Entry No. 52 — the Portland file — filed under: ritual-music
The 1905
A narrow jazz room on North Shaver, half a block off Mississippi Avenue, that DownBeat has put on its Top 100 Jazz Clubs list twice — 2023 and 2026 — which is a strange thing to find in a space this size. Sets are booked most nights and sold as tickets through the club's own ticketing link rather than collected as a cover at the door, so a midweek quartet can be gone before you decide to go. The kitchen's entire brief is pizza, with an online to-go order flow running alongside the room service. The club is now run by Megaphone Social and The Bridge PDX, and the booking still skews toward working players rather than tribute acts — September 2026 has Alden Hellmuth on the calendar. You sit close enough to hear brushwork on a snare without help from a PA, which is the whole argument.
→ Three more underground music & performance in Portland — never the same twice
The story
The 1905 opened in 2016 as a small pizzeria half a block off North Mississippi that hosted live jazz on the side, and then let the side eat the business. It is a narrow room on N Shaver where the tables run at the stage rather than around it, and DownBeat put it on the magazine's Top 100 Jazz Clubs list in 2023 and again in 2026. The club's own claim is that it is Portland's only full-time jazz club.
Then it fell over. In November 2023 it shut without warning, owing staff thousands in unpaid wages, months after asking the public for donations and collecting more than $67,000. The Bridge PDX, LLC holds the business; co-owner Aaron Barnes ran it day to day, while three members of the Heichelheim family owned the rest and did not. When they found what the Portland Tribune described as significant mismanagement, they paid out the back wages and tips, settled with the musicians, and sued Barnes for $1 million that December. A judge entered a default against him on February 6, 2024.
A week later the remaining owners named a new team: Chris Pfeifer running operations, Tim Heichelheim as managing partner, Joshua Madrid back as bar manager, and Holly Resnick still program director and booker, which is why the calendar kept its shape rather than turning into tribute nights. The room reopened that spring with almost nothing changed in front of you: pizza as the entire food menu, a bar, and sets sold one at a time through Turntable Tickets instead of a cover collected at the door. September 2026 has Alden Hellmuth on the 9th.
What it's like
You come in off N Shaver, not Mississippi, and the room is smaller than the reputation suggests — a long, low space where the back tables are still close enough to hear an unamplified snare. Buy the set you want in advance; capacity is the constraint, and walking up on a Friday is a coin flip. Arrive at doors, take a table, order the pizza then rather than mid-set, and settle in, because sets are ticketed separately and the room turns over between them. Etiquette is the listening-room kind: talk between tunes, not during, applaud solos on the way out of them, and keep phones down. Nobody will shush you theatrically. They will just look.
The move: Buy two tickets on the club's site before you leave the house — the room is small enough that walking up is a gamble — then get there at doors, split a pizza and a bottle at a table on the piano side, and stay in your seats for the full set instead of moving between rooms. Afterward it is a two-block walk to N Mississippi Ave for a nightcap.
📍 Before you go Tickets are sold per set through the link on the club's homepage, not as a door cover — buy ahead, because capacity is small and popular nights close out. Pizza is the food menu, and there is an online to-go ordering option if you want it before or after rather than during. Booking and general questions go to [email protected]; the site's FAQ page covers policies but loads its answers as expandable items, so email is faster for anything specific. Street parking around N Shaver and Mississippi is metered or contested on weekend nights — the bus and streetcar lines on Mississippi are the easier approach.
- 📍 Portland
- 💸 $
- ⚡ Big night
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 830 N Shaver St, Portland, OR 97227
Hours: Added 2026-08-26 — confirm current hours before you go.
Pair it with
- Sunlan Lighting — Three blocks up N Mississippi, and Kay Newell's lightbulb shop closes long before doors — do the windows and the bulb comics first, then walk down to Shaver.
- Paxton Gate PDX — Also on Mississippi, four blocks from the club: taxidermy and carnivorous plants in the afternoon, brushwork on a snare after dark.
- Mississippi Records — A mile north on N Albina, open noon to seven daily with no online inventory — dig blind first, then go hear people play it live.
More weird in Portland
Good to know
Do I buy tickets ahead, or pay at the door?
Ahead. Sets are sold individually through the Turntable Tickets link on the1905jazz.club rather than as a door cover, and the room is small enough that good nights close out. Many evenings run an early and a late set with separate tickets, so check which one you are buying.
How do I get there, and where do I park?
830 N Shaver St, half a block east of N Mississippi Ave. Street parking around Shaver and Mississippi is metered or heavily contested on weekend nights, so the bus lines on Mississippi and Albina are the easier approach — and it is a short walk back to Mississippi afterward.
Is there food, and should I plan the evening around it?
Pizza is the food menu, full stop, alongside the bar. There is also an online to-go pizza order flow if you would rather eat before or after the set than during it. Do not arrive expecting a dinner menu.
What does a set cost?
It varies by artist — a recent headline set was listed at $25. Prices are shown per show on the ticket link, and each set is priced on its own.
Is this the same club that closed in 2023?
Same room, same booker, different management. It shut abruptly in November 2023, and in February 2024 the owners installed a new operations team under Chris Pfeifer with Tim Heichelheim as managing partner. Holly Resnick stayed on booking, so the programming carried over.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Official site
last checked: 2026-08-26