Hamlet Restaurant Closes

Hamlet in Portland has served their last meal

From Facebook,

“It’s true. Hamlet will be closing its doors after last call on Saturday, but we hope to see you one last time for a drink and a slice of our best!

Thanks to everyone who’s ever come through, cozied up to our bar, sipped our cocktails, and shared in our love of great food and spirits from around the world. It has been our pleasure.”

This is one of those closings that will be the subject of debate for a while. Some say it was too expensive, though most of the menu felt reasonable to me – snacks and larger plates $7 – $11, and their most expensive items, the hand-carved Iberico de Bellota and Prosciutto di Parma were a bit spendy at $19 and $13. However, people who were likely to buy the latter probably were familiar enough with it to know the price was fair. Cocktails and food were a deal during happy hour.

My take is that the closure was because of a combination of issues: the location didn’t seem conducive to this type of restaurant, but more to the ‘let’s get drunk’ crowd. I can’t help but wonder if they had been in a quieter neighborhood and pushed more to be a destination.

Moreover, I rarely saw them do any publicity. Frankly, I had only been once, because I kept forgetting about it. With all the competition these days, restaurants not only have to cook good food and price it fairly, but they also have to constantly be posting on Facebook, Instagram and inventing reasons for press releases, or they will quickly be forgotten.

Cathy Whims’s Hamlet Closes This Saturday [pdx.eater]