"A cryptic photo on Reddit last Wednesday, February 11, set off a weekend of anxious speculation in the Portland food community. A Reddit user posted that the beloved Killingsworth cocktail bar Expatriate was unexpectedly closed during weeknight dinner service, with a sign posted in the window featuring a Prince quote and a bit of Latin for good measure. Google lists the bar as "temporarily closed.""
"The note left in the window seems definitive, in an abstractly elegiac sort of way. Handwritten in blocky, functional style, it reads "Life is just a party, and parties weren't meant to last. Our privilege, these 4,595 nights. Thank you. Love, KLW et al. exsilium non permanet." The quote is from Prince's banger "1999." The reference to 4,595 nights reflects the bar's 12 and a half year history, and the KLW refers to legendary Portland bartender Kyle Linden Webster, who founded"
Expatriate, a longtime Killingsworth cocktail bar, unexpectedly closed during weeknight service and is listed as temporarily closed on Google. A handwritten window note quoted Prince, included Latin, referenced "4,595 nights," and was signed "KLW et al.," connecting the farewell to founder Kyle Linden Webster and the bar's 12.5 years of operation. Inside the space the barstools are stacked, tables are empty, and a distinctive Chinese American moon gate presides over a dim interior while passersby peer in. Naomi Pomeroy, Webster's late wife and celebrated chef, died in a 2024 river accident; any connection to the closure remains unclear. Albina and Killingsworth have become a Portland cocktail epicenter, and Webster said at the venue's 2013 opening that Expatriate filled a local cocktail-bar vacuum.
Read at Eater Portland
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