A new late-night bar and restaurant called The Balboa is in the works for 1134 NW Everett St. in Portland's Pearl District, with plans for pool tables, DJs, dancing and a patio that would keep the doors open from noon until 2:30 a.m. every day. The project comes from Kurt Huffman of ChefStable, the restaurant group behind a growing list of Portland bars and restaurants.
According to WhatNow, The Balboa has applied for a full on-premises liquor license, though no opening date has been announced. The outlet reports plans for 75 seats inside and 16 more on an outdoor patio, where food and drinks would be served. Entertainment is expected to include recorded music, DJs, dancing and pool tables, but the plans specifically exclude live music or karaoke.
The address sits just off NW 12th Avenue, in a stretch of the Pearl that WhatNow describes as getting busier at night. That shift tracks with comments Huffman made in a conversation on the podcast rightatthefork.com, where he described a move away from office-driven dining in the neighborhood and toward nightlife and younger customers.
ChefStable's Deep Roots in Portland Dining
ChefStable lists 17 projects at more than two dozen locations around the Portland area, a portfolio that spans sandwich shop Lardo, fresh-pasta spot Grassa, and the wood-fired, Greek-inspired Bluto's, according to the company's own project listings. The group also runs Coopers Hall, an urban winery and taproom in the Central Eastside, along with Loyal Legion, St. Jack, Oven and Shaker, Ox and Whey Bar. The company was named Oregon Restaurateur of the Year in 2019, per WhatNow's reporting.
WhatNow characterizes ChefStable as a major force in the city's late-night scene, pointing to the speakeasy Voysey and the airport bar Aurora as examples of that reach. The Balboa would extend that late-night footprint into a corner of the Pearl District that has already seen one ChefStable bar come and go.
A Previous ChefStable Bar Closed Nearby in 2018
In 2016, Huffman and two partners opened Pearl Tavern, a sports bar and restaurant at NW 11th Avenue and Everett Street, just a few steps from The Balboa's planned address, according to WhatNow. Eater Portland reported at the time that the ChefStable bar had opened in the winter of 2016 specializing in high-end bar food, and that it closed its doors on June 5, 2018.
No opening date for The Balboa has been announced, and the liquor license application remains pending. For now, the plans point to a bigger, later-running addition to a neighborhood ChefStable already knows well, with dancing and pool tables where Pearl Tavern once served sports fans and bar food.
