Portland’s North Mississippi Neighborhood has become a very trendy place.  There are numerous interesting restaurants, pubs, condos and shops.  At the northern part at the corner of Skidmore and Mississippi Ave. stands what appears to be a somewhat sterile modern building.  This is Prost, but don’t let the external appearance fool you.

Prost is a classy German-style pub with both Portland and Seattle locations.  The name is the German equivalent to the English toast “Cheers.”  (“Bottoms Up” is “Zum Wohl.”)  We were there on a Wednesday night and it was jammed – the second anniversary of the Portland bar was that weekend (October 28th) and undoubtedly, the crowd spilled out into the large beer garden, which has heaters in the winter and ample space.  

There are all kinds of old photos on the wall, many of which are from the one of the co-owner’s (Chris Navarra) home town in Germany.  All “bier” is imported from Germany and there were eight selections on the menu plus three rotating taps.   We liked the Bitsburger Pilsner and the darker Spaten Optimator – which sounded cool just ordering it. There were also a nice selection of bratwurst sandwiches and salads. 

Unfortunately for those in my group, the German origins of Prost compelled thebeerchaser to tell the international monetary joke from George Will’s column the day before, to wit:  A Spaniard, a Greek and an Italian walk into a bar one night.  They drink until dawn.  Who picks up the tab?

Blame George - not thebeerchaser!

Answer = The German

Harkening back to college, Prost is a pub with the type of atmosphere that would allow you, after one beer, to forget about the term paper due the next day – until you weaved out several hours later.

The hat may not still be in style - but the bier is!

Distinguishing Features

Prost has a “Stein Club Membership” for overachiever beer drinkers.  A punch card (with 50 pints checked off) will ”earn” the individual a shirt and there are eight levels of progress.  For example at five cards – a plaque on the “Wall of Bier” and you can slosh you way to 30 cards, which is a custom Prost jacket.  After 1,500 pints, I’m sure they’re only available in extra-large.

The small plaques – there were about 20 – on the entrance wall are a nice touch and have the drinker’s name, the date the feat was accomplished and a quote for humanity e.g. Karl Johnson, Feb. 2011 “Wise Beyond my Biers,” or Robert Bennett, April 2011 “Beauty is in the eye of the Bierholder.”

The Boot                                                   

Getting the Boot from Emily the Bartender

 The most fun and interesting event that night for our group of six was buying a 2 liter glass boot for $18 – plus a $50 breakage deposit! The custom is that once purchased, the boot has to be passed within your group and cannot touch the table.  We didn’t ask about the consequences, but that was no problem for us.   

We were advised to point the toe  towards you when you drank or you would have bier stains on your torso.  Given the name of the pub, it is fitting to end the review of Prost with a toast.

For every wound – a balm.

For every sorrow – cheer.

For every storm – a calm.

For every thirst – bier.

             Prost                            4237 N Mississippi Avenue

One of the benefits of thebeerchaser tour, has been the opportunity to meet some great bartenders.  In fact, the trend started at my first stop in the Brooklyn Park Pub, when I told Phoebe the bartender about my project and she promptly gave me a BPP baseball cap.  Although the number of bars on my tour so far is not great, I am compelled to name my preliminary all-star team of Portland bartenders:

• Phoebe             The Brooklyn Park Pub   
• Natasha            The Gladstone Street Tavern
• Dave                 The Twilight Room
• Emily                  Prost 

Phoebe from the Brooklyn Park Pub

Indeed, the personality of the bartender will often determine the ambiance or lack of it in a neighborhood pub or a dive bar. 

Perhaps all of us have wished we could have the barkeep experience and Hall of Fame basketball coach, Al McGuire of Marquette University, aptly conveyed the sentiment:  “I think everyone should go to college and get a degree and then spend six months as a bartender and six months as a cab driver. Then they would really be educated.”

Natasha from the Gladstone Street Tavern

My favorite country-western singer, George Jones in his song, “The Bartender’s Blues” portrays the job as a downer – just look at an excerpt from the lyrics below:

Well I’m just a bartender
And I don’t like my work
But I don’t mind the money at all
I’ve seen lots of sad faces
And lots of bad cases
Of folks with their backs to the wall

But I got four walls around me, to hold my life
To keep me from going astray
And a honky-tonk angel, to hold me tight
To keep me from slipping away 

The Twilight Room's Bartender -- Dave

However, each one of all-stars above was personable, friendly and appeared to really enjoy what he or she was doing.  That said, there are certainly jerk bartenders, who hurt the image.  My favorite crime novelist and the September Beerchaser of the Month, James Crumley, relates his experience with one of these in an excerpt from his novel, The Last Good Kiss:

“For a tip, I left him the remains of a stale beer.  When even the bartenders lose their romantic notions, it’s time for a better world.”

Emily From Prost

Hats off to Phoebe, Natasha, Dave and Emily and the next time you have a pint, leave not only a good tip, but a kind word for your bartender.  Their job is not easy:

The hard part about being a bartender is figuring out who is drunk and who is just stupid.

“Coalition:  An integration or joining of forces or thought to form a unit as a whole.”

The name for this ten-barrel brewery and pub accurately reflects the opinion of both thebeerchaser and his spouse on this pub.  While we have had ample disagreement on the quality and ambiance of prior bars on the tour, both of us were united that the Coalition Brew Co. Pub is a gem.

Welcome to the Coalition

Their website accurately describes it as an, “intimate neighborhood gathering place with the feel of a traditional public house.”  It seats about twenty-five inside and has dark, classy woodwork for the bar and tables.  The front wall is essentially a garage door that opens so people can sit outside weather permitting, and there is also a small beer garden.  Historical pictures of their brewery and Portland decorate the walls and enhance the ambiance.

A Nice Ambiance

 There were seven of Coalition’s own beers on tap including our favorites – ironically, in inverse order of their alcoholic content!

• Mr. Pig’s Pale Ale              5.0%
• King Kathy’s Red              5.7%
• Two Dogs IPA                   5.8%

The Loving Cup Maple Porter may be better suited to a bucket hanging from a tree in Vermont on a cold winter day.

Distinguishing Characteristics

Grilled Cheese Partnership

Because its menu is extremely limited, The Coalition partners with the Grilled Cheese Grill (GCG) located in their small beer garden.  An extensive menu of grilled cheese sandwiches and cheeseburgers is available.    For example, “the Jalapeno Popper” is roasted jalapeno, Colby jack, cream cheese and corn tortilla chips on sourdough – you can also add ham for $1.75.

Or you can simply choose “The First Grader” which is one slice of white, one slice of wheat with Tillamook, Cheddar and American cheeses.  Order a bowl of tomato soup for $2.50 and memories of Ted and Sally, Boots and Tuffy and the swing set at your grade school come flooding back – except that you drank milk instead of beer with your lunch! 

The CGC menu concludes with:

“So come by for a taste of your childhood.  Unless your childhood sucked, and then we’ll let ya have a taste of ours.”

The Coalator Program

            The pub features new beers where home brewers are selected from the community and featured on a specialty tap to showcase each Coalator.

The Coalition Brew Co. Pub             2724 SE Ankeny  Portland  

Crime Novelist James Crumley

 James Arthur Crumley, born in 1939, was the author of violent hardboiled crime novels and several volumes of short stories and essays. His book The Last Good Kiss has been described by some critics as “the most influential crime novel of the last 50 years.”

Crumley's Last and Best Novel

He served on the English faculty at the University of Montana at Missoula, and as a visiting professor at other colleges, including Portland’s own Reed College.

Crumley died in Missoula in September, 2008. He was survived by his wife of 16 years — his fifth wife. The author’s favorite seat in his preferred bar (Charlie’s in Missoula) was commemorated to honor him.

Here's to Fireball!!

Although James Crumley is deceased and his Portland ties are minimal, his character and attachment to bars warrant thebeerchaser designation. 

And you also might want to drink a toast to Fireball Roberts too – how about an    In-heat Wheat Hefeweizen from Denver’s Flying Dog Brewery….

“I first stepped through the door of the T-Room on my 21st birthday.  Mom and Dad had driven up on a Saturday….and we sat in one of the wooden booths.  The moment we sat down, a wizened woman with a vodka grin sat down next to my father and put her arms around him and said in a sultry Lauren Bacall voice, ‘ Hey, big fella, where you been all my whole life?’

 

My mom took a drag on her cigarette and gave her a look that said, “oh for heaven’s sake,’ my dad grinned and I decided then and there that the T-Rooom was the greatest place on earth.” 

 

The Twilight Tradition

Distinguishing Features –  As stated in previous posts, one of thebeerchaser’s goals is to identify unique or unusual features at each bar:

Deck the Halls at the T-Room

1. Christmas Lights - From Fr. Hannon’s essay,   “A string of Christmas lights snakes along the top of the walls of the T-Room.  Each light has a small card taped beneath it with someone’s name.  There must be a couple hundred of them.  Some are still lit. Some have gone out.  The person whose name is beneath the last one to flicker out will win a whole lot of money is my guess. 

He continues, “I have no idea how long that string of lights has been there.  But when there are only two lights left, I want to be there with a hundred of my closest friends, singing, laughing, shooting pool, waiting for one light to finally go out.  That will be a night to remember.”      

More Christmas Lights - Still Bright

(Dave the bar-tender opined that each person who “bought” a light contributed $10 and the eventual winner is supposed to donate a large portion of the proceeds to a charity.)           

1. Signatures on the Ceiling – Fr. Hannon,   “My name is there on the ceiling.  It’ll be there as long as the ceiling lasts.  I wrote it there on a Thursday evening in late April of 1982.  It was Senior Signing Night and I was there with Lori and Janie and Helen and Mike and Steve and a hundred other seniors.  Each of us climbed a rickety ladder and wrote our names on the ceiling.
   

   "Searching for Fr. Hannon's "John Henry"

   “There are hundreds and hundreds of names there, each one telling a story of friends and classmates, wishes and wounds, of beer and Bluff, of kisses and tears.  Nomines in pulvere.  Names etched in white chalk, ephemeral dust that sticks around forever…..”

The friend who visited the T-Room with me is a savvy Portland business-woman, civic leader and a UP graduate a number of years ago.  She had her own memory.  She smiled and pointed to the entrance and said, “I still remember coming in that door with my fake ID on Thursday nights.”   (the statute of limitations has tolled…) 

Dave the Bartender 

After mingling with the patrons, chatting with Dave the bartender, observing the multiple pool tables, the nice patio, the layout and sampling the free popcorn, I concluded that the Twilight Room is a classic neighborhood pub and not a dive bar.  They also have 22 beers on tap and “fully loaded” Bloody Marys although I didn’t have the courage to ask for the definition of that term.

Father Pat Hannon teaches theology at UP and I’m glad his essay motivated me to visit the Twilight Room.  I have a feeling that he might concur with the quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin in a recent column by George Will:

“‘Beer,’ said Ben Franklin, who knew a thing or two about pleasure, ‘Is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”‘

 And thebeerchaser will conclude this post by saying a resounding, “AMEN!”

The Twilight Room        5242 North Lombard Street

The beerchaser’s tour of Portland pubs is now several months old and I have visited five different bars in alphabetical order (because of the number of venues in Portland, I am trying to initially visit one from each letter of the alphabet):

• Brooklyn Park Pub
• Coalition Brewing Co. Pub
• Gladstone Street Tavern
• Joe’s Cellar
• Yukon Tavern

My wife visited two of the above bars with me.  She loved the Coalition Brewing Co. Pub and would definitely return.  Her reaction to the other tavern, which she did not want me to name, was not favorable.  After we left, she said, “Beerchaser” (she agreed to call me that, but only when we were going to bars)  “Why do you go to places like that?  It’s grungy and just a dive bar.”

This resulted in some philosophical reflection.  Since all bars serve beer they are inherently good.  Thus, when a bar is good it’s fantastic,  and even when it’s bad, it’s still pretty good.  After pondering and doing some research, I concluded that I would not rate the pubs I visited, but I would put them in a few categories including dive bars, neighborhood pubs and others.

What is a “Dive Bar”??

Vons in Seattle is NOT a dive bar!

 I loved the bar that she “dinged” and explained to her that “grungy” didn’t matter and I considered the term “dive bar” to be a term of art.   It’s the experience – not how scrubbed or unblemished the environment.  The escapist-trash novel I was reading at the time conveyed this concept perfectly, although the author was describing old Jewish delis in the city of Miami, the analogy fit:

” (He) remembered bygone places….sticky and shopworn institutions that were last refurbished when The Honeymooners was live on television, where the food was plentiful but never really outstanding.  The experience was the draw.  ……There was a strange comfort in knowing that perhaps it was a long-dead relative who left that stuffed cabbage leaf wedged beneath your booth.”  (Afraid of the Dark - a novel by James Grippando – page 249)

 “Some dives have vomit-caked toilet seats in the bathroom; others have cracked vinyl booths in the barroom.  Some have nicotine-stained murals dating back to the Depression; others have drink prices that seemingly haven’t wavered since then……..But really, no collection of characteristics can be melded to truly define what makes a bar a dive…..The term ‘dive’ is bestowed with a spoonful of love….What they have in common aren’t so much attributes, but a state of mind — you just know one when you see one.”  (Seattle’s Best Dive Bars by Mike Seely – pages 9-10)

             Willamette Week Bar Guides – A Great Resource!

Willamette Week’s past Bar Guides have been a great resource and also capture the essence of the dive bar phenomenon, “Like saints, dive bars should always be guilty until proven innocent — they always stagger  on the precipice of becoming popular and thus ruined.”  (Willamette Week 2010 – “One Hundred Favorite Bars”)

Well, after a lot of thought and downing a Dos Equis Amber, (“Don’t Ever be Thirsty, My Friend”)  I concluded that both the Yukon and Joe’s Cellar fit at least my perception of dive bars.  What do you think?

The Rod and Gun Club Saloon in Stanley, Idaho is in the “Other” Category

The beerchaser was drawn to explore Joe’s Cellar because it reminded him of a similarly named Portland pub – Don’s Dugout – a source of comfort and beer while attending graduate school at Portland State in the early ’70′s.  Davy Jones, lead singer for the Monkees, observed a decade earlier, ”You can (have me sing) in the basement or the penthouse; it doesn’t matter to me.”  The same can be asserted about drinking beer; however, it made me wonder if Joe’s was, in fact, a subterranean bar.

The entrance appeared to answer this question in the affirmative…..but

Down to Joe's Cellar?

although as dark as an underground venue, it was at street level in the northern industrial section of NW 21st Avenue. 

Willamette Week in an old Bar Guide stated, “(Joe’s) has a Happy Hour at 7-friggin AM! Supposedly it’s for the industrial types who work the overnight shift, though the characters here look like they’re ready for another type of graveyard.”  And at one end of the immense U-shaped bar for my two-hour visit was a very elderly woman on oxygen who came in on a motorized wheelchair and drank Bloody Mary’s the entire time.

In the spacious bar area there are 3 pool tables, 6 flat screen TVs and at least 7 video poker machines. The booths in the bar area showed real signs of wear with a lot of holes in the vinyl covering, some of which were repaired with duct tape.  More contemporary was an electronic juke box.  Just as one can glean a lot about the character of an individual by viewing the titles in his or her library, the same might be said about the music in a bar.  So I pressed the “Top Plays” which showed the following most popular selections:

1. “Wagon Wheel” by Old Crow Medicine Show (2004)
2. “She’s Gone” by Hall and Oates (1976)
3. “Reflections of My Life” by Marmalade (1969)

Indeed, “Reflections” came on while we were eating lunch and moved to the # 2 spot on Top Plays, which may have validated W-Week’s premise…

Joe's Restaurant Entrance

Joe’s also has a small restaurant section, which looks like an old ’50′s malt shop with booths and metal stools at a long counter. The special that day was “Pork Delite” – a pork chop, two eggs, cottage cheese and tomato slices for $7.50 – the label “lite” was questionable.  My reuben sandwich was great as were the BLTs by the two friends with me.  An added benefit — they serve breakfast all day!

Back to the '50's ?

Although definitely a dive bar, I liked Joe’s. W-Week stated, “Joe’s Cellar is a redoubtable institution of old-timer sadness, ” but before we jump to conclusions we should listen to Teddy Roosevelt:

“Some men can live up to their loftiest ideals without ever going higher than a basement.” 

Joe’s Cellar            1332 NW 21st Ave.