No Vacancy Lounge (NVL) was a short-lived nightclub in Portland, Oregon's Old Town Chinatown neighborhood, in the United States. "No Vacancy" began in 2014 as a party hosted at various local venues.
- Venue
- No Vacancy Lounge
- Town
- Portland, US
No Vacancy Lounge (NVL) was a short-lived nightclub in Portland, Oregon's Old Town Chinatown neighborhood, in the United States. "No Vacancy" began in 2014 as a party hosted at various local venues. NVL opened in a former McCormick & Schmick's restaurant December 2017, following an approximately $1 million renovation. The venue was named Willamette Week's 2018 Bar of the Year. The club hosted a variety of acts and events but was most known for electronic dance music (EDM). Conflict between NVL, a neighboring tenant, and the property manager began almost immediately. In February 2019, the bar closed as the result of the dispute and financial difficulties; some scheduled events were moved to other venues. Prior to the nightclub's opening, No Vacancy was a party held at the FOMO Media offices in northwest Portland, beginning in 2014. The party's success allowed co-founders Rick Sheinin (who worked at FOMO Media at the time) and Billy Vinton, along with partners Nitin Khanna and Jessey Zepeda, to host No Vacancy at other venues, including Doug Fir Lounge, Holocene, and Produce Row. Lake Oswego Review's Sam Stites described the four men as "innovators" seeking to "raise the bar in Portland nightlife". Sheinin, Vinton, and partners opened No Vacancy Lounge (NVL) in December 2017, in the ground floor of the Henry Failing Building, in downtown Portland's Old Town Chinatown neighborhood. The building was previously occupied by a McCormick & Schmick's restaurant. According to the Portland Mercury, the owners "oversaw a dramatic redesign of the wood-paneled restaurant into a modern 350-person-capacity nightclub that attracted top talent [and] drew large crowds", at a cost of approximately $1 million. The interior featured "elegantly designed" Art Deco details and high tech production equipment. Writing for Willamette Week, Matthew Korfhage said: "The mezzanined space [looked] like Jay-Z's vision of the Great Gatsby, an amber-lit world of deco lamps, columned archways and backl