McMenamins to lay off 3,000 amid outbreak

The landmark Northwest hotel and brewpub chain McMenamins said Tuesday it will lay off 3,000 people and close nearly all its locations as restaurants and hotels around the region shut down in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

The governors of Oregon and Washington have both ordered restaurants and bars throughout the states to close in hopes of containing the deadly coronavirus outbreak. Oregon reported a surge in cases Tuesday –the total now stands at 66, with one death.

McMenamins operates hotels, movie theaters, restaurants and bars in refurbished schools, fraternal halls, roadhouses and strip malls throughout the region. The company brews its own beer at many sites and decorates its properties with distinctive artwork and images evoking the Grateful Dead and the 1960s.

“The music has stopped –for now,” the company said on its website Tuesday. Only its Portland bottle shop on Northwest 23rd remains open.

“Today, we’re taking the necessary and unprecedented step of temporarily closing the doors of all of our McMenamins locations in Oregon and Washington for the next several weeks,” the company said in a written statement.

“After exploring all options, we are laying off nearly 3,000 employees — almost everyone at the company,” the company said.

McMenamins has two-dozen hotels, plus more than 60 bars and restaurants.

“This is drastic, but necessary, to allow our employees to file for unemployment benefits and ensure that there will be jobs to come back to when this extraordinary episode ends,” the company said. “And we are confident it will end.”

Oregon employment figures show 155,000 people work in bars and restaurants in the state.