Everything’s Jake(s) – Part II

Posted on September 25, 2023 by Thebeerchaser

Photo Sep 24 2023, 11 09 10 AM

Welcome back to Thebeerchaser. If you are seeing this post through an e-mail, please visit the blog by clicking on the title at the top to see all of the photos so the narrative is not clipped or shortened. (External photo attribution is at the end of the post.)

In my most recent post – Part 1 of this series, I told you about my two notable Beerchasing companions and friends – David Dickson and Matt Love. I briefly touched on the bar Matt selected for us to meet – a great dive named Jake’s Place.

When I asked him why he selected this watering hole – other than it was close to his home in Sellwood – he responded:

“Jake’s was my choice because of Cassie, the weekday bartender who I had observed for over a year dealing with the various homeless people of the neighborhood who routinely wandered into the joint and utilized it as a de-facto service center once they spent a buck in the slot machines or bought a beer with change.

Cassie always dealt with these customers with a no-nonsense style laced with kindness and compassion. She also was the only bartender I’d ever seen who dusted the blinds of a window, in Jake’s case, the only window.”

Matt and Cassie at Jake’s Place

Jake’s Place is a former biker bar that used to be named “The Hole-in-the-Wall” and is now primarily patronized by locals. There are not too many social media reviews and a number of them – especially older ones – are very critical.

But I prefer to rely on my experience on two visits and the observations of Matt – a frequent regular for the last few years. As I reported in my last post, he is probably Oregon’s foremost authorities on the topic of dive bars as evidenced by his book – Oregon Tavern Age:

“Oregon Tavern Age (OTA) is a 64-page tabloid size book-with-in-a-magazine featuring original illustrations that culminates 22 years of writing about the crazy and poignant life that unfolds in Oregon Coast’s dive taverns and bars.”

For example, this Yelp review of Jake’s Place from quite a few years ago stated, in part:

“……it’s one of the only bars I’ve walked in to in Portland where I immediately put my guard up. Usually dive bars are inhabited by harmless drunks or ironic people, but last night it felt like it might as well have been full of drunken longshoremen itching for a brawl.”

One wonders why longshoremen of their equivalent would be in the vicinity of Sellwood – a middle-class community.

However, I always keep in mind this truism: (Supplied by my long-time friend, Hap Ziegler, a legal consultant in the Santa Barbara area)

I prefer to rely on this more recent (August 11, 2022) Yelp review which echoed my experience even though I’m not a “Sellwood local”

“This is a place where the more years you go here, the more rewarding it is ….Salt of the Earth staff and patrons ….Tracy is MVP, Deb is the hard outer shell with the heart of gold, Cassie, her daughter, is always there with the clever quip, and Bonnie is the tall goddess . (Note: All of these women are bartenders.)

Great service and food. They call this a dive bar….but no, it is a ‘neighborhood bar…it might take a bit of time to fit in, but if you’re a Sellwood local, it should be a first stop.”

My own take on Jake’s Place was that it had a nice vibe with regulars enjoying themselves at the bar, chatting at tables or playing pool.

The bar was long and attractive and there were tables spaced throughout an expansive setting. (One often occupied by Matt who likes to write here.) (#1)

4lpHKaSmqY

And while some of the reviews are very critical of the service and the attitude of the bartenders, both Cassie and Katie, who I met on the weekend during my second visit, were wonderful. Katie, who has worked there for eight years, is employed part-time while she’s getting her nursing degree.

And Cassie showed a common sense and compassionate perception of the world based on her own challenging life experience as described by Matt:

“Cassie was from the neighborhood and used fake ID when she was 17 to patronize Jake’s as her first bar. Her mother, Deb was the evening bartender. (and still is)

She had once been homeless herself, years ago, after having a baby and giving it up to the father. She treated the homeless people who came in with unconditional love and she’d had only one problem with the homeless in the four years she’d worked at Jake’s Place.”

The bar is an expansive space with a number of classic pinball machines, video machines (which were were not intrusive), three wide screen TV’s, a good “juke box” and two pool tables (one being used by a friendly guy named Kevin who chatted while clearing the table).

The “juke box” even has college school fight songs although I didn’t check to see if there was an Oregon State one in the mix. (Unfortunately, there was a neon Oregon Ducks sign on the wall and not a comparable one for the Beavs.)

They have a good selection of reasonably-priced pub food including appetizers (no salads) and the tap list is good – nine beers, two ciders and wine in addition to some great cocktails as you might surmise from the photo of their liquor inventory below.

A pint is a very reasonable $5.50 and $5.00 at Happy Hour. (Matt and David each had a Breakside RPM and, of course, I availed myself of a PBR.)

Jake’s Place is not the watering hole of the same name in Maryville or Hendersonville Tennessee; Denison Texas, Bedford, Virginia; Shawnee Kansas or Monroe, South Dakota.

But the bar is a vital part of Sellwood – a wonderful neighborhood just five miles south of downtown Portland. And Jake’s Place is right across the street from Bertie Lou’s:

“A tiny, funky breakfast & lunch joint with napkin art on the walls serving classic American dishes.”

What About the Other Jakes?

I have to admit that when I first heard Matt say “Let’s meet at Jake’s,” I was taken aback. Matt and I have a mutual respect and admiration for dive bars but I thought he meant the historic bar which is part of Jake’s Famous Crawfish in downtown Portland – one of, if not the, premier seafood restaurants in the Rose City.

Now, as you might expect, Jakes has an ambiance distinctly different from Jake’s Place. There’s $10 Valet Parking, white-coated waiters and a beautiful long bar in a long, narrow room on one side of the restaurant. There are no pinball machines, juke box or video poker terminals.

Generally, just urban professionals knocking down highballs in business attire after work. (#2 – #5)

Matt and I quickly cleared up that confusion, but this gives me an opportunity to retell part of this history from a 2013 Beerchaser post with a “bar scuffle” story involving the Portland Rugby Club and their counterintuitive adoption of the bar at Jakes downtown.

For that post, I got background information from Jay Waldron, a colleague of mine at the Schwabe law firm and one of Oregon’s top environmental and energy law and litigation lawyers.

He’s also a member of the Rugby Hall of Fame (Class of 2017) and former Beerchaser-of-the-Quarter. (https://thebeerchaser.com/2016/03/29/jay-waldron-rugger-rafter-rider-and-lawyer-beerchaser-of-the-quarter/)

When I was writing the post in 2013, Jay urged me to visit the “shrine,” of sorts, to ruggers in the bar at Jakes. I was skeptical, but discovered there is, in fact, an alcove leading into the men’s room which preserves some rugger nostalgia – thanks to John Underhill, Jake’s former manager and also a rugby player.

One of the best mementos is a letter (see image below) to Jake’s written by Steven G. Hayford on April 29, 1982.

He took umbrage with his experience in the bar in what was a synergistic attack which could have been orchestrated by Jay’s son, Shane, who is now the Offensive Coordinator for the Seattle Seahawks. (#6)

The text of the letter is essentially as follows:

“….. we were assaulted by 5 to 8 of your largest patrons. My arms were pinned behind my back while a third cut my tie with a pair of scissors…..one mustached individual bounded over the bar to break up a possible ensuing riot.

As each offending participant was twice as large as (we were) and a full four times as large as your bartender, a riot did not ensue, and my party bid a hasty (although loud) retreat.

I believe the ‘gorillas’ that attacked us belonged someplace other than at a high-class place like Jake’s and should have been evicted……I would like to consider the incident closed…but my bruised ego is preventing me from making a clean break……

I would appreciate it, if you would reimburse me for the nominal amount of $20…. for my silk tie. If you decline, I’m afraid people who wear ties will start avoiding your restaurant. Please consider my flippant tone a measure of my sense of humor and not as a lack of seriousness of this matter.”

silk tie

Since the statute of limitations for assault has tolled, Waldron is pretty candid about the incident and provides this perspective:

“We placed the cut portion of the tie on the bar with a double margarita as compensation —I cut it with the scissors from a Swiss army knife — A warm night in Jake’s after rugby practice, we in shorts and practice gear, he and others were in suits.

He made a loud remark about the inappropriateness of our attire. We reacted immediately. Two 250 lb. players lifted him off his feet and pinned his arms, a Swiss army knife appeared on car keys from one of the player’s pocket and I cut cleanly.”

A Response from the “Victim”

I was amazed several days after I posted the story to see a response on Thebeerchaser from one Steven G. Hayford. I guess it’s a comment on both the breadth and reach of social media as well as Hayford’s perspective and good humor:

“Hey! I’m Steve Hayford and I remember everything except disparaging what the gorillas were wearing. That tidbit must remain in dispute. Anyway, all is forgiven. Amazing what you find when you google your own name.”

In Closing…

A maxim propagated by those who don’t like dive bars (and I have not found true after twelve years frequenting them) is that the best way to get involved in a fight, is to “invade” the “territory” of the regulars.

Jay Waldron and the ruggers provide evidence, however, that lack of judgement in assessing your surroundings can invite that result in any establishment.

Regardless, I would suggest that you can enjoy your experience; consume good beer, wine, cocktails and food at either Jake’s Place or the bar at Jake’s Famous Crawfish. That said, the menu, tap list, price, ambiance and drinking companions will be distinctly and refreshingly different!

I also have some more to relate about David Dickson and Matt Love, but will save that for another post,

Cheers (#7 – #8)

External Photo Attribution

#1 and #8). (https://www.restaurantji.com/or/portland/jakes-place-/)

#2 – #5 and #7. Jake’s Famous Crawfish Trip Advisor (Jake’s Bar – Picture of Jake’s Famous Crawfish, Portland – Tripadvisor)

Photos for Jake’s Famous Crawfish (yelp.com)

#6. Seattle Seahawks (https://www.seahawks.com/news/shane-waldron-no-difference-this-week-in-approach-as-he-prepares-to-face-former-)

Everything’s Jake(s)!

Posted on September 18, 2023 by Thebeerchaser

This post is about two outstanding guys and an excellent dive bar with a friendly and memorable bartender. The topic begs for some editorial digressions so you will see one or two additional posts which allow me to wander.

Before I tell you about the bar, let me tell you why I admire the two friends who Beerchased with me.

David Dickson

I’ve known David since about 1991 – both of our daughters went to grade school together and on Father-Daughter Hikes for years on numerous Oregon wilderness trails. These continued during the girls’ high school years.

They included reaching the summit of the 10,363 foot South Sister in the fall of 1997, when the girls were about 12 and 13 years old.

The moms of this group would argue that the Mom-Daughter Book Club during these same years, will have a more lasting impact on these now fine young women.

The girls will never forget the memory of hiking out from our camp on the slope of the South Sister by flashlight, the sight of a mouse which drowned in our pot of coffee left out overnight or the penetrating nasal-cleansing smell of the latrine at the head of the Jefferson Park Trail.

I submit that these will yield a more substantive legacy than discussion of the passage of Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March from childhood to womanhood in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. (External photo attribution at end of post #1 – #2)

David is a Stanford grad where he came close to being a right-handed pitcher on The Cardinal freshman baseball team, but washing dishes for tuition and beer money won out.

His subsequent career as a Development Director in higher-education and long-term civic civic contributions are considerably more notable than his earned-run average would have been in Palo Alto…..

I admire David for his perpetual optimism, his concern for the homeless (to be discussed in the next post) and his spirit of high adventure such as shown while he was demonstrating his skill at Big Buck Hunter while Beerchasing with Adam Davis and me at Portland’s Belmont Inn in 2013.

His venturous enthusiasm led him to solo exploration of far-flung regions after college and before graduate school at the University of Oregon.

He traveled through Central America (Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Costa Rica) and South America (Columbia, Venezuela, Equator and Peru). To my knowledge he was not involved in any insurgencies or surreptitious attempts to tamper with voting machines in Venezuela.

I asked David about his post-Stanford adventures and enjoyed his response:

“After getting my BA at Stanford in 1972, I spent two years as a VISTA volunteer/community organizer in Cherokee County, Oklahoma. When I returned, I took off with a loaded backpack and $800 in travelers checks, purchased with the money I had saved from VISTA.

My transport was 3rd class bus (accompanied by chickens and machetes); hitchhiking on the back of pickups and getting lost in the Andes; hitchhiking on merchant ships, hiking when no-one would pick me up and flying once from Panama City to Colombia.

I probably stayed in hotels about 4 nights total (some flea infested), but generally set up my tent in people’s yards or nearby hills or stretched out my sleeping bag in bus depots.”

He showed this same wanderlust on our Father-Daughter hikes which is why we usually had him walk at the end of our group rather than lead it.

Randy Wenger, David and Charlie Rose debating Forest Service map.

Matt Love

Although I only met Matt in person in 2021 while Beerchasing at the wonderful Falls View Tavern in Oregon City with Jim Westwood – a former Beerchaser-of-the-Quarter, and like Matt Love and me, a fellow Oregon City High School graduate.

Love, Westwood and Williams at the Falls View

Among other traits, I admire Matt for his meaningful and ongoing efforts to help the homeless and downtrodden, his deep love for canines, his perseverance in the face of hardship, his creativity and dedication as a former high school teacher.

Last, but certainly not least, he’s a fellow-letterman in basketball for the Pioneers at OCHS – a number of years after me, but it should be noted that his team did not win the TYV Title and go to the State Tournament……

But my feeling of kinship with Matt originated in 2012 when I came across his blog “Let it Pour.net” – right after I started my Beerchasing hobby and was researching dive bars on the Oregon Coast.

“Let it Pour” originated as a popular column in Hipfish Monthly, an alternative magazine in Astoria on the north Oregon Coast. He maintained his blog from 1999 to 2011 and unfortunately a number of the watering holes he chronicled are no longer in business.

But Matt’s descriptions will live on as he is a keen observer of both the ambiance of dive bars and the interactions that take place among the patrons – he’s an expert in describing those in entertaining style.

Matt is a prolific and talented author and now owns a small Astoria publishing house he founded in 2003 – The Nestucca Spit Press. You’ll hear more about Matt’s books in the next post The only problem I have with Matt’s prose is that it forces me to highlight many paragraphs so I can come back and quote his stuff (with attribution, of course!)

The descriptions in his books of emotional interactions sometimes bring tears to my eyes. His bar chronicles were a key factor in motivating me to pursue my Beerchasing adventures, which have continued for over twelve years.

This guy is a master of observation – not only human relationships, but the trappings and character(s) of these dives. He coined the term “Oregon Tavern Age” (OTA)

Matt spent hours in bars converting the notes he took “jotting down observations with a pencil on a golf score card” and his conversations with the regulars into a captivating collection of stories and anecdotes with great graphic illustrations – “courtesy of his ex-wife.”

For example this one from a bar – Pitch’s East – a dive in Port Orford:

“One day, many years ago, a woman sat in Pitch’s Tavern in Port Orford. She saw a horse drinking beer from a saucer on the counter. On another visit, she saw a live boxer crab holding an unlit cigarette in one claw and a glass of beer in the other.”

Take this one which made me check out the Old Oregon Saloon in Lincoln City as one of my first Coast dives – “Where Friends and Family Meet.” It was a great bar and I have returned many times:

“(It’s) a damn fine gritty place to drink beer – a lot of beer….The regulars call it The Old O and after spending time there over the years, I feel it is not too outrageous to suggest the nickname stands not only for The Old Oregon Tavern in Lincoln City — which it does — but really some of the patrons’ last long ago orgasm. Maybe in the Johnson Administration.”

Now I know that Matt, who coaches writers, would advise against excess, but indulge me, because these are so good, I love to share them – so just two more brief ones – both from the Sportsman’s Pub and Grub in Pacific City.

It’s justified. After all for a number of years, Matt served as the watering hole’s “Writer in Residence.”

“A man blasted through the door and obliterated the tavern’s somnolent mood. His hair was feathered….and perfect. He appeared anywhere from 40 to 70 years old. Many years later, I coined the phrase ‘Oregon Tavern Age’ or ‘OTA’ to describe the condition….

The man’s name was Larry or Wayne, both solid OTA names. He sat down with us at the bar. He was loud. I struck up a conversation with him and learned he had $10,000 in cash stuffed into his pants pocket…..

He had cashed a check the previous afternoon – a settlement from an injury suffered in an automobile accident and was ready to party down – hard. He bought the house a round, screamed an encouraging profanity, and then bolted out the door.”

Lastly:

“So the story goes, a veteran patron requested that upon his death, he wanted his wake held in the tavern. Well, the old timer dies, he was cremated, and of course the management obliged him.

So his drinking buddies crowded in the men’s bathroom, hoisted their pints for a second…and flushed his ashes down the toilet. Top that drug testing, antiseptic, bottom line, unfunky, God fearing, screaming baby, corporate brewpubs!”

But What About Jake’s Place?

I have more to tell you about both David Dickson and Matt Love and our discussions while Beerchasing which involve some significant Portland issues.

Also why Jake’s Place is a bar you should visit and more importantly, why you should talk to Cassie, the Bartender. (By the way, I’ll relate why I initially thought Matt made a mistake when he named the bar where we should meet).

But that will wait for the next post. Stay tuned.

Matt and Cassie at Jake’s Place

Cheers!

External Photo Attribution

#1. Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Outhouse_1.jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: Steinsplitter 11 July 2016.

#2. Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (Houghton AC85.Aℓ194L.1869 pt.2aa – Little Women, title – Little Women – Wikipedia) This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 100 years or fewer. Author: Louisa May Alcott – Source: *AC85.Aℓ194L.1869, Houghton Library, Harvard University”

Summer Simmers – the 2023 Finale

Posted on September 4, 2023 by Thebeerchaser

Photo Aug 26 2023, 7 04 26 PM

Welcome back to Thebeerchaser. If you are seeing this post through an e-mail, please visit the blog by clicking on the title at the top to see all of the photos so the narrative is not clipped or shortened. (External photo attribution at the end of the post.)

While many people would suggest that September is not technically summer, I’m going to finish my four-part “Summer Simmers” series – after Labor Day.

Besides, with the temperatures being experienced all over – at least in the US, “simmers” is still appropriate. We’ve witnessed a new paradigm with aberrant weather and atmospheric events, which besides being alarming, make one rethink a lot of past assumptions – even lyrics to songs….

I was listening to my YouTube favorites and did a mental double-take, of sorts, when I heard the following lyrics to the James Taylor and Karli Simon favorite “Devoted to You.” (#1)

James_Taylor_and_Carly_Simon,_1975 (1)

“Darlin’ you can count on me
Till the sun dries up the sea
Until then I’ll always be devoted to you”

The dynamic vocal duo above, thought their marriage would last “forever” rather than just eleven years – until James became too vain….

And obviously the words in bold above, are exaggerated to make a point, but I also never thought we would see a tropical storm in California, draught to flood whiplash and record wildfires in 2021 on three continents.

And given my concern for the future of my four precious granddaughters – shown in the photos at the beginning of this post – I’m going to rely on the studies and evidence from scientists.

This is in lieu of the blather evidenced in a recent political debate by, among others, a self-admitted “skinny guy with a funny last name” who majored in biology and stated:

“And so the reality is more people are dying of bad climate change policies than they are of actual climate change,”

Another Outstanding Lawyer

In my last post, I chronicled my long friendship with Portland lawyer Mark O’Donnell and why I admire his skill as a lawyer, his values and Mark’s civic contributions.

Last week, I attended a Celebration-of-Life for my college Oregon State Fraternity brother, Charlie “Buck” Adams. Charlie was of the same ilk and leaves a lasting legacy.

Photo Aug 28 2023, 5 11 43 PM

After completing law school at the distinguished University of California at Berkeley – Boalt Hall Law School, where he was inducted into the prestigious Order of the Coif, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Alfred T Goodwin, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

This was followed by a long career at Northwest Regional Law Firm Stoel Rives, where after joining the firm in 1976, he became a partner. He was ranked among the top 5% of Oregon’s appellate lawyers in 2006.

The Legacy

But while Charlie’s legal career was outstanding and will be part of his legacy, his life will be celebrated more so based on his family values, his life-time friendships, his diverse interests and his perseverance though physical hardship.

He became significantly disabled from a spinal cord injury and peripheral nerve damage sustained initially working in a sawmill the summer of 1969.

He had two beautiful and accomplished daughters (Ashley and Joliene) during his forty-five year marriage to Carol, who he met at an holiday open-house after college. And Charlie cherished his two grandsons.

Notwithstanding the limitations from his back injury which caused him to work both in a prone position and a stand-up desk during his law practice, he also participated in drag racing, snow shoeing, building snow caves, dog mushing in Denali and the Yukon (40 below) and he resumed hunting. (#2)

Buck was also a man of faith and active in his church – St Luke Lutheran.

But I’m going to focus on the times when I first met Charlie – the SAE House where he was a member of the class of 1969 – one year ahead of me.

This “cowboy” from Prineville who wore his ten-gallon hat (which he also would periodically don at the law office) would entertain us with his acapella version of “I have a dog and his name is Jake.”

It was not fair that Charlie was so smart and while the rest of us were cramming during Dead Week right before finals, Charlie was raising mugs at our favorite bar – Prices’ Tavern.

And he would usually end up with the highest GPA in the House during many quarters. (#3 – #4)

And Charlie developed life-long bonds with his fraternity brothers.

The picture on the left below is at an SAE Beerchasing event at the Gemini Bar and Grill In Lake Oswego in 2019.. (Charlie is on the left) At the Celebration-of-Life, seventeen of us sang the SAE Song “Violet” to his family and friends.

Cheers and Phi Alpha Brother Buck! (#5)

There’s Nothing Better than Baseball in the Fall

In June, I went to a book reading by Eric Gray a couple of weeks ago in Portland. He has written two books:

Bases to Bleachers: A Collection of Personal Baseball Stories from the Stands and Beyond

Backyards to Ballparks: More Personal Baseball Stories from the Stands and Beyond.

Both are excellent and are essentially vignettes – “a collection of personal memories. With over 1250 tales collected from around the world, memorable experiences with Major League Baseball.:” (#6 – #8)

Check out these books, you’ll enjoy them.

And Finally

In honor of Buck Adams, I’ll finish with this clip from the July 16th Morning Brew Newsletter. It’s the kind of discussion that Charlie would have over a beer at Prices Tavern with his SAE brothers, given his love of the wilderness.

Besides, his mind was sharp enough to conceptualize the thesis. It also makes one wonder who funds these academic studies (besides students with their tuition) and what practical value they have.

“The hills are alive with the sound of silence. If a tree doesn’t fall in the woods, new research suggests that we’d still consider its lack of sound to be…a sound. A Johns Hopkins study has found that people hear silence as a kind of sound rather than an absence of noise. (#9)

Researchers discovered this by running ‘sonic illusions,’ which typically compare one moment of noise to two shorter moments of noise that together last the same amount of time.

Listeners tend to wrongly perceive the uninterrupted moment as lasting longer, and the same thing happened when the single moment of noise was subbed out for silence.

This might not have happened if our brains didn’t consider silence to be a sound, scientists say.”

Of course the guys from the SAE house at Prices were less erudite than the Johns Hopkins’ researchers and would have advanced a corollary question:

“If a lone backpacker in the forest expels gas, does it smell?”

The Johns Hopkins’s study was published. The SAE inquiry never was.

Happy Labor Day

External Photo Attribution

#1. Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:James_Taylor_and_Carly_Simon,_1975.jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Source: Kathleen Ballard, Los Angeles Times – 1 August 1975.

#2. Oregon Live Obituaries (https://obits.oregonlive.com/us/obituaries/oregon/name/charles-adams-obituary?id=52446999#:~:text=His%20laughter%20was%20contagious%2C%20his,is%20now%20in%20eternal%20wilderness).

#3. – #4. (http://saeoregonstate.com/)

#5. Illustration courtesy of Pam Williams.

#6. – #8. (https://basestobleachers.com/) Website of author, Eric Gray.

#9. Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gfp-wisconsin-new-glarius-woods-tree-falling-over-on-trail.jpg) This file has been released explicitly into the public domain by its author, using the Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication. Yinan Chen – 15 June 2013.