Black Forest Cafe looks toward future as event center

Black Forest Cafe went out with a “knall” on Oktoberfest.

The Sept. 27 celebration of German culture marked the last day the Black Forest Cafe would operate as a restaurant.

It’ll remain an event center, offering an authentic German setting for everything from corporate holiday parties to family reunions.

The restaurant opened in 2012 as an expansion of the German-American Festival Society’s Clubhouse, after members of the society voted to open their exclusive space to the general public.

It’s on the grounds of Oak Shade Grove, a nearly 90-acre property in Oregon that’s home to all seven German and Swiss clubs that make up the GAF Society. The German-American Festival has been held there each summer since 1987 (it was at other locations since the inaugural festival two decades prior).