By News-Register staff • 

Along the street: Owners of Subterra retire, close catering company

News-Register file photo ##
Janice Patrice Bleck and Martin Bleck, pictured here during a 2016 Winter Wednesday Supper Series event, recently sold Subterra - A Wine Cellar Restaurant to new owners and have retired to the Oregon coast. The Blecks operated the restaurant, along with a catering company, for more than a decade in Newberg.
News-Register file photo ## Janice Patrice Bleck and Martin Bleck, pictured here during a 2016 Winter Wednesday Supper Series event, recently sold Subterra - A Wine Cellar Restaurant to new owners and have retired to the Oregon coast. The Blecks operated the restaurant, along with a catering company, for more than a decade in Newberg.

After more than 36 years in the food business, Janice Patrice Bleck and her husband, Martin Bleck, have sold their Newberg restaurant, Subterra, and closed their Rogue Gourmet Catering company.

They plan to relax in their retirement home in Lincoln City. A bird lover, she has joined the local chapter of the Audubon Society. She also plans to be active in the local Rotary Club, as she was in Newberg.

The Blecks ran The Underground coffee shop in Newberg before opening Subterra at 1505 Portland Road 11 years ago. They converted the former Urban Cellars restaurant and shop into a “wine cellar restaurant” with relaxed fine dining.

They soon added Rogue Gourmet Catering, choosing the name “rogue” to indicate that it offered a wide variety of food and styles, Bleck said.

Rogue catered McMinnville’s Jazz Night fundraiser each year in addition to operating the food service for groups meeting in the McMinnville Community Center. It also had the catering contract for Vista Balloon Adventure flights, Bleck said.

The businesses were going well until the coronavirus pandemic hit, she said. Mandated closures cut business at both the restaurant and the catering company.

They decided to retire this year. They sold the warehouse from which Rogue operated, closing the catering company.

They sold the restaurant’s inventory to Javier Santos and his partner, who plan to continue food service under the Subterra name. Remodeling is underway.

According to the Subterra Facebook page, the restaurant is offering takeout, including “Gourmet to Go” dinners on Fridays and Saturdays. The $50 for two dinners include soup, salad, bread, a choice of entrees, dessert and wine.

The restaurant is open 5 to about 9 p.m. Thursday through Monday. For more information, call 503-538-6060.

 

Owners’ art

Currents Gallery will feature the work of its seven gallery owners in April.

The show will include abstract paintings by Kathleen Buck and Sharon Cook; wood block prints, etchings, silk scarves and acrylic paintings by Phyllice Bradner; 3-D art by Claudia Herber and Ann Durley; and fiber and fabric art by Ilsa Perse and Marlene Eichner.

The show runs April 13 to May 16. Hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.

The gallery is located at 532 N.E. Third St., McMinnville. For more information, call 503-435-1316.

 

What’s going up?

Here are some commercial building projects underway in McMinnville:

- A new commercial building is partly finished at 2019 N.E. Highway 99W, McMinnville.

No tenants have been identified for the structure yet, according to the McMinnville Building Department.

The site once was home to several food carts, such as Hawaii Five-O-Three, which now is open Tuesdays and Thursdays at Mac Market, 11th Way and Alpine Avenue.

- Converting the old Tommy’s Bicycle Shop, 624 N.E. Third St., into a new home for Bierly Brewing is almost complete. The gluten-free brewery and restaurant soon will relocate from its 11th Street location.

- On Cumulus Avenue across from the hospital, McMinnville Eye Clinic is building a new, one-story office structure to replace its current quarters at 235 S.E. Norton Lane.

Comprising more than 11,000 square feet, the new building will include offices for eye exams and treatment and an area to choose and buy glasses. Completion is expected in late summer or early fall.

- A new apartment complex is being built on Doran Drive, a few blocks from Highway 99W near Wilco and Winco in northeast McMinnville. The Hidden Meadow Apartments will include 12 units at 2730 N.E. Doran Drive.

- Construction continues on the new Granary Row, a collection of small eateries with a common food court, at 1039 N.E. Lafayette Avenue.

- A new urgent care clinic is just breaking ground in south McMinnville. EIG14T Development and National Urgent Care Development LLC, based in Michigan, are building the clinic at 1755 S.W. Baker St.

- A 7,500-square-foot Dollar General store is being built at 102 S. Trade St., joining two other Yamhill County locations — Dayton and Willamina — of the nationwide chain. The owner is Hix Snedecker Development LLC and the contractor is Fulcrum Construction Group LLC of Daphne, Alabama. 

- A Dollar General store will be built on the east edge of Lafayette at 1260 Third St., the name for 99W in town. The owner and contractor are the same as for the Amity store.

 

Chamber Greeters

Sears Hometown Store will be featured Friday, March 26, in the McMinnville Area Chamber of Commerce’s Greeters program. The 8 to 9 a.m. event will be offered both live, with people visiting the store at 1621 N.E. Baker St., McMinnville, as well as attending via Zoom.

For a link, go to the Chamber website, mcminnville.org.

Love INC, an organization that coordinates local churches helping the community, will be featured during the Chehalem Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Greeters program from 8 to 9 a.m. Friday, March 26. The April 2 program will feature the Joyful Roberts Group, a real estate firm.

Links are available at business.chehalemvalley.org.

 

Art and wine

Several Newberg-area wineries host galleries featuring local art. Taste Newberg, the official destination marketing organization for the city, has issued a free guide to those galleries and other places to see art.

The guide, “Spring Blooms with Art in Newberg Wine Country,” is available at tastenewberg.com/blog/springblooms.

The wineries with galleries, and their current shows, include:

- Anam Cara Cellars, 306 N. Main St., Newberg, wildlife photography by Jim Sheehan, open noon to 4 p.m. Friday through Sunday. 

- ArborBrook Vineyards, 17770 N.E. Calkins Lane, various artists, 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays and until 5 p.m. weekends, by appointment.

- Bellingar Estates, quilting by Kim Bellingar, tasting by appointment at 24055 N.E. North Valley Road.

- Colene Clemens, 22501 N.E. Dopp Road, pastels on copper by Amanda Houston, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.

- Distaff Wines, murals and paintings by Angelica O’Reilly, who owns the winery with her four daughters, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays at 2761 E. Ninth St, Newberg.

- The Potter’s Vineyard and Clay Art Gallery, with work by winery owner Bill Sanchez and other clay artists, including Debi and Larry Nelson, Dan and Susan Wheeler, Dorothy Steele, Jamie Anderson, Gretchen Lambert and Renee Powell, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday through Sunday, reservations required. Located at 14725 N.E. Quarry Road.

- Rain Dance Vineyard, wood pieces by owner Ken Austin, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday at 26355 N.E. Bell Road.

- Rex Hill, Goose Cube interactive art experience’s immersive infinity room, artist-in-residence Hadley Hatcher and sculpture by Lee Kelly of the wine estate. By appointment at 30835 N. Highway 99W halfway up Rex Hill.

- ROCO Winery, fused glass by winery co-owner Corby Stonebreaker-Soles, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily at 13260 N.E. Red Hills Road.

- Tresori Vineyards, 17940 N.E. Kings Grade Road, vineyard paintings by winery co-founder Jackie McCartin, open by appointment.

- Trisaetum, abstract expressionist paintings by owner-winemaker James Frey, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily at 18401 N.E. Ribbon Ridge Road.

In addition to the wineries, art can be viewed at ART Elements, a downtown Newberg gallery that features more than 50 Oregon artists, including currently featured painters Sarah Joy Moore and Christine Joy Swanson, open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday at 117 S. College St.

Another downtown gallery, Blue Trout, features landscape paintings by owner Gary Buhler, an art teacher at George Fox University.

The Allison Inn & Spa at 2525 Allison Lane has more than 500 pieces of art on display by 100 Oregon artists, including Loni Austin Parrish.

The Chehalem Cultural Center also has a revolving series of shows in its art gallery. Is is open free from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. 

CCC will host the Oregon Camellia Society’s 79th annual statewide bloom show, plant sale and 5- and 10K Camellia Run and Walk Saturday, April 10.

 

Health scholarships

Healthline.com, the digital health brand of Healthline Media, is offering $21,000 awards to college students who “are using their education to achieve greater health equity.”

The fifth annual Stronger Scholarship program will recognize a Black, a Hispanic/Latinx, and an indigenous student who are addressing health inequities in their communities, the company said.

Recipients will be selected based on grades, volunteer hours, community service, extracurricular activities, and plan to address specific social determinants of health — defined by the CDC as “conditions in the places where people live, learn, work, and play that affect a wide range of health outcomes.”

Applications are due by April 20. They can be completed online at Healthline.com.

To submit items for consideration in Along the Street, email to news@newsregister.com with “Along the Street” in the subject line.

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