Emporia has filed for a liquor license at 714 SW 11th Ave in downtown Portland, according to a public notice from the City of Portland dated September 9. The applicant is Emporia LLC, with Chadwick Gibson listed as the owner.
City filings describe an ambitious lineup for the space: live music and DJ sets running nightly from 6 to 10 p.m., dancing, pool tables, and what the application simply calls “art shows, analog games like pool, etc.” The bar plans to seat 90 people, with hours stretching to 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, positioning Emporia as a late-night destination rather than a quick happy hour stop.
The address carries real history. Built in 1926 and known historically as the German American Society Building, or Hotel Arminius, the space most recently served as a dance studio, physical activity center and music hall for a private school, complete with two full commercial kitchens already built into the layout. That existing kitchen infrastructure could give Emporia a head start on buildout compared to a space starting from scratch.
The building sits in Portland’s Westend neighborhood, a stretch of downtown that’s seen rapid change in recent years, with more than 500 new apartment and hotel rooms under construction within five blocks,
