionary funds they have for enrichment and engagement experiences. A lot of schools historically had paid through PTA funds because the school districts weren’t necessarily adequately funding arts experiences. That is problematic in terms of equity because students don’t get served equally, depending on socioeconomics,” said Jost.
Over the last few years, Arts for Learning NW has reworked many of its operating principles to ensure all students have access to the arts. In 2021, it reimagined its school fundraising jog-a-thon called Run for the Arts. “It’s now a dance-a-thon, and all the money gets put into the same pot,” explained Jost. The funds are divided by student, then distributed to the schools based on participation in what they feel is a more equitable fundraising model.
Arts for Learning NW partnered with the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) for 15 years to bring The Right Brain Initiative to schools and took over that program when RACC stepped away in 2020. The program has continued to grow and served 15,000 students this year, spanning the Hillsboro, Gresham-Barlow, Corbett, Oregon Trail, and Parkrose School Districts. The Right Brain Initiative uses local government and private donor partnerships to make arts education accessible to every K-8 student in the Portland Tri-County Region. The School District pays a portion of the fee, and Arts for Learning NW raises most of the remaining funds from the community through grant writing. This endeavor looks to create long-term arts integration within public education. “It includes not just a residency in the schools with an artist but also professional development with the teachers on how to integrate the arts into their everyday teaching. This is a district-wide program, so every elementary school in the district will participate at no cost directly to the schools,” said Jost. “It’s been going on for 15 years, so there are some schools where every teacher now has a decade of arts and integration professional development. It’s a really transformative program.”
The pandemic was hard on the organization, with artists unable to interact with students for two years, and some people moved on to other professions. They have since rebuilt the roster of artists and are fully back in schools. However, like many businesses, they found having large offices for the 12 admin staff was not necessary anymore. Most full-time employees now work from home some days, and the artists primarily work at the schools. That workplace shift let the organization downsize to a handful of offices in a shared building where neighbor organizations also support young people. Building partner My Voice Music (MVM) compliments the work of Arts for Learning NW through their shared belief in art’s positive role in developing healthy people. The two organizations work opposite hours, with MVM’s focus on afterschool programs and Arts for Learning NW’s daytime work in line with the school’s schedule. “We are just thrilled to be in a community rather than just a tower downtown. We love having students walking through the building and getting to meet our neighbors,” said Jost.
On May 17th, Arts for Learning NW will host its big party of the year called SH/FT. It is a fashion runway show where student teams working with professional designers create Couture Runway looks made out of up-cycled and recycled materials. They’re custom-made for local drag Queens, who will model the designs. The runway event starts at 7 p.m., and people can buy tickets online. Lauren Jost is excited about the new Montavilla location and hopes that the new office in this community will allow them to explore other program options and reach more students.
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In Late March, Dollhouse Espresso opened its bikini coffee stand at 1133 SE 82nd Avenue and has served caffeinated drinks to drive-through customers every day since. Owner Jessica Cody bought the cart with donations from supporters interested in seeing a woman-owned stand that would create a safe space for the people working there. Although barista attire is a theme of the cart, Cody and her staff strive to deliver well-made coffee, tasty food, and friendly service for all customers.
Jessica Cody has worked as a dancer and bartender for several years. She continues to do that work to help support this new business, some days working from 6 a.m. to 3 a.m. the next day. However, it was her work abroad that gave her a true passion for coffee service. “I used to live in Australia before the pandemic on a working visa. I lived there for about two years, and I managed a really great coffee shop in Perth. That’s where I learned how to make good, authentic coffee,” Cody recalled. That experience and an Australian influence shape some of the drinks on the menu. “I’m bringing a little bit of my experience there, out here, with the style of coffee that I make,” said Cody. “I have normal coffee, and I also do things like Aussie iced coffee, which is iced coffee with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. That’s a staple drink in Australia.”
The Aussie iced coffee is not the only sweet thing on the menu. “I also have real cotton candy and cool candies, different things to make our drinks a unique and cool experience. It’s a lot of fun,” said Cody. The shop also offers traditional breakfast items, including muffins and a French toast breakfast sandwich. On the savory side, Dollhouse Espresso can sell guests egg and cheese, ham and cheese, or sausage breakfast sandwiches. Cody is particularly proud of their feta cheese and spinach brioche wraps. Because of the limited space and a need for fast service, all food is prepared by a partner kitchen in Washington State and heated to serve in the stand on SE 82nd Avenue.
Bikini coffee has a varied history in the Pacific Northwest, and Jessica Cody was an early employee in that industry before moving to Australia. Through that tumultuous experience, she developed her idea for a respectful woman-run business. “I had a very bad experience working at a bikini coffee stand when I first did it years ago. It was called Dream Girls,” recalled Cody. The former owner of Dream Girls now faces charges of sexual abuse and rape, along with other crimes reportedly committed against some of his employees. Cody felt Dollhouse Espresso was an opportunity to come back to bikini coffee from that experience and create a safe place for this type of service. Many of the people working there are her friends, and she operates the stand similar to an employee-run shop.
Part of Cody’s vision for Dollhouse Espresso is to make people feel respected inside and outside the cart. “I feel like we are friendly and welcoming enough for everybody, any part of the community. I try to hire women of all different shapes, sizes, and colors,” said Cody. The organization is LGBTQ-friendly, and Cody says families come through often. “I try to make it exciting for everybody,” explained Cody.
The path to opening this new business has not been without issues and false starts. Dollhouse Espresso opened last year in Vancouver, Washington, operating for just three months. Cody said the landlord raised the rent on her with little notice and caused property damage when she did not pay the increase. In 2024, she had to relocate and regroup. Having lived in the Montavilla during her youth and working in some nearby businesses, this location on SE 82nd felt appropriate for the stand’s long-term home. “The demographics seem great for what I’m trying to do here, especially for girls being in bikinis,” said Cody. So far, customers are responding well to the new location, and Dollhouse Espresso is seeing consistent business. Expanding to more areas is not out of the question for Cody. However, she will focus on building this location into its best version before considering taking on more work.
The shop is currently open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day, but Cody is considering plans to start opening early at 5 a.m. on Monday through Saturday in the near future. The stand can support two drive-through windows, and Cody hopes to reconfigure the cart’s placement to open up that second window. Walk-ups and bicyclists are welcome, but the staff recommends drive-through visits for the safest experience because the stand is in a parking lot.
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On Wednesday, April 3rd, Volunteers of America (VOA) Oregon will hold its second public meeting to present preliminary designs for the group’s six-acre campus at 8815 NE Glisan Street. People planning on attending should RSVP for the event and then arrive at the Multnomah University President’s Dining Room at JCA Student Center by 4 p.m. for the start of the event. The University is located near the future VOA site at 8435 NE Glisan Street.
Article originally published on March 7th, 2024
On February 24th, Volunteers of America (VOA) Oregon held its first town hall meeting, where organization leaders and architects presented preliminary designs for the group’s six-acre campus at 8815 NE Glisan Street. Over the coming years, VOA Oregon intends to consolidate its administrative services and some of its substance use, behavioral health, and childcare services onto this former church property. Project designers with Opsis Architecture explained that the multi-phased project would utilize the site’s sloped topography to hide increasing building height and borrow inspiration from residential rooflines to match nearby structures. A second meeting is scheduled for April 3rd from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at Multnomah University in the President’s Dining Room.
Looking Northwest at future site. All renderings by Opsis Architecture provided courtesy VOA Oregon
Designers structured the proposed campus with external functions in buildings adjacent to NE Glisan Street and internal services in the site’s northwest half. VOA Oregon buildings will stand two stories tall along the site’s southern edge, increasing to three levels as the land slopes downhill, presenting a consistent scale along its frontage. Crews will reconstruct the existing parking lot to include more trees and landscaping between the 92 stalls. Another cluster of lots along the property’s northern edge will provide an additional 54 on-site parking spaces. The early redevelopment will raze the 1950s-era church building and add frontage improvements along NE Glisan Street with significant work on NE 90th Avenue. Road Crews will reconstruct sections of NE 90th, adding sidewalks, street trees, and 17 curbside parking spaces to the street’s western edge.
Image looking north, courtesy VOA Oregon
VOA Oregon’s schedule for development is dependent on fundraising efforts. Construction will occur in phases, and the nonprofit will reuse existing site attributes, such as the main parking lot’s location, to save on costs. The first phase will prepare the site to host future buildings. The second phase will construct the NE Glisan adjacent administrative building and one of the residential treatment structures. Additional buildings will follow as funding allows. VOA Oregon also owns property across NE 90th Avenue. That site will allow for future multi-use development on the northeast corner of NE Glisan and 90th. Crews will construct a secure storage facility for company vehicles and supplies north of that building after demolishing the church’s storage structure, which is currently serving that purpose.
Opsis Architecture will design all buildings to serve distinct uses and complement VOA Oregon’s support programs. The main building will contain offices and community space with outward-facing uses, including a cafe and meeting rooms. Two L-shaped buildings will offer short-term units for the Women’s Residential Treatment program, where people and their children can stay between three and six months while receiving care. Each housing building can support 50 residents, meaning up to 100 people will reside on campus when fully occupied. Staff will work all hours of the day, year-round, making this formally dark and underutilized property consistently more active. Other structures will support community clinic services and childcare for employees and program participants.
Site map showing all phases, by Opsis Architecture provided courtesy VOA Oregon
In 2022, VOA Oregon President Kay Toran spoke with Montavilla News about the group’s hopes for the property. Since then, Toran has worked with the organization’s Board of Directors, staff, and designers to create a facility that she expects will provide the positive change that Portland’s behavioral health crisis requires. For 125 years, VOA has worked to rebuild lives after experiencing substance use and behavioral health issues. This campus will bring operational efficiencies to the organization and expand some offerings. However, they will maintain many other locations throughout the Portland Metro area and Oregon. They operate in an environment that has a nearly endless need for services as people transition out of addiction, incarceration, or trauma and into stable lives. VOA Oregon invites the community to attend the April 3rd meeting to receive more information, ask questions, and provide feedback.
By
Jacob Loeb
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On January 5th, Hungry Heart Bakery reopened in its original storefront at 414 SE 80th Avenue, consolidating three brands and two restaurants back into one business. For the owner and staff, this will create a sustainable environment while allowing them to continue the work they enjoy. The shop has returned to a breakfast-focused menu in a takeout and counter service format.
The two locations with split identities sometimes caused misunderstandings about the menu options at each space. “It’s been a challenge to create these different brands and give each their own identity. I think it created a lot of confusion over time for people because they would come into Hungry Heart in the morning for cupcakes or they come into Rabbit Hole looking for espresso,” explained Hart. Additionally, the expanded footprint and full-service restaurant generated more work than the profits from both places justified. On December 18th, having considered the best options for staff and customers, Hart closed Hungry Heart’s Stark Street location and retired the White Rabbit/Rabbit Hole branding.
Hart is still developing the new Hungry Heart format, with several classic items missing from the menu. Currently, they only offer their renowned cupcakes by special order, and the Rabbit Hole soft-serve ice cream is unavailable due to space constraints. Brunch and Lunch items once served on SE Stark Street are no longer on the menu, and the shop now closes at 1 p.m., reflecting its breakfast focus. However, starting in March, a retail business will share the SE 80th Avenue storefront after they close, and that group will sell some Hungry Heart baked items. “We can’t announce yet who, but we’re gonna try out having an afternoon roommate in this space, and they will be selling our cupcakes,” said Hart.
Although Hungry Heart is geared towards takeout, they still have 14 seats inside, with an outdoor seating area planned for summer. Hours of operation could also expand in the warmer months with the possible return of soft-serve ice cream. Hart is not trying to take on too much while integrating the brands, instead focusing on the core business. “I feel fortunate and proud of all these different concepts I’ve had a hand in. Not all of them were highly successful or profitable, but the pastries, coffee, and sandwiches continued to be profitable. I think a valuable lesson is that bigger isn’t necessarily always better. It was really cool being in a bigger space, but I missed being in the smaller space, having a smaller crew and a smaller menu, and just having things be a little bit simpler. The bigger space just felt like a hustle,” said Hart.
The downsizing and return to its origins is not a regression for Hungry Heart. Hart sees it as an opportunity to safely experiment without the pressure of a large restaurant’s staff and overhead. People should expect to find new, exciting foods coming from the bakery alongside the classics. “I’m hoping to take some of the pastries in a more Hispanic direction and do a play on a modern Mexican bakery, offering some more things from my background that I grew up eating. I’ve just been so focused on French pastry since we’ve been open. I’m really excited to take things in a different direction and still offer people the things that they’ve come to know over the years,” said Hart. Hungry Heart is open daily from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. except Tuesdays.
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On December 18th, Hungry Heart Bakery served its last meal from the 7940 SE Stark Street location and will return to its former space a block away at 414 SE 80th Avenue. Since April 2022, the Rabbit Hole Market and Sweets shop has operated from the SE 80th location. Jax Hart owns both businesses, and the two locations worked together to meet the varied appetites of customers throughout the day. This weekend, December 30th and 31st, the restaurant’s owner will sell surplus supplies as they consolidate operations into the smaller space.
Inside Rabbit Hole Market and Sweets
Hungry Heart Bakery opened in Montavilla on January 3rd, 2015, after five years of running the successful Hungry Heart cupcakes food cart. From 2017 to 2019, Hungry Heart opened a sister business, Heartbreaker, a block over at 411 SE 81st Avenue. They closed that business with plans to open a new restaurant on SE Stark Street called White Rabbit Cafe and Bakery in the spring of 2020. The pandemic set White Rabbit’s launch back, with the SE Stark location opening in early 2021 under the Hungry Heart name. As restrictions lifted on indoor dining, Hart expanded the menu and embraced the original brunch menu planned for White Rabbit. The restaurant began a transition to the intended name, adopting both logos. However, they never completed that transition, and a change of business operations was needed.
In December, Jax Hart publicly announced that the company would relocate to the original space. “The decision to downsize has not been easy, but gives us the opportunity to slow down and return to our roots,” reads a notice on the Hungry Heart website. Consolidating the two locations requires selling some of the surplus restaurant supplies. The staff invites people to buy items at the weekend sale from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on December 30th and 31st inside the closed location at 7940 SE Stark Street. They intend to reopen the consolidated shop at 414 SE 80th Avenue on January 5th, 2024. Watch the Hungry Heart Instagram account for updates.
In early 2024, City Noise Records will relocate from NE Broadway to 7035 NE Glisan Street. Next door at 7033 NE Glisan Street, the owner of the punk and metal music store will launch a new beer and wine bar called Replicant with his partner Lydia Crumbley. Renovation crews working on the 1917-era storefronts encountered some age-related complications, but work is now well underway for a mid-March or April opening.
The 810-square-foot bar’s name originates from the 1982 sci-fi movie Blade Runner. The film featured synthetic humans known as replicants, hunted in a futuristic Los Angeles. Bar and record store owner Gianpiero Milani is a fan of the film and will use it for some of the bar’s theming. However, co-owner Lydia Crumbley explained they will not attempt to recreate a bar environment from the film. Replicant will offer non-alcoholic drinks alongside beer and wine, with a food menu that includes vegan options.
The bar and record shop connect through a hallway, allowing people to move between the two locations as they drink and shop. The record store will utilize its new 516-square-foot storefront to increase the music genres offered and add more products. In addition to vinyl and cassette-based albums, the shop features books, magazines, jewelry, and apparel. The back portion of the music store will contain City Noise’s growing online order fulfillment business, shipping across the country.
Crumbley and Milani chose this Montavilla location because of its proximity to their home and the rare option to combine the existing store with a new bar. The shop is also near Crumbley’s Certified Public Accountant business, located above the Bipartisan Cafe on SE Stark Street. The two record store employees will transfer to this new location by April, joining a bar manager working next door. Replicant will serve guests from 3 to 10 p.m. every day except Mondays. City Noise Records will maintain its hours of noon to 7 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, with similar hours on Sundays but closing at 6 p.m. Look for work to pick up pace in January and February, with a soft open anticipated for March.
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