Lloyd Center Mall
Portland, Oregon - circa 1960s
The very swanky (and red!) interior of Mr. C's Hippopotamus Restaurant (yes, that's what it was called), inside the Lloyd Center shopping mall.
My pal over at Stumptown Confidential (vintage Portland blog), did a groovy post on this place a while back, if you'd like to know more about it (I read over there that Mr. C's was sort of like a Denny's, and their specialty was pancakes. Mmmm!).
Mall history: 1960 - present
Current website: here
Info from Wikipedia
Current aerial view
Previous entries: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
posted by Keith @ 10/03/2006
9 Comments:
Oh my eyes! This much red is NOT good... causes anger. In a restaurant, umpf!
I do recall this shade of red was really popular with carpeting in the late Seventies.
Scott
I remember seeing a photo somewhere of the interior of a Harvest House that looked a lot like this.
didi
I remember seeing a Sweden House in Florida that had a simliar interior.
Actually, this looks eerily like that big dance hall and bar that was featured in The Shining. Red rum!
Wow I wanna be there! It reminds me of the Halfway House on the Darien Stamford border or the White Fence in or any other number of red places!!
Just Great
Your pal
K
Gahh! This is the reddest restaurant I've ever seen! It's so fugly it's cool :-)
Rob, never saw The Shining but your comment still makes me laugh!
Mr C's served a wide variety of hamburgers. Everything from raw (named the african burger) to just about anything you would want. They also had the only french fry maker, that I saw, that used a product similar to instant mashed potato. The food was great as was the service. They did not serve pancakes. Pancakes were served on the other side of the mall at Pancake Corner.
These photos made my day. I loved those fountains with the modernist sculptures! I grew up in the 1970's. This brought back school shopping memories as well as all the times we went to see all the Christmas decorations.
You still had to dress for the seasons since it was outdoors. I loved the heat vents between the outer doors and inner doors. They blew warm air up from the grates to transition from outside to inside temperatures.
I remember how much I hated the new version of the mall. I rarely go there now, unless I have to.
Mr. C’s Hippopotamus Restaurant in Lloyd Center was a very popular place - back in the day - and it’s specialty was several types of hamburgers. They copied from The Hippopotamus in San Francisco and was actually sued by the San Francisco restaurant! Finally it was over and a huge sum of monies was paid by the owners of the Portland restaurant to the owners of the San Francisco restaurant. The Portland restaurant was always busy, especially before Christmas. After eating your favorite burger, one just had to have some of their famous hot apple pie with rum sauce - which was yummy. The interior of it would look gaudy today - but in the early 1970’s the red and gold was considered somewhat plush for a restaurant in a major shopping center. The pictures you see on this site are correct - I remember only too well as I worked there as a waitress for about 6 months. Pay was minimal but tips made up for it. Everyone working there seemed to be happy and upbeat. Not sure when this restaurant closed down - but the Hippopotamus in San Francisco finally closed its doors after more than 40 years in business. The original and only owners of that great establishment finally retired, and instead of selling out, they elected to close the restaurant. One of their most unusual burgers was the Cannibal Burger. It came with all “the fixins”..... and the burger itself was actually raw. Yes, raw. Out of my many trips to that restaurant, each time I would notice someone would order that burger. Raw hamburger! No thank you. Many good memories of both restaurants!
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