Capitol Bar Hosts Triumphant Reopening

Capitol Bar reopened on Saturday with an even airier feel, new menu, karaoke rooms and a schedule of monthly standup comedy shows. 

“I see Capitol being a staple in Portland,” owner Dessiree Guy told The Skanner. “There are people who have come up to me and they say, ‘We love that Capitol’s in Northeast, we love that it’s on this side.’ There are a lot of other minority-owned clubs, like Shake, Elevate, Mayhem, Spark – Chinatown is thriving, but on this side of the river, Capitol is like the staple.”

Forced Closure

Although the popular bar and restaurant on Northeast Broadway and 15th boasts significant upgrades and a few fresh coats of paint, its closure was never planned.  

On February 5, 2022 Guy, 27, had just taken ownership of the venue, which she planned to run in partnership with her fiance, Kevin McDowell. 

“We didn’t advertise at all. We just posted on Instagram and said, ‘Capitol is all Black-owned,’” Guy said. “That Friday it was a very successful and busy night. We were super proud.”

Only a couple hours after the club had been emptied and staff had locked up, an SUV stolen from Gresham crashed into the front of the bar after colliding with another vehicle. The driver, who was never apprehended, used the opportunity to steal a few bottles of alcohol from behind the bar before fleeing on foot. 

Guy recounts the bright sides of the accident: The 18-year-old driver of the other car spun out but was ultimately fine. Nobody was in the club at the time of the incident. 

“We had to close down, and then we just had the idea of remodeling some of these rooms,” Guy said. “We didn’t think the rebuild would take over a year.”

 A Gofundme campaign raised nearly $20,000 to help support staff during the closure. With her liquor license current, Guy was able to rent out event space upstairs. 

“We remodeled a lot of the rooms in there,” Guy said. “Kevin and I repainted; we just wanted it to be more open and vibrant and airy. We wanted to bring in sports, because we both loved sports. But also we wanted to do something different. There’s not a lot of comedy in Portland, it’s hard to find an underground place, so I was like, we should designate one day of the month to do a comedy show, I think we could do events here. Also live music, comedy shows, sports – there’s a lot of sports bars, but I thought it was a good integration with karaoke.”

Then, in late June, McDowell died after successfully rescuing a struggling swimmer in the Columbia River. He was 35 years old. 

Devastated, Guy continued working on the bar while processing her grief. The front of the bar was still boarded up, so she contacted local artist Ashley Montague (https://www.instagram.com/sknnymrcls) to paint a portrait of McDowell in a mural that looked out from Capitol Bar throughout the renovation. 

“He knocked it out in seven hours and his kids were right there with him,” she recalled. “At the time, it was summertime, so the kids are outside of Capitol with their dad, and he’s making this beautiful mural that’s 10 feet tall, in three huge pieces.”

It proved a welcome respite during an intensely difficult time. 

“There was a lot of scrutiny I got after (McDowell) passed away,” Guy said. “And there were also false narratives that were put out there that I was using his death as a money grab, or that his death was my fault because I didn’t jump in.”

Guy added, “I know a lot of people were watching, especially after the crash. Normally on Instagram there are maybe 600 or 800 people watching my story. And then it went to 30,000 in one night when he passed.”

Still, she said, “A lot of people were very supportive and donated time to help clean and they wanted to help paint – all types of stuff. The community definitely came together. It’s a very tragic, sad story, but there is a beautiful piece of it. He did save someone’s life. The community was very supportive. There was beauty behind the sadness, too.”

(Photo/ Capitol Bar)

Adapting

Guy is a Portland native who was raised around addiction.

“I didn’t really have any structure growing up,” she said. “My dad was deported when I was four. I wanted to do something different in my family. I didn’t want to use my past as an excuse for why I do certain things. I feel like it more motivated me, I learned from growing up with a traumatic, bad childhood, you could say. That’s where all my motivation came from.” 

Guy had modeled and worked a number of odd jobs while saving money and pursuing a degree in marketing. 

“I’m still signed with a modeling agency now,” she said. “I was a business analyst, I was a bartender, I pushed carts at Fred Meyers; I also danced in between.”

She was on the lookout for a good business venture when she ended up at Capitol one night. 

“I went there, it was packed, I had never seen an atmosphere like that in Portland,” Guy said.

“I loved it. It was very diverse. It was very lively. And it also wasn’t just a young crowd, it was all-ages."

I liked that, because I’m a Black woman/Mexican woman minority, there were tons of minorities in there, and I haven’t seen a place like that in Portland.”  

She stepped outside later and was unable to return because the club was at capacity. It was then that McDowell, who was working at Capitol as a promoter, introduced himself. He got her back into the club, where she was ultimately introduced to the owner. 

“He wasn’t looking for an investor – he was looking for a buyer,” Guy said. “I pretty much was just looking for a business venture. I had saved my money up for years. I was interested in investing. I never thought I was going to buy a bar, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. But the opportunity came.” 

Unable to keep her previous chef through the closure, Guy scheduled a series of tastings and landed on new-to-town Ashley Frankie, who works at Capitol Wednesdays through Fridays.

“She’s from Florida, she does a duck taco that is delicious,” Guy raved. “She does oxtails, lamb chops. Saturday and Sunday, we kind of just have a classic menu I came up with, just classic waffles, scrambles during brunch, and then late-night we have wings and tacos and fries.”

On Saturday, Guy was able to enjoy the fruits of her and McDowell’s labor. 

“Especially after all the tragedies and Covid, I just want Portland to be up and running how it was three years ago,”

she said. “Just seeing the community come together, seeing everyone just exuding energy towards the community to build something. That was before the build. At the grand opening, seeing families and their kids, it was so cute. I loved it.” 

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