I scheduled one night of downtime this past Monday before it was time to head back out for my next musical adventure Tuesday evening featuring Seattle-based 60s and 70s style funky soul jazz band, the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio.
Before heading over to the Southeast venue for the show I stopped in at My Father’s Place an old school diner from the 70’s that I first visited over Labor Day weekend with George and Kathy Fernandez. The place is a bit run down and looks like it’s probably never been remodeled since it was taken over by the current owners in 1978. This night it was completely empty, and I had it to myself.
It’s usually a bad sign when one is the only customer in a restaurant at dinnertime, but I had been in here before and had seen the food come out, knowing that there didn’t appear to be anything “off” with that aspect, so I sat down and ordered.
I got the Chicken Fried Steak dinner with mashed potatoes, veggies and I added on a biscuit. Look, it was a couple blocks over from where I needed to be and they deliver an average plate of diner food for $16 bucks, so there should be no expectation of high-end eats here. They’ve been in business for nearly five decades so they must be doing something right. The veggies were obviously previously frozen, the taters were fresh, the chicken fried steak was crispy on the outside and juicy inside and the country gravy was flavorful and not goopy. To that point everything pretty much met my expectations for an average diner meal at a great price. Where I was underwhelmed was when it came to the biscuit. The menu advertises all day breakfast, so the biscuit should have either been fairly freshly made and warm, or they should have warmed it under the salamander or in the oven, but it was obviously microwaved, which just makes it chewy and not appealing.
I finished the meal, and being a diner and having a sweet tooth, I thought, “Ok, bring on some fresh diner berry pie a la mode”, but when I asked about dessert the waitress said they didn’t really have anything, ever, but she could bring me some vanilla ice cream. Disappointingly, I passed, paid the bill and headed to the club. Would I recommend this place or ever go back? Adjoining the restaurant they also have a sports bar that might be good on a Sunday for football. But, as far as the food and atmosphere goes, while there was nothing inherently bad or wrong with it, this is Portland and there are just so many better options that nobody should settle for mediocrity, so no I would not eat there again, and I don’t think I would recommend it to anyone else either.
I walked the two blocks over to The Get Down, an underground club residing in the basement of a building that looks to be from the mid-century. The pic below from Google Maps show a nondescript building with no signage.
However, the place opened in 2022 and it appears that they have since added a small sign and some graphics so that when I arrived for the door opening at 7pm one of three bouncers was already outside ready to start checking guests in.
Upon entry one goes down a couple flights of stairs emblazoned with 70s vibe graphic of the club’s name then past an odd legacy fireplace alcove with a sequined jaguar that is lit up. There is a small bar off to the right and tables lining the walls. The room further opens up into what I thought at first was an old skating rink, but it’s basically a sunken dance floor with the stage off to the right. The whole place has a real mid-70s vibe to it.
Being one of the first guests, after getting a cocktail I had the place to myself to walk around and explore. After a bit I decided to look for the restroom. When I found it and the sign said “All Gender” I thought ok it was a single use room. But no, upon entry there was what I identified as a female (no idea how she identified her gender) about to head out, with stalls to the left and urinals in the open straight ahead. All genders welcome …. at the same time…. Gotta love Portland…
At 8pm the opening act, Outer Orbit started their set. The band is a “funk Soul Collective” per their website, “…drawing on a range of influences from Sly Stone and The Meters to Aretha Franklin and Bill Withers”
They did a pretty good job getting the crowd of several dozen guests engaged and by the time they were done about 45 minutes later the place had filled up with maybe 200 people. I heard the bartender say that they had put 450 in the space before, but I could imagine that would be pretty uncomfortable. As it was I had probably 1-2 feet between me and the attendees around me, but I was able to make my way around the floor to the barrier in front of the stage to have a pretty excellent view. As far as sound, crank this up as loud as your device will go and hold it 6 inches from your head to get an idea of how loud it was.
Yeah, they jammed, and I’d be inclined to see them again if they are ever back in the area, but I was there to see the headliner.
After a brief intermission to clean up the stage and re-arrange the instruments, the headliner, The Delvon Lamaar Organ Trio, came on a little after 9pm. Leading up to the show I had checked out their music on YouTube Music, and even created a playlist. After spending a couple hours with them I declared that their tunes should just be the official soundtrack of life. Like, if it was playing in your head all day you’d be bebopping around, toe tapping, every once in a while, foot stomping, nodding your head, shimmying and shaking, wagging your chin, smile as big as a slice of watermelon, just having an outstanding time with life. The leaning-on-the-younger-side crowd agreed, and a great time was had by all.
Having to work the next day I finally bailed around 1030, but the show kept on and I have no idea how much longer they played. I had gotten my money’s worth though, having had a blast checking out a new club and two new bands.
I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on The Get Down’s calendar to see what else they might have coming up, and I look forward to seeing Delvon and his band the next time the make their way down from Seattle.