The store has a very distinctive shape from the outside, because it is constructed from a Quonset,…read moreor Quonset hut, structures which were used as barracks for troops during World War 2. Very durable construction; the store was there when I was a toddler in 1951, but back then it was shiny bright corrugated metal on the outside, and of course under a different name.
My grandmother used to send me to the store when I got old enough to walk there myself, with a list of groceries: Sunny Jim peanut butter, powdered donuts, cottage cheese, Deviled ham, Lipton soup, bread, raw hamburger meat, etc. The people running the store then knew my grandmother as one of their best and most loyal customers since she only lived a block away, and they would deliver groceries to her if I brought in a list with her signature on it - I didn't need to pay at the store, since she would pay them when the groceries were delivered. That's the way it worked in those days.
This may be the only store on the west coast of the United States made from a Quonset hut, or maybe the only one like it in the United States. I haven't researched that yet, but today you can go there and see an actual Quonset hut. And don't forget to bring your grocery list, because you will probably find just about everything you need. If you don't see it, just ask. They probably have it there in the back room.
I met a man who may be the owner, yesterday, when I came in to get a few items before walking to the bluff, to my favorite spot overlooking Willamette Falls. His English name is Simon, a man of Korean ancestry. Sung Mon Lee (phonetically) is his Korean name. Speaking to my daughter's mother, another English spelling for that would be Syngman Rhee (or Rhee Syng-man), the name also of the first president of South Korea. The Korean people sometimes pronounce "Lee" as "Rhee"
It will surprise you, I think, how wonderfully clean and well stocked the store actually is, once you walk inside. And how you will be treated as a customer: like royalty. That is the Korean custom. What a great place to begin your adventure to the promenade, where you can take a left turn toward the bluff overlooking Willamette Falls, or a right turn toward the "one of a kind" historic elevator (Oregon City Municipal Elevator), which will bring you from the top of the bluff to the bottom, 130 feet below, absolutely free of charge.