Tom's Restaurant and Bar, sometimes referred to separately as Tom's Restaurant and Tom's Bar, is a restaurant and bar in
Portland, Oregon
Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...
, United States. Tom and Georgia Belesiu opened the
diner
A diner is a small, inexpensive restaurant found across the United States, as well as in Canada and parts of Western Europe. Diners offer a wide range of foods, mostly American cuisine, a casual atmosphere, and, characteristically, a com ...
in 1975; ownership was later transferred to their daughter Antoinette, who started working for the business as a teenager, and her husband Taki Papailiou. The menu, based on Georgia's recipes, has changed little over the years, and the
greasy spoon
A greasy spoon is a small, cheap restaurant – either an American diner or coffee shop, or a British or Irish cafe – typically specializing in fried foods or home-cooked meals. The term ''greasy spoon'' has been used in the United States si ...
is known for serving breakfast all day and for having an inexpensive
happy hour menu.
Description
![Tom's Restaurant and Bar, Portland, Oregon, 2022 - 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Tom%27s_Restaurant_and_Bar%2C_Portland%2C_Oregon%2C_2022_-_2.jpg)
Tom's Restaurant and Bar is located on Division Street at the intersection of
Cesar Chavez Boulevard in
southeast Portland
Southeast Portland is one of the sextants of Portland, Oregon.
Boundaries and features
Southeast Portland stretches from the warehouses along the Willamette River through historic Ladd's Addition to the Hawthorne and Belmont districts out to Gr ...
's
Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, California, ...
neighborhood. Originally a restaurant, the north side was expanded to include a bar, which has been described by ''
Willamette Week
''Willamette Week'' (''WW'') is an alternative weekly newspaper and a website published in Portland, Oregon, United States, since 1974. It features reports on local news, politics, sports, business, and culture.
History
Early history
''Willame ...
'' as a "divey sports bar known for the thick cloud of smoke wafting off from the picnic tables out front".
The newspaper described Tom's as a "''
Dazed and Confused''-era diner, which seems increasingly out of place on this rapidly changing stretch of Division Street", and as "an old school dentist's office waiting room, but with a sassy waitress who doesn't come to a complete stop as she asks "'You want cream?' If you do want cream, she pull seven little creamer cups out of an apron pocket and plops them down on the counter without breaking stride. When she gets back behind the bar, she rejoins the longest conversation about fleas you'll hear all year."
[ Tom's also has a small ]off-track betting
Off-track betting (or OTB; in British English, off-course betting) is sanctioned gambling on horse racing outside a race track.
U.S. history
Before the 1970s, only the state of Nevada allowed off-track betting. Off-track betting in New York was ...
area located between the restaurant and bar areas.
The ''Portland Mercury
''Portland Mercury'' is an alternative bi-weekly newspaper and media company founded in 2000 in Portland, Oregon. It has a sibling publication in Seattle, Washington, called '' The Stranger''.
Contributors and staff
Editor-in-chief: Wm. Steven ...
'' has described Tom's as a "seriously underrated, East Coast
East Coast may refer to:
Entertainment
* East Coast hip hop, a subgenre of hip hop
* East Coast (ASAP Ferg song), "East Coast" (ASAP Ferg song), 2017
* East Coast (Saves the Day song), "East Coast" (Saves the Day song), 2004
* East Coast FM, a ra ...
-style" diner
A diner is a small, inexpensive restaurant found across the United States, as well as in Canada and parts of Western Europe. Diners offer a wide range of foods, mostly American cuisine, a casual atmosphere, and, characteristically, a com ...
and a greasy spoon
A greasy spoon is a small, cheap restaurant – either an American diner or coffee shop, or a British or Irish cafe – typically specializing in fried foods or home-cooked meals. The term ''greasy spoon'' has been used in the United States si ...
with "outlandishly cheap" happy hour options. An exterior sign uses " Tom Jones' '70s Vegas" font, according to the newspaper's Brian Yaeger. The restaurant has an interior mural,[ and the bar has ]artificial leather
Artificial leather, also called synthetic leather, is a material intended to substitute for leather in upholstery, clothing, footwear, and other uses where a leather-like finish is desired but the actual material is cost
prohibitive or unsuitab ...
booths, pool
Pool may refer to:
Water pool
* Swimming pool, usually an artificial structure containing a large body of water intended for swimming
* Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings
* Tide pool, a rocky pool ...
tables, Skee-Ball
Skee-Ball is an arcade game and one of the first redemption games. It is played by rolling a ball up an inclined lane and over a "ball-hop" hump (resembling a ski jump) that jumps the ball into bullseye rings. The object of the game is to collect ...
, table football
Table football, also known as foosball, table soccer, futbolito in Mexico, Taca Taca in Chile and Metegol in Argentina is a table-top game that is loosely based on association football. The aim of the game is to move the ball into the opponen ...
, and video poker
Video poker is a casino game based on five-card draw poker. It is played on a computerized console similar in size to a slot machine.
History
Video poker first became commercially viable when it became economical to combine a television-like moni ...
machines.
Breakfast is served all day. Full breakfast
A full breakfast is a substantial cooked breakfast meal, often served in the United Kingdom and Ireland, that typically includes back bacon, sausages, eggs, black pudding, baked beans, some form of potato, tomatoes, mushrooms, toast, and a b ...
options include bacon, ham, or sausage, egg
An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...
, and French toast or pancakes
A pancake (or hotcake, griddlecake, or flapjack) is a flat cake, often thin and round, prepared from a starch-based batter that may contain eggs, milk and butter and cooked on a hot surface such as a griddle or frying pan, often frying wit ...
. The menu also includes a "butterhorn" fritter
A fritter is a portion of meat, seafood, fruit, vegetables or other ingredients which have been Batter (cooking), battered or breading, breaded, or just a portion of dough without further ingredients, that is deep-frying, deep-fried. Fritters ar ...
, chicken fried steak
Chicken-fried steak, also known as country-fried steak or CFS, is an American breaded cutlet dish consisting of a piece of beefsteak (most often tenderized cube steak) coated with seasoned flour and either deep-fried or pan-fried. It is sometime ...
with gravy
Gravy is a sauce often made from the juices of meats that run naturally during cooking and often thickened with wheat flour or corn starch for added texture. The gravy may be further coloured and flavoured with gravy salt (a simple mix of salt an ...
, hash browns
Hash browns, also spelled hashed browns, are a popular American and British breakfast food, consisting of finely chopped potatoes that have been fried until browned. Hash browns first started appearing on breakfast menus in New York City in t ...
, omelettes
In cuisine, an omelette (also spelled omelet) is a dish made from beaten eggs, fried with butter or oil in a frying pan (without stirring as in scrambled egg). It is quite common for the omelette to be folded around fillings such as chives, ve ...
, soups, and coffee supplied by Boyd's Coffee Boyd's Coffee Company, or Boyd Coffee Company, is a coffee company founded in 1900. In 2016, the company was sold to Farmer Brothers, based in Texas. In 2018, Boyd's announced plans to lay off 230 employees, and close operations in Eugene and Portl ...
. Happy hour options include quesadillas
A quesadilla (; ; Mexican diminutive of ''quesada'') is a Mexican dish consisting of a tortilla that is filled primarily with cheese, and sometimes meats, spices, and other fillings, and then cooked on a griddle or stove. Traditionally, a co ...
and tater tots
Tater tots are grated potatoes formed into small cylinders and deep-fried, often served as a side dish. The name "tater tot" is a registered trademark of the American frozen food company Ore-Ida, but is often used as a generic term. "Tater" is s ...
.
History
Tom and Georgia Belesiu opened the restaurant on December 18, 1975, in a space which previously housed an ice cream parlor
Ice cream parlors (American English) or ice cream parlours (British English) are places that sell ice cream, gelato, sorbet, and/or frozen yogurt to consumers. Ice cream is typically sold as regular ice cream (also called hard-packed or hard s ...
and later a bakery
A bakery is an establishment that produces and sells flour-based food baked in an oven such as bread, cookies, cakes, donuts, pastries, and pies. Some retail bakeries are also categorized as cafés, serving coffee and tea to customers who ...
.[ Tom built the restaurant in 1974,] and many of the entrees are based on Georgia's recipes.[ In 1988, Steve Duin of '']The Oregonian
''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 185 ...
'' said Tom "doesn't bore his patrons with politics". Belesiu said, "I don't want to lose anyone. Both parties are welcome here. I'm a politician. A diplomat."[
The couple's daughter Antoinette began working at the restaurant from the start, when she was 14 years old. She and her husband Taki Papailiou, who previously worked as the morning cook,][ are now co-owners. The family also owns the building and adjacent parking lot.] Nick Papailiou is also an owner, as of 2020.[
]
Earl Blumenauer
Earl Francis Blumenauer ( ; born August 16, 1948) is an American lawyer, author, and politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 1996. The district includes most of Portland east of the Willamette River.
A member of the Democratic P ...
visited the restaurant in 1991, during his mayoral campaign. In 2010, Nancy Travis
Nancy Ann Travis (born September 21, 1961) is an American actress.
She began her career on Off-Broadway theater, before her first leading screen role in the American Broadcasting Company, ABC television miniseries ''Harem'' opposite Omar Sharif. ...
filmed scenes at the restaurant for ''A Walk in My Shoes''.[ Tom's has a high ]employee retention Employee retention is the ability of an organization to retain its employees and make sure the sustainability of employees. Employee retention can be represented by a simple statistic (for example, a retention rate of 80% usually indicates that an o ...
; as of 2016, there were 16 employees, including cooks and waitresses who had worked at Tom's for 15 and 30 years, respectively.[
According to ]KGW
KGW (channel 8) is a television station in Portland, Oregon, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. The station's studios are located on Jefferson Street in southwestern Portland, and its transmitter is located in the city' ...
's Morgan Romero, Tom's relies mostly on alcohol sales for revenue. In November 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, Romero said Tom's Bar "will rely on takeout
A take-out or takeout (U.S., Canada, and the Philippines); carry-out or to-go (Scotland and some dialects in the U.S. and Canada); takeaway (England, Wales, Australia, Lebanon, South Africa, Northern Ireland, Ireland, and occasionally in Nort ...
from Tom's Restaurant next door to survive. They're calling on their regulars and the community to support them and other local bars and restaurants by ordering take-out." Tom's also sought COVID-19 relief funding via GoFundMe
GoFundMe is an American for-profit crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money for events ranging from life events such as celebrations and graduations to challenging circumstances like accidents and illnesses. From 2010 to the b ...
in 2020.
Reception
In 2014, ''Willamette Week'' described the Skee-Ball "situation" as "twin 10-foot lanes, 25 cents, no change machine, scoreboard lights are burnt out and wonky". The newspaper said, "Tom's sports bar, like the neighboring Tom's diner, is a throwback to Old Division that's close enough to New Division to make it a relic. The front sidewalk might as well have a smoke machine on it... Malfunctioning scoreboard lights make the lanes all but useless."
The ''Portland Mercury'' included Tom's in a 2015 list of "wonderfully trashy" happy hours. The newspaper's Brian Yaeger wrote in a 2017 overview of dive bar
A dive bar is typically a small, unglamorous, eclectic, old-style drinking establishment with inexpensive drinks; it may feature dim lighting, shabby or dated decor, neon beer signs, packaged beer sales, cash-only service, and a local clientele. ...
brunches, "Other upsides include never having to wait in line, a coffee cup that will never hit empty thanks to attentive waitstaff."
In 2016, John Vincent of the ''Business Tribune'' said, "In many ways, Tom's is like Portland's own Cheers
''Cheers'' is an American sitcom television series that ran on NBC from September 30, 1982, to May 20, 1993, with a total of 275 half-hour episodes across 11 seasons. The show was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions in association w ...
bar." Michael Russell included Tom's in ''The Oregonian
''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 185 ...
'''s 2018 list of 15 "favorite" diners in the Portland metropolitan area
The Portland metropolitan area is a metro area in the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington centered on the principal city of Portland, Oregon. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) identifies it as the Portland–Vancouver–Hillsboro, ...
.
See also
* List of diners
This is a list of notable diners. A diner is a prefabricated restaurant building characteristic of American life. They are commonly found in New England, the Midwest, New York City, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and in other areas of the Northeaster ...
* List of dive bars
Following is a list of notable dive bars:
* The 5 Point Cafe – Seattle, Washington
* Ace's & Deuce's Lounge – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
* Blue Moon Tavern – Seattle
* The Cock – New York City
* Comet Tavern – Seattle
* Dockside Saloon ...
References
External links
*
Tom's
at Zomato
Zomato () is an Indian multinational restaurant aggregator and food delivery company founded by Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah in 2008. Zomato provides information, menus and user-reviews of restaurants as well as food delivery options fro ...
{{Richmond, Portland, Oregon
1975 establishments in Oregon
Diners in Portland, Oregon
Dive bars in Portland, Oregon
Restaurants established in 1975
Richmond, Portland, Oregon