After 53 Years Der Rheinlander is Closing

After 53 years, the building housing Portland's premier German restaurant - Der Rheinalnder - has been sold and the restaurant will be closed.

Guten Foods, which owns Rheinlander as well as Gustav's and Gustav's Bargarten, announced on Tuesday that the sale on the building will close on Friday and the restaurant will shut its door sometime in the first three months of next year.

"This decision didn’t happen overnight; we’ve been discussing it for a long time,” said Guten Foods CEO Suzanne Mager. “I have bittersweet feelings about it, of course. But I feel it’s the right thing to do, especially considering today’s Portland food scene. It has been evolving, and so must we.”

The restaurant was started by Mager's father, Horst Mager, a third generation chef who moved to Portland from Wiesbaden, Germany.

Mager said all current employees in good standing will be offered raises and positions at other Guten Foods locations, including Gustav’s restaurants in Portland, Tigard, Clackamas and Vancouver, WA, and Gustav’s Bargarten at Keizer Station in Keizer. A new Gustav’s Bargarten is scheduled to open at Cedar Hills Crossing in late 2017, which will also offer opportunities for current Rheinlander employees.

Photo courtesy Guten Foods