After a long downhill spiral for a short height, Bay 13 has closed.
The restaurant website puts it simply:
“Bay13 has closed. We will be reopening as a new concept in spring 2010”
Reconstructed in what was once an abandoned warehouse, Bay 13 came to town in February 2007, with big plans, announcing one of the largest restaurants in the area, with a “public fish market” to be opened later that year.
Despite a large number of potential customers in the area, from the beginning, the restaurant floundered, and never gained the expected crowds. The menu was expensive, the food wasn’t very good, and the service was quite strange. From my 20007 review,
“Owned by the Moana Group, a large corporation having restaurants in many states, including Paragon in Portland, this warehouse has been converted into a 175 seat restaurant. Though clearly a lot of money has been spent, I wonder exactly what crowd they are hoping to attract. Something tells me it’s not foodies, but more along the lines of the folks that frequent Manzana, out looking for “something even better”. Give it six months, and unless the cooking improves, it will be a soulless repository of Pearl District denizens, hoping for flash over substance; the type of person that isn’t really likely to read this site in the first place.”
An interesting service quirk that, last I heard, was never worked out – sushi orders often arrived after the mains, something that annoyed more than a few diners, but restaurant managers spoke of as “normal procedure, as our sushi takes time to make”.
It seems the “soulless” denizens of the Pearl have spoken, as both Manzana and Bay 13, quietly rest in peace.
PS. Not all people living in the Pearl District are soulless. This is a broad generalization from current thinking of 2007, and does not reflect the current Pearl District residents, or, specifically, and of my friends, neighbors, or even myself. I was a bit more snarky when I wrote that line. Now I would say something more PR, like “folks who have given up on making a social life in the suburbs, and have moved to the big city to own large soulless concrete condominiums, which in 80 years will all be torn down (if we haven’t all died in nuclear war) for vegetable gardens.
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Bay 13 Restaurant has closed. Despite a large number of potential customers in the area the restaurant floundered and never gained the expected crowds.
SuZe says
Should have had a charcuterie – because it was never more than a meat market
wine&dine says
Funny!
Food Dude says
snort ;)
guignol says
Greek Cuisina R.I.P. Also
Food Dude says
And all the Oregon Daphne’s Greek deli’s or whatever they were called. We’ve pretty much pounded that subject into the ground on Twitter/Facebook
Jeff Shultz says
Hmmm, you’ve traveled in time from 20007? :-)
farmgirl says
you may need an exorcism to remove the pearl ghoul from your back
Food Dude says
I’m sorry, but with the exception of the older buildings in the pearl, I just don’t feel the soul when I’m walking around.
farmgirl says
Please don’t think I was disagreeing with you…the Pearl is soulless. However, your back sounds awful, and I thought a shaman could do you good. Or, perhaps a witch doctor would be more fun, especially if you’re having muscle-relaxant-induced visions.
Tommy says
I used to work at the REI in the Pearl, I’ve known a few people who live there, been to a handful of get-togethers and cocktail parties and such in the neighborhood. There are decent enough folks living there, but I would agree, it’s pretty light on soul. Just generally doesn’t strike me as a very healthy place. Shiny, yes; well-coiffed, yes; buffed and toned from countless hours of narcissistic self-absorption, yes; but not a real neighborhood, by any means. As for the architecture, the old warehouse rehabs will hold up reasonably well, as will the Gregory, but most of what’s been built there in the past ten years is going to start looking pretty avocado green before long…
Food Dude says
I have nothing against the pearl, haven’t lived in it for quite a long time. I just don’t think it has soul. That’s something that is built up over years.
wine&dine says
The artificial soul tanked with the economy. The bubble burst here before it was newsworthy!
wine&dine says
Manzana, Palomino same caliber food, same demise. Seemed more like a bar scene than a restaurant. Is the Moana Group running the restaurant in the Big Pink?
I agree with your assessment FD.
Happy New Year!
P.S. Any comments from New Years Eve diners? Who had a great meal out?
Food Dude says
No, I’m pretty sure they are two different corporations.
devilchef says
Wow, FD, you had me right up to the PPS.
See, I have rough drafts of two pieces: “Bomb Shelter Cuisine” and “Hoarding Food for the Apocalypse”.
The survival blogs turned me down, said I was too “foodie”.
Tabby says
Whatever your opinion, a lot of people just lost their jobs…The rash of restaurant closings have as much to do with the economy as their locations and merits. Having once worked there I know that some of your points are very true but It seems you relish the closing of a restaurant you didn’t like more than your criticisms ring true. I would also like to say that having worked in The Pearl District my prejudices against the neighborhood were more challenged than confirmed. And if I recall your 2007 review was written within days of Bay 13 opening (I worked there at that time) hardly a fair move from a reviewer. I really hope that more of my friends, colleagues, and former coworkers in the restaurant industry do not lose their jobs, it is getting pretty bleak.
elwood says
I too feel for those who lost their jobs. While I never felt much love for Bay 13, it is hard to work for something that ends up failing. It’s true these closings have a lot to do with the economy, but Bay 13 and Manzana weren’t built to last in adverse conditions. The fact is that restaurants have to endure the cyclical nature of our boom and bust economy – sometimes restaurants fail on their merits, or lack thereof.
That said, I wouldn’t wish for anyone to have to close.
hsawtelle says
“the restaurant floundered” – good one
bananadan says
I can’t help thinking, Bay 13, no loss. As to the soul part, I say, don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it. Yes it is not the old Portland. No, it is not soulless . . . in fact it is a very livable new city experience. And I will not be around for the veggie gardens, so that is not so relevant to me. Perhaps if I was two today instead of . . . sixty one . . . I would be worrying about 80 years down the road. I am more worried about all the empty restaurant spaces that have not found new purposes. The Pearl is beginning to look a bit like a wasteland when you add in the closed Puma, Adidas and Eddie Bauer retail spaces, plus innumerable smaller retail outlets.
Sideline says
The super restaurant is dead and has been dead for quite sometime.
seepdx says
Bay 13 will still be open for private parties and will reopen in early April with a new look and new focus. The management I have met there are great people and I’m sure closing to regroup was a difficult decision when it comes to laying off employees. There is a lot of talent in that organization so don’t be so quick to write them off.
bananadan says
well I was not casting aspersions on anybody’s talent. I have money to spend on restaurants and there was nothing they did to turn me on. I was outside of their targeted demographic, which appeared to me to be young people who wanted to see and be seen, and who didn’t mind sitting in a surrounding with near-deafening levels of music. It’s another one of those places that, to me, wants to create a backwash of artificial energy. I figure this strategy is two-fold: it prevents any lapses in (yelled) conversation from feeling awkward, and it stimulates drinking (maybe.) But what it also does is blow anybody who actually wants to enjoy food without the abuse right out the doors. Although I was intrigued by their menu, I could tell from day one it was not my place. And obviously not the place for many others. Perhaps a little less “high concept” and a greater focus on providing comfort and accommodating those of us who still have our hearing intact would have served them in good stead. Far too many restaurants fall into the “noisier is better” trap, and now that their clientele is more selective about their spending, they may have narrowed their focus too far.
NWmike says
Anyone heard of them before? I’m not well-versed in SF restaurants….
http://www.oregonlive.com/dining/index.ssf/2010/01/san_francisco_restaurateurs_to.html
bananadan says
This group has been golden in the Bay Area. The three restaurants mentioned are all doing well and remain busy despite the recession/depression. American food is the model, with lots of chef-style twists. Most of their places are two to three dollar signs (out of four,) so they are not bargain basement but not over the top either. You can read more about the individual restaurants at sfgate.com