Vol. 12 · No. 27 · Autumn Number

Photo slot · warm duotone + film grain

Cover story · The late set

The night the piano stayed on 'til three.

Photographs and text by Marisol Duarte · 14 min

The Lamplighter · 1974–2026 · Portland, Oregon

Issue 27 ◆ Live jazz every Tuesday New autumn menu ◆ Members' supper, October 24 Listening room sessions ◆ Vinyl only after ten Reservations open through January ◆ The corner booth is not bookable

In this issue

Three features · One letter from the editor

Feature Page 12

A brief history of the corner booth

By Marisol Duarte

It has been sat in by two governors, one defunct baseball team, and every piano player who ever missed their last streetcar. Nobody reserves it. Everybody knows.

Read the feature

Kitchen Page 26

What we do with the last tomatoes

By Chef Ivo Lindqvist

A menu for the two weeks in September when the tomato crate is a problem rather than a gift — and the five dishes worth clearing the counter for.

Read the feature

The late set Page 38

Forty records we keep behind the bar

By Wes Okafor, house pianist

The listening room's inner shelf — the ones we play after the last plates are cleared, with the lights down and the door half-open to the street.

Read the feature

Plates from the room

Photographed on film · September 2026

Photo slot · grain + duotone

Plate I The room at 9:40 p.m., before the second set. The upright has been in the family since 1974 and refuses to be tuned above a whisper.

Photo slot · grain + duotone

Plate II House pianist Wes Okafor, mid-chorus. Shot at 1/30th on the last of a roll of expired Portra.

The calendar & other notices

Autumn season · Members free

As seen in the room

Tuesday nights, the quartet plays what it likes.

No cover before nine. A set list is written on the mirror at six and ignored by seven. Supper is served until eleven; the listening room until one. On the third Tuesday of the month, the members' table is set for eighteen.

See the season

Notice to members

The Members' Supper · October 24

Six courses, one long table, one seating at half past seven. The menu is not announced in advance. Tickets to members first; any remaining seats released October 17.

Reserve a seat

Letters & the editor's note

Correspondence, lightly edited

Letter · Portland

On the matter of the jukebox

I have eaten at the Lamplighter since 1991 and I have never once heard the jukebox play more than a single song before someone corrects it. This is the finest editorial policy in the city.

— H. Vukovich, member since 1991

Letter · Astoria

Recipe request: the brown butter cornbread

Print it and I will forgive the wait for a table on a Friday. Do not print it and I will simply come back for another year, which is, I suspect, the strategy.

— D. Mehta, occasional correspondent

Letter · The kitchen

The mysterious crate of quince

To the reader who left fourteen pounds of quince at the service door on September 30th: it has been made into everything we know how to make. Thank you. Identify yourself.

— The staff of the Lamplighter

From the editor · Issue 27

Why a supper club publishes a magazine at all.

Fifty-two years ago, my grandfather opened the Lamplighter with a borrowed upright, a second-hand grill, and a rule he never wrote down: the room belongs to the people in it. We started this little review because menus are not enough paper for that idea.

Four times a year we print what happens here — the recipes we are willing to give away, the records behind the bar, the arguments at the corner booth that became features. There are no advertisements in these pages except our own, and there is no online version. If you are reading this, you are holding the only edition that matters.

— Jules Ambrose, Editor

Membership · The 2027 season

Join the room.

Membership is $120 a year: the printed review delivered quarterly, a standing invitation to the members' supper, no cover at any set, and a seat held for you on Tuesdays. There is a waitlist. It moves in October.

Apply for membership