Oregon’s piña colada king followed his dreams
Updated Feb 18, 2021;
Posted Feb 07, 2021
Alfredo Climaco at his Northeast Portland bar, Tropicale. Climaco, who was 32, died on Jan. 27 of COVID-19 complications.Candace Molatore/Courtesy of Tropicale
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Courtney Acostagrates noticed Alfredo first.
If you’ve been out dancing in Portland in the past decade, you might have noticed him too. Alfredo Climaco was hard to miss: energetic, expressive, always in motion, in dance as as he was in life, friends and family recalled.
Acostagrates and others say Climaco, who died from COVID-19 complications last week, took that same propulsive approach to his budding Northeast Portland drinks business, Tropicale, which grew from a Portland Mercado stand to a thriving brick-and-mortar cocktail bar in less than five years.