Tonga Room and The Heights in Portland: Some Background

A liquor license application for something called Tonga Room appeared online in early May, and with a name like that I could not resist looking into it. I’ve reached out to Mike Collman, the person behind Tonga Room, but am still waiting to hear back. But there is a lot going on as far as “the rest of the story” and background that’s worth writing about. Think of this as Part 1 of the story.

Tonga Room … Tonga Room?

In my world—and maybe yours—“Tonga Room” means the famous Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar in San Francisco, est. 1945. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a tiki-themed lounge/tiki bar in the Fairmont Hotel in downtown SF. I have fond memories of time spent there many years ago, especially of the rain showers—complete with “thunder and lightning”—in the middle of the room over a kind of “lagoon,” which used to be an indoor swimming pool.

So is the Tonga Room expanding to Portland? The answer is no.

Tonga, the Country

Tonga is, of course, a country in Polynesia in Oceana. It is made of 171 islands, with 45 of those inhabited. People have lived there for the past two and a half millennia and it has a rich and interesting culture. It is a “modern nation-state monarchy” (the Kingdom of Tonga) and conventional wisdom says it was the only Pacific Islands country to never be colonized, though there are those who disagree and see it differently.

Connections

A few things to consider: Tiki culture—as controversial as it is—was inspired by Donn Beach and his time in Polynesia and the South Pacific. Tonga is part of Polynesia. Tonga Room is a tiki-themed lounge/tiki bar in SF. The aforementioned Mike Collman, the man behind Tonga Room owns Da’Hui, another tiki-themed space in Portland.

Only time will tell to see just how tiki Tonga Room in Portland will or will not be.

The Location and Space of the Future Tonga Room

The space in question—a 3,800 square foot venue located at 8000 SE Foster Road—was most recently home to The Heights. Prior to that it was Song Bar & Grill. It was a 30-year old strip club before that called Trophy’s Exotic Lounge (FKA Shimmers), which closed in May 2024. At one point, the building housed ABC Auto Supply. Val’s Fine Foods also had this address, which was DBA Shimmers.

Sandra McLeod purchased the building, built in 1946, for $1.8M in January 2016, so she’s been the owner for a decade. You can see the sales history of the of the property below (click to enlarge). The previous owners (the Lorenzens) owed $17,600 in back taxes at one point.

Issues at 8000 SE Foster Road

This has to do with the previous tenant, The Heights, which offered a variety of live entertainment (music, comedy, etc). The Portland Mercury wrote about the end of The Heights and what led up to it: A mix of the makeup of the monthly costs, missed rents, assertions that the rent was predatory, issues with the building from previous tenants, the liquor license ownership, order to vacate and the threat of a lockout—and a few other things.

The Order to Vacate had a deadline of December 22, 2025. The Heights recorded an Administrative Dissolution on December 18, 2025. You can read more about it over at “One of Portland’s Few Black-Owned Music Venues is Facing Eviction.”

The NNN Lease

One thing that I came to understand was that Jermaine Malone, who ran The Heights, signed a triple net lease, a common practice for restaurants. This means, “the tenant agrees to cover both the rent and any ongoing expenses on a property,” according to Investopedia. Taking on property costs? From a residential rental standpoint, which is the perspective I come from, that sounds nuts.

On Reddit I read another perspective: “One of the reasons restaurants like triple net is because they have full control over HVAC and so if anything fails they can fix it ASAP to meet their needs rather than wait on a landlord to fix to whatever standard the landlord sets while the business may need to close in the meantime.” I mentioned this to a neighbor, who called BS on it.

I am obviously coming from a place of ignorance as someone who has never been in the position to take on a triple net lease. I welcome your additional thoughts and opinions in the comments.

Mike Collman: Da’Hui, and the Future Tonga Room

As I mentioned earlier, the person behind Tonga Room is Mike Collman, who runs Da’Hui. I first became aware of this place, located at 6506 SE Foster Road, around the time of the screening of The Donn of Tiki at the Hollywood Theatre last year. At the time, I wrote this:

“This only recently appeared on my radar. Located in Southeast Portland, it opened in 2011 after being a food cart. It’s often referred to as a “Tiki dive bar.” This guy said, “The place seemed to really want to be Tiki.” They’ve got a few Tiki bar drinks: Mai Tai, Zombie, Piña Colada, and a lot of Hawaiian food. The atmosphere has more of an island vibe than a Tiki vibe.

“Their food options are more extensive that the others and is really a menu of Hawaiian food, including Loco Moco, musubi, Kalua Pork, and plate lunch and breakfast, among others.”

The Portland Dive Bars folks wrote about Da’Hui, too. It’s on my list to check out.

Tonga Room

Mike is looking to open Tonga Room in that 3,800 square foot space on Foster Road. As far as size goes—for comparison, the event hall at the Redd on Salmon is 6,800 square feet and the outdoor plaza is 3,800 square feet.

As Tonga Room, they plan to have 150 seats inside. They want to be open every day from 6pm to 2am. And what Entertainment boxes did they tick on their liquor license application? Live music (planned for Saturdays and Sundays 9pm to 11:30pm), DJ, recorded music, karaoke, dancing, nude entertainers, video lottery, and pool tables.

So, while The Heights aimed at being an all-ages venue, Tonga Room Portland looks like they will be catering to more adult interests.

Again, I’ve reached out to Mike to learn more. When he responds with more information on Tonga Room itself, I’ll share that in Part 2 of this article.

Tonga Room [opening TBD]
8000 SE Foster Road, Portland