Hello Portland Business Owners,

We're excited to issue another Business Spotlight for the Outdoor Dining and Retail Program. For the end of the year, we're showcasing the construction work done by Mississippi Studios & Bar Bar for their permitted street seat.

Co-owners Kevin Cradock and Jim Brunberg operate a dual business on N Mississippi Ave between N Failing St and N Shaver St. Mississippi Studios is a concert venue and recording studio, and next door is their restaurant, Bar Bar. They originally built a street seat in 2021 under the Healthy Businesses Program.

In the Summer of 2024, the first year of the permanent Outdoor Dining Program, Carey Lien and her construction firm, GGC PDX LLC, built a new structure for the business, along with some help from Kevin, Jim, and their coworkers. We interviewed Kevin to learn about the motivations they had for building a new street seat and the rationale behind the final design.

Their work displays intense attention to detail and a strong vision for what they wanted an outdoor experience to be like for their patrons. In the last two years since the Outdoor Dining Program transitioned from an emergency pandemic response to a permanent program, businesses like Mississippi Studios & Bar Bar have creatively shown what long-term use of the right-of-way can look like.

The photos in this newsletter showcase the creative ways business owners can provide outdoor spaces for visitors within the scope of the Outdoor Dining Design Guidelines.

Street Seat Design

While the structure in front of their building provides outdoor community space for visitors, the option to build a parklet in the public right-of-way presented benefits for them beyond outdoor dining. Kevin shared that sometimes, when they were recording a show, delivery trucks would park in front of their space, reducing sound quality within the studio. Building a parklet allowed them to reduce street noise to support better live recording conditions.

One of the more striking design features of their structure is the V-shaped truss pattern between the walls and the roof. This feature adds a consistent visual texture to the mid-section of the street seat while also adding structural integrity. Kevin shared that both aesthetics and structural integrity were intentional components of their design process.

Outdoor Dining Design Guideline 21.B states that clear sightlines into and through the permitted area be maintained to preserve visibility between road users and pedestrians. The V-shaped style creatively meets that requirement.

Within their space there is a variety of seating options. In the first picture below, you can see bar stools sitting underneath a counter that is built into the frame of the street seat. The barstool setup also provides a great deal of space for moving around and hanging out, especially when one of their live events needs an outdoor overflow space. For diners and event attendees that would like a different seating arrangement, each half of their street seat has four picnic tables.

So many of the design features within Kevin and Jim's street seat show care towards the overall composition of their space, and they highlight how the design of the public and private realms can complement each other.

Pictured below is a yellow strip at the edge of the platform. The purpose of this strip is to add visibility, as the area in front of Mississippi Studios is an assembly space. The strip visually signals that there is a step up onto the platform from the sidewalk. In addition to the visibility benefits this yellow strip provides, they also provide better traction for people entering and exiting the street seat.

The small truncated domes along the strip also mimic the tactile paving we often see on sidewalk ramps, signaling an upcoming edge via a change in texture.

Kevin informed us that they used cedar wood for the majority of their structure. Pictured below is the pressure treated wood used for their platform. The holes in the wood are used to inject solvents to preserve the wood over longer timescales. As a side effect, the small holes in the platform provide better traction for visitors moving around the street seat.

Lighting and Electronics

Installed throughout the street seat are lighting features shown in the photos below. In the first photo, you can see a wooden bar that spans the length of the street seat and crosses the gap between the structure's two halves. The bar holds red lamps for overhead lighting throughout the seating area.

The owners set up a robust electrical system for their street seat. They used exterior grade electrical conduits and fully routed them through gaps in the structure's supporting beams. The first photo shows one of the conduits routed through one of the beams, and the second photo showcases one of their mid-height lighting fixtures powered by the in-beam wiring.

Above the electrical conduits in the first photo, you can see a corrugated plastic roof protecting the interior of the street seat from the elements. The corrugated plastic is securely fastened to the rest of the frame. Kevin informed us that the corrugated plastic is tinted to such a degree that it lets in an ideal amount of sunlight during the day.

Mississippi Ave as a Community Space

In addition to the space providing a seating and standing area for diners and event attendees, Kevin and Jim accommodated craft merchants on their patio during the Mississippi Street Fair this past summer. We also learned that businesses along Mississippi Ave are currently coordinating holiday street lighting through the Historic Mississippi Business Association.

We really appreciate the enthusiasm that our permit holders, like Mississippi Studios & Bar Bar, have for Portland and their local neighborhoods. Kevin spoke thoughtfully about the value he places on showing up for his local community. The effort our permittees make to build and maintain Outdoor Dining street seats and sidewalk cafes adds so much life to our city.

Thank you to Kevin for taking the time to speak with us about Mississippi Studios & Bar Bar!

We'd also like to thank our GovDelivery subscribers for reading our program updates and business spotlights! Stay tuned for more program updates in 2026! Please email us at if you have any questions. You can submit a new application for an outdoor dining permit using this link.

We wish you a happy New Year!

For more information:

PBOT Outdoor Dining Team

503-823-4026

[email protected]