PORTLAND, Ore. — Rose City Book Pub is a café located in Northeast Portland. Almost daily, they host open mics, trivia nights and other activities for book lovers. But all that fun may come to an end if they can't raise the $15,000 they need to stay in business.
Elise Schumock is a Portland native. After living in Los Angeles, she came back to her hometown in 2018, funding the Rose City Book Pub.
"A friend suggested it be cool if there was a bookstore that was also a bar," said Schumock. "I said that would be amazing but that would have to be in Portland.”
Rose City Book Pub is a unique space offering a variety of books, various cocktails and café style food. They host events such as open mics, book readings, and even events for kids. But inflation, debt from the pandemic and the January ice storm have made it tough for Schumock to keep the book pub alive.
"I was open for about a year and a half when the pandemic started. I had just started making money for the first time, then all of a sudden, I was losing money at a scale that I could have never imagined before," said Schumock. "Everybody I know who owns a restaurant took a loan the size of a mortgage, and now, we have mortgage payments on top of all our other expenses.”
After seeing her struggle, an employee and frequent customer came up with the idea to put on an auction.
“This is going to change the trajectory," said Schumock. Her customers came through with almost 200 submissions. The auction offers everything from a Persian dinner to ukulele lessons.
“People are providing services where they are going to end up spending time with a stranger," said Schumock."But they trusted that the people who come here would be someone they would want to spend an hour or two with."
The auction is hosted both online via Zoom and at the pub on Monday from 7-11 p.m. Currently, they have an online silent auction on their website where people can place bids ahead of time.
“There is something for everybody in this list and I think it's all going to get picked up," said Schumock. "This will translate to the money that I need."
The Rose City Book Pub will host their auction on March 11 starting at 7 p.m. Anyone interested can also join them via Zoom and place bids online.