Original McCormick & Schmick’s Closes After Three Decades

by Spence Cooper on 04/06/09 at 11:34 am

McCormick and Schmick's an Era Comes to an End

The recession has hit some long-established restaurants hard as more people than ever before are unemployed and on food stamps. People just don’t eat out as frequently these days. After failing in attempts to renegotiate their lease, the original McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurant in Portland, Oregon, closed down Wednesday after 30 years. McCormick & Schmick’s founders Bill McCormick and Doug Schmick opened the restaurant in 1979.

The restaurant’s 38 employees were offered positions at other McCormick & Schmick’s locations in the Portland metro area.

McCormick & Schmick’s has had double-digit declines at restaurants open more than a year, and has “lost nearly $70 million in 2008 and $1.1 million in the first quarter of 2009″. The original McCormick & Schmick’s on First Ave., is one of the company’s six in the Portland area, “along with its other brands, Jake’s Famous Crawfish, M&S Grill and The Heathman Restaurant & Bar”.