PORTLAND, Ore. — The last McCormick & Schmick's restaurant is closing in the city where the chain's company was founded.
Employees told a Portland Business Journal employee who dined there Thursday night that the RiverPlace location will close Sunday. Willamette Week was the first media outlet to publish the news.
The decision leaves one area McCormick & Schmick's location, in Tigard. Its owner, Houston-based Landry's, had begun closing many other restaurants within the chain in 2017.
At one time, the company operated nearly 100 restaurants in the U.S. and Canada. The company went public in 2004 in a move that raised $72 million for a national expansion. Its last public filing was in 2010. It went private in 2012 when Landry's took over the company.
Co-founders Bill McCormick and Doug Schmick formed the business in 1974 as a private firm. McCormick had, around that time, purchased Jake’s Famous Crawfish Restaurant.
The original McCormick & Schmick’s Restaurant opened in downtown Portland in 1979. It closed in 2009. McCormick & Schmick's also at one time operated the Heathman hotel's restaurant.
The company’s brief history includes its $24 million sale in 1994 to Castle Harlan Inc., a private investment company that planned to take it public but instead sold it to Apple South Inc., later Avado, in 1997 for $53 million.
In 2001, Avado sold the chain to a joint venture between Castle Harlan and Bruckman, Rosser, Sherrill Co. for $123.5 million.
In a statement to KGW from the COO of McCormick and Schmick's, Shah Ghani regarding the closure:
“Due to a natural lease expiration, McCormick & Schmick’s located at 309 SW Montgomery, Portland, OR will close its doors on Monday, April 1st. We thank the community for the many years of support and encourage our guests to visit us at our sister properties Jake’s Grill, Jake’s Famous Crawfish and Portland City Grill in the Portland area, or McCormick and Schmick’s Tigard. We value our employees, their dedication to our company, and are working to relocate them to our sister locations nearby.”
Portland Business Journal is a KGW News partner.