A number of businesses are celebrating major decade anniversaries this year:
80-year Anniversaries
Legion Square Market was founded in 1939 by John Smaha.
70-year Anniversaries
Botto’s Bakery, Micucci’s Grocery and the Miss Portland Diner all opened fur business in 1949. Joseph Botto founded the bakery and sold it to Everett Mathews in 1982. Micucci’s Grocery was founded by Leo and Iris Micucci and is now run by their son Rick and his wife Anna. The Miss Portland was originally located at 175 Forest Ave.
50-Year Anniversaries
Harbor Fish Market, The Lobster Shack and Lib’s Dairy Treats all go their start half a century ago.
40-Year Anniversaries
Dave and Weslie Evans and Chip MacConnell opened a bar originally known as The Grizzly Bear. They changed the name to The Great Lost Bear in 1981 after a legal challenge from an West Coast business called Grizzly Bear Pizza.
30-year Anniversaries
1989 was a banner year for long lived openings. Ken Ng opened Panda Garden, Dana Street opened Street & Company, Susan Eklund opened Susan’s Fish & Chips, and Hi Bombay!, Brea Lu Cafe, Marcy’s, the Armory Lounge, and Parker’s all opened.
20-year Anniversaries
No doubt there were many openings in 1999 but I don’t have the data immediately at hand to detail them out at this time. I had just moved to Portland in 1998 and do clearly remember the opening of Local 188 in 1999.