“We’ve known it was coming, and we’ve been talking about the ‘when’ part for a long while. We wanted to give it the year to see if it was going to get any better. It was hard to finally do it, but I think the timing is good.” — Porters co-owner Tim Tolman

Porters, a beloved restaurant housed in the historic train depot in downtown Medford, served its final dinners Saturday night.

With no formal announcement, the news came as a surprise to patrons, many of whom took to social media to post memories of dining at the old station along the railroad tracks off Front Street.

Porters’ owners posted a sign on the front door: “After 2 decades of service to our valley, ‘The train has left the station’. Thank you, Southern Oregon, for your patronage.”

Owner Tim Tolman said nearly 40 employees were informed last week that the business was being closed and the property posted for sale.

Tolman, who owns the business along with Rolar Yondorf and Brian Porter, said the owners had hoped to remain open for a few weeks longer, but talk of the closure prompted employees to leave sooner than anticipated.

“It all happened just last week. We decided that we were going to close, and I think the rumor had kind of been going around,” Tolman said in an interview with the Rogue Valley Times on Monday.

“One of the first hints was us saying, ‘Don’t order any more food.’ We informed employees around mid week, and I wanted to give at least two weeks or even more, but then people started leaving, looking for other jobs.”

Tolman said closing the restaurant, tucked inside the 1910 train station at 147 N. Front St., had been a topic of discussion for the past few years. With the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, coupled with the rising costs of supplies and labor — and the fact that all three owners were nearing retirement age — the writing had “been on the wall for quite a while,” he said.

“We’ve been trying to retire for years. Things have slowed down due to the economy, and it’s a big building and you have to employ a lot of people to keep the coverage. After the pandemic, things changed radically,” Tolman said.

Pull Quote

“We’ve known it was coming, and we’ve been talking about the ‘when’ part for a long while. We wanted to give it the year to see if it was going to get any better. It was hard to finally do it, but I think the timing is good.”

— Porters co-owner Tim Tolman 

“We’ve known it was coming, and we’ve been talking about the ‘when’ part for a long while. We wanted to give it the year to see if it was going to get any better. It was hard to finally do it, but I think the timing is good.”

Tolman, who turns 77 this year, said his preference is not to lease the property or see it taken over by a large chain. Plans call for selling the property, which covers three lots: the building and a parking lot on each side.

Tolman, who has been in the restaurant industry for more than five decades beginning with several Mexicali Rose locations in the 1980s, partnered with Yondorf and Porter to purchase the depot in 2001. He said all three owners hope to pass the property on to independent owners or to a small chain.

Tolman said he was grateful for the quality of food and service provided by the restaurant for over 20 years, and that he would miss employees, many of whom worked at both Porters and Habañero’s — now El Paraiso Mexican Restaurant — which Tolman owned from 1995 to 2011.

Tolman said social media users had commented on Porters’ closure, suggesting it become a location for McMenamins, which operate pubs and breweries inside mostly historic structures throughout the Pacific Northwest. Tolman said he reached out to McMenamins’ owners, who had eaten at Porters and “showed some interest in the building,” but the timing wasn’t right, he said.

“It’s too bad, because it would have been perfect,” Tolman said.

“The closest one to here is in Roseburg. They have one in a little train station that’s the same design as this.”

Porters’ owners are working with a Portland-based real estate agent to find a buyer for the property, Tolman said.

“It needs somebody with some know-how and some backing… somebody with three or four restaurants or five or whatever, that knows what they’re doing and has the money,” he said.

Tolman said he was “proud of the job we did.”

“People have always given us compliments about our food and, above the food even, our service. Service has been top-notch. You weren’t really waiting tables here unless you knew every wine, every bottle of whiskey, that kind of thing,” Tolman said.

On Saturday night, Tolman brought his family to the restaurant for a final meal there.

“It’s been a good 23 years pumping money into the economy and being the center of downtown dining,” Tolman said as he looked around the space.

“It’s been a great run.”