As with the first bar visited by thebeerchaser, credit goes to Kelly Gronli, my oboe instructor, for recommending the Gladstone – a wonderful neighborhood pub. Natasha, the bartender, was incredibly friendly and helpful in providing some info about the bar.
The pub has activities which promote a loyal cadre of patrons and from both of my visits, it was obvious that it has a quality group of regulars. Besides the great ambiance, these activities are a distinguishing feature of the Gladstone. For example:
- Cornhole Competition– one of only two bars in Portland to have this activity, the Gladstone even has a league every Tuesday night. The game consists of two pieces of plywood (see dimensions below) each with one hole six inches in diameter. The platforms are slanted at 45 degrees and separated by 27 feet. The object is to throw four bean bags into the hole or on the platform for points.
Cornhole Specifications
The league, which has been in existence for about four or five years, has about ten to twelve teams with names such as
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Stalkers
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Ladies of the Corn
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Cornservatives
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Shuck My Life
The owner, who majored in journalism in college, even has a newsletter entitled,The Daily Cornholer, which chronicles in some detail, the major aspects of competition. One guy at the bar suggested that the stories don’t contain a kernel of truth. Evidently nobody has suggested Fantasy Cornhole to this point….!
- Cornhole League Competition
I was prompted to do some research on the sport and the website for the American Cornhole Association had a wealth of information. The ACA was established (cobbled together) by a small group of dedicated cornholers from the west side of Cincinnati, Ohio. According to President and Founding Member, Michael Whitten, it now represents the largest organized corn-toss association in the United States with over 30,000 members.
Those who want more information can click on the link below and listen to Professor Cornhole in a four-minute video explanation that will motivate at least one shot of alcohol.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3kjnJQuhv0&NR=1
2. Trivia Night – the entire bar engages in this pursuit on Monday nights. Contestants participate in various trivia categories ranging from geography to US Presidents to music, submitting written entries, which are evaluated by their fellow patrons.
Natasha – A Great Bartender holding the beerchaser logo
Another nice feature was a bunch of old and often historic photos hanging throughout the bar. My two favorites:
- A framed photo about 4.5 feet wide and a foot high of the 1939 Milwaukie Maroons – 1939 Oregon High School Football Champions.
- A picture of the 1942 Oregon State Cheerleaders at the Rose Bowl – if still around, these ladies are now about ninety years old…..
One could learn a lot by just hanging out at the Gladstone – an education in itself, which justifies one of my favorite bar quotes:
Therefore education at the University mostly worked by the age-old method of putting a lot of young people in the vicinity of a lot of books, hoping that something would pass from one to the other –while the actual young people put themselves in the vicinity of inns and taverns for exactly the same reason.
Thebeerchaser 