Portland Attorney, Jim Westwood Beerchaser of the Quarter for January – March, 2013

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Thebeerchaser

Attorney and Model Citizen, Jim Westwood

It is fitting and proper to recognize those who distinguish themselves, not only in their trade or profession, but also for their contributions to the overall community. Portland lawyer, Jim Westwood, is the epitome of civic virtue and an accomplished appellate lawyer. Besides, he and Thebeerchaser are alums of both Oregon City High School and Portland State University.

He therefore joins such luminaries as Princeton Professor Emeritus, Dr. Harry Frankfurt, author of “On Bullshit,” crime novelist, James Crumley, former Oregon State Beaver and NFL football player and mountaineer, Craig Hanneman, and even the crew of the historic USS Constitution as a Beerchaser honoree.

We spent a recent evening drinking beer at The Tanker and Beer, two more establishments on Thebeerchaser Tour of Portland Taverns, Pubs and Bars. Reviews of both venues will be posted on this blog in the next ten days.

Westwood at Beer drinking beer….(stay tuned for the forthcoming review of Beer)

Those of you old enough to remember black and white TV sets, will probably also remember the “GE College Bowl” quiz show. It pitted a four-person college team of erudite students against another school for a half-hour showdown each Sunday evening during the 1960’s and ’70’s.

Westwood, Coach Padrow and the PSU College Bowl Team

Westwood (Center – left) , Coach Padrow and the PSU College Bowl Team (Portland State University Magazine May 2, 2005)

Westwood was the captain and is the only surviving first-team member of the legendary Portland State College team coached by legendary speech professor, Ben Padrow.

The PSC team played the same upset role Florida Gulf Coast University has so far in 2013 March Madness, by defeating their opponents for five straight weeks before they retired as champions with the sum of $15,275 in scholarships.

The legacy of the PSU scholars is evident:

“The 415 points scored in their final match ties them for fifth-highest single-game total achieved, and their 1725 points total set a new record at the time, and is fourth highest overall. The March 26, 1965 issue of Time has an article on how the College Bowl victories helped change Portland State’s image as “the flunk-out school” for University of Oregon and Oregon State drop-outs…” (Portland State Alumni Association News article by Kathryn Kirkland, May 2, 2005)

: Portland State University Campus – now rivals the U of O and OSU

Rod Hill

Jack Cappell

Bruce Sussman

Jim Westwood .

An IBM meteorologist console in 1965 (From Wikipedia – a work of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admin. – public domain)

What do all these gents have in common? Well, all are current or past meteorologists for Portland Network TV stations. Jim helped pay his college tuition by predicting low pressure fronts and daily temperatures for KGW in the ’60’s.

Last year, he again used his experience in front of the camera to play a nutty professor in a video published by the Multnomah Bar Foundation to teach students about the US Constitution.

Nutty Professor or a former Jason Bourne??

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He changed from physics to history as a major “because of the math….”. After graduation from Portland State, Westwood served in the military as a Naval Intelligence Officer for several years. Because of his superior language skills, he spent a year learning Thai – an extremely difficult language to master.

While he still cannot talk about what he did in the military, Jim’s tenure as a “spook” may have led him to subscribe to the following premise: “When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that person is crazy.”

After the military, he spent three years and graduated from Columbia Law School in New York City, which in 2012 was ranked by Forbes Magazine as the top law school in the US for future employment of law grads. After serving for two years as the Assistant to the President of PSU, he’s practiced law in Portland since 1978 at both the Miller Nash firm and Stoel Rives, where he is now a senior counsel.

He is considered a constitutional scholar, and has been designated from 1998 to 2013 in Best Lawyers in America and as an Oregon Super Lawyer. Jim has volunteered for 11 years as a coach for “We the People” high school constitutional law teams for Grant High and De la Salle North Catholic High School. Marilyn Cover, Executive Director of the Classroom Law Project (CLP), stated, “He’s a great teacher, a great coach and a great model citizen.” He was honored last year as the 2012 Legal Citizen of the Year by the CLP.

Ok – the answer is “Nutty Professor!”

His other civic and professional contributions are too numerous to mention but include a term as President of the City Club of Portland (1991-2) and the Board of the Multnomah Bar Foundation.

So join Thebeerchaser in hoisting a mug to Jim Westwood. Your toast might be more appropriate if you convey it in Thai as a tribute to his military service. If you need a tutorial, the following excerpt from Wikipedia may help. While drinking, keep in mind the last sentence below:

“From the perspective of linguistic typology, Thai can be considered to be an analytic language. The word order is subject – verb- object, although the subject is often omitted. Verbs do not inflect. Duplication conveys the idea of doing the verb intensively.” (Some of the Thai vowels are illustrated below)


	unrounded		unrounded		rounded
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	/i/ -ิ	/iː/ -ี	/ɯ/ -ึ	/ɯː/ -ื-	/u/ -ุ	/uː/ -ู
Close-mid	/e/ เ-ะ	/eː/ เ-	/ɤ/ เ-อะ	/ɤː/ เ-อ	/o/ โ-ะ	/oː/ โ-
Open-mid	/ɛ/ แ-ะ	/ɛː/ แ-			/ɔ/ เ-าะ	/ɔː/ -อ

Say “Tug Boat (Brewery)” Ten Times Really Fast……

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Thebeerchaser

Sam Adams at the entrance to the Tug Boat Brewery

Wait a minute, I guess “Toy Boat” is the phrasing that’s supposed to mess up your diction when rapidly repeated. However, Portland’s Tug Boat Brewery, is a treasure waiting for you on SW Ankeny Street in downtown Portland. Notwithstanding the fact that I worked downtown every year since its founding in 1993, I had never even seen it. Ankeny Street reminded me of my long-ago trips to Dan and Louis’ Oyster Bar (near what is now Voodoo Donuts) where I used to take dates in high school.

I spent a productive and enjoyable two-hours at the Tugboat with former Portland Mayor and now, the new City Club Executive Director, Sam Adams, talking about issues and his vision for the City Club of Portland, which Thebeerchaser joined in 1971 after graduating from Oregon State. Established in 1916, the City Club is Oregon’s premier public affairs forum and promotes civic engagement through its volunteer research and other activities. Sam was selected from a pool of 80 very qualified applicants.

He was in a good mood (I suggested that it resulted from not having to listen to Randy Leonard on a daily basis anymore) and has dynamic ideas for City Club. He did not fall for the joke I tried to pull, however. (Have him order a Samuel Adams Lager and the bartender bring a picture of the former Mayor to the table.)

Sam Adams, new Executive Director of the City Club of Portland

Sam suggested we visit the Tugboat, described by the following excerpt from Willamette Week’s 2011 Drink Guide:

“You’d be forgiven for mistaking Tugboat for a classy Prohibition-era speakeasy. The dimly lit microbrewery, Portland’s smallest and downtown’s oldest, brews tiny batches of browns, ambers and stouts………the laid back pub is surrounded by books; regulars strike up conversation behind a battered copy of Ulysses. “

Note: Not to digress, but the only problem I have with the above quote is that assuming the WW reporter was old enough to visit a speakeasy, he or she would have to be about 110 years old to make this assertion!

No legal beer? No wonder there were speakeasys.

No legal beer? Glad that none of us were around to experience this period.

“The place even has an Emmy on display (Thebeerchaser verified that this is correct and the father of one of the bartenders was the Director of “Rich Man, Poor Man”)…..It has nabbed some much-deserved medals for its unfiltered beers, making it a perfect environment for casual drinkers looking for peace and conversation. “

A Limited, but Quality Selection of Drafts

Matt, one of the bartenders, was extremely helpful and based on his prior employment as a pedi-cab tour operator giving Portland brewery tours, also knowledgeable.

He stated that the Tugboat location was originally a coffee shop. The interesting furnishings as described above and below are all remnants from the prior tenant.

Matt and Thebeerchaser with the famous logo…..

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Distinguishing Characteristics

The Beer: Unlike most breweries, Tugboat does not distribute their beer – they produce just enough – only eight kegs per batch – to serve in the brew-pub – it’s truly a craft beer.

Because they do not mass produce it, the beer is not filtered. “…our ales retain their freshness because the yeast is allowed to live…The pasteurization process that strips body and color from beer is a necessary evil in ‘big batch’ commercial brewing. But, thankfully, that ain’t us. We filter our coffee. Not our beer.”

Although the number of Tugboat brews available that night was limited to about four, Sam and I thought their beer was very good (we had a Red Cloud and Snow Plow IPA). They also have other draft beer available. Since I was driving and Sam rode his bike, we did not have the courage to try their Chernobyl Stout (13.5%!) I also tried a Pear Cider which was excellent.

Almost all of the Internet reviews were positive although some, such as this somewhat pretentious critique by PortlandBarFly asserted that the beer is too hoppy: “….Leftist bike messengers, fauxhemians, silly old men that wish to be taken for professors, the sort of couples that enjoy playing board games before strangers – there’s a suffering self-satisfaction about the crowds keeping Portland’s smallest brewery afloat that makes one wish to jump atop the bar and force regulars to admit their beer just isn’t very good. The emperor has no clothes and far too many hops.”

Is there really a copy of “Ulysses” in this collection?

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In contrast, some out-of-town visitors were impressed, “I LOVE THIS PLACE!….an eclectic mix of people and everyone’s so approachable and nice! I wish I could live here. (They did not clarify whether they meant Portland or in the Brewery itself…) “I’m ready to crown it one of the friendliest establishments in Portland.” (Bing – 4/29/12)

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The Interior and Furnishings: “This place is awfully unassuming from the outside – just a door down a side street and some heavily tinted windows. But that adds to the effect of being inside and feeling like you stepped into someone’s basement rumpus room.” (Bing – 8/21/12)

A comfortable “rumpus room” environment…

On one wall, there are thirty-five 33 RPM album covers from the past – and speaking of eclectic, one row consisted of The Village People, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, Grand Funk Railroad, The Royal Marines and Peter Nero’s “Summer of ’42.”

Before CDs and Pandora…..

One person suggested that there was even a secret door to Portland’s infamous Mary’s Club in the back, but the bartender stated that this was true of the Mexican restaurant next door.

The food is pretty limited, but reasonably priced and good: “When the pita plate came out, everyone raved about the
hummus, but when the nachos came out, jaws dropped. I would have to guess there
was an entire bag of chips on the plate, loaded up with cheese, peppers,
olives, etc. for just $7.” (Bing – 8/21/12)

Grand Funk – old but after Prohibition….

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Tugboat has only one wide-screen TV which purportedly cannot be tuned to any sports channel…..

Terry Nelson (husband), Megan McEnroe-Nelson (wife), and John McEnroe (father-in-law/father) are proud of their own owner-operated brewery and have an establishment with good beer and an environment with great character and ambiance.

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Tugboat Brewery 711 SW Ankenny

45 degrees latitude 132 degrees longitude

A limited menu but good food at a reasonable price.

All Hands on Deck at the Ship Tavern

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Thebeerchaser

The Ship with Two Regulars in the “Smoking Lounge”

“The Ship isn’t anything to write home to Mom about . . . heck it probably isn’t even a place I would tell my Mom I went . . . but it knows what/who it is.” (Yelp/9/17/11)

I wanted to hit a tavern on the west side for the next stop on Thebeerchaser tour. My Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt colleague, John Mansfield, and I were meeting former Schwabe lawyer, Chris Lewis, and Multnomah Village seemed to be a good location. I was drawn to The Ship Tavern (hereafter “The Ship.”)

: Mansfield and Lewis — Not the Physique, but each has the face, if not the intellect of a Rugby Player.

A little due diligence almost resulted in a veto, however. Jay Waldron is also a Schwabe lawyer – one of the best environmental and energy lawyers in the NW and a man of varied interests. When I was the COO at Schwabe, he used to motivate me with quotes such as that from Scottish writer and essayist, Thomas Carlyle, “A man without a goal is like a ship without a rudder.” (The quote seems appropriate for a post about this bar…..)

Not a rugby player, but like Waldron, a strict Cavlinist

Not a rugby player, but like Waldron, a strict Calvinist

Waldron is a director of the U.S. Rugby Foundation and has played, coached and broadcast rugby on a regional, national and international level. He has also been on whitewater rafting expeditions (successfully tackling the Upper Yangtze River in China) and motorcycle adventure trips on six continents.

A man of varied interests who has visited The Ship

Jay is a follower of this blog and was very positive about The Ship even noting that it had been a long-ago hangout, of sorts, for Portland Rugby Club players. This raised some initial concerns on my part as I wanted to drink from a glass rather than eat one……A little more research, however, uncovered the fact that their impact was relatively mundane – the site of the Rugby Club’s “Book and Brew” discussions which will be addressed below.

The Ship is the epitome of a dive bar. Quoting from one of Thebeerchaser’s posts (September, 2011) and the notable reference book, “Seattle’s Best Dive Bars,” this 70 + year Multnomah Village institution fit the definition to a tee:

” “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)

An Invaluable Resource for Thebeerchaser

In the words of one Portland patron: “The Ship is simply your quintessential dive bar……It’s an ultra local joint with good history…….that dark and dank local bar with a handful of guys in trucker hats and grey mustache’s…..”(Yelp 2/29/12)

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The Bar at The Ship

Distinguishing Characteristics

Da Bears…..The Ship is a Chicago hangout as evidenced by the fact that any time The Bears, the Cubs or the White Sox play, Pabst Old Style Beer – A Chicago favorite – is $1.50 per can and margaritas and blood mary’s are $3.50. Debbie, the friendly bartender, emphasized, “This doesn’t apply to Blackhawk games – we’re not big on hockey.”

Mike Ditka Would Love The Ship

And for Bear fans, every Sunday during football season they “offer meals that are themed after the opposing team.”

For example, on a recent Sunday when they played the Minnesota Vikings, the special was “Tator-tot Hotdish” and Caesar Salad for $5.50. According to Wikipedia, “Hotdish is a variety of baked casserole that typically contains a starch, a meat or other protein, and a canned and/ or frozen vegetable, mixed with canned soup. The dish is popular in Minnesota and North Dakota.”

Harry Carey (RIP) Would be Proud

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What do You Mean Credit??? The Ship may be one of the few bars or pubs in Portland to totally disdain credit cards. It’s cash only and no tabs – pay as you imbibe! Times change, however. Last year was the first time The Ship offered liquor and Candace, the Manager, (who was also very helpful) said they might consider credit next year.

All of the people in the photo collage at The Ship have one thing in common — they paid cash for their beer!

Peanut Demolition Day – Each Thursday – the day we were there – each table has free peanuts in the shell all day. The shells hit the floor when you discard them……..

Other Interesting Fixtures – You will see five TVs, a bunch of video poker terminals, one old-fashioned pinball game (“Medieval Madness – King of Evil”) and while many bars have video games, the one at The Ship was particularly interesting and fitting i.e. “Big Buck Hunter.”

Doe Tags are Not Valid on This Machine

The rules on the two pool tables are also worth noting. If you drop a cue, the fine is 25 cents and 50 cents if a ball goes off the pool table – according to Debbie, the bartender, it is a “maintenance fund” for pool table repairs.

You will find no menus at The Ship. The food, which is what you would expect at a dive bar – that’s a compliment – is on a blackboard above the bar.

From L to R – Debbie and Candace standing below “The Menu”

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The Juke Box at many bars will reveal a little about the regulars. When you want to play it at The Ship, you inform the bartender so the stereo can be turned off. The “hottest plays” were the following:

Neil Young and Crazy Horse – “Get a Job”

Bad Company – “Bad Company”

The Raconteurs – “Steady as She Goes”

Waylon Jennings – “Good-Hearted Woman”

: “Hey Debbie – Turn off the Stereo”

And the Rugby Club’s past “Book and Brew” discussions??? As an example, there was heated debate on the non-fiction classic, “The Iron Man – How Shelby Donovan Revolutionized the Chicago Dry Cleaning Industry” and some awkward moments when former Oregon Governor Vic Atiyeh’s presentation, “What Can Your Rug Be?” was not quite what the rugged jocks expected…….

The scene at The Ship during a heated debate by "The Beef and Brew" group.

The scene at The Ship during a heated debate by “The Book and Brew” group.

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My apologies to Jay Waldron for the above, although he deserves legitimate credit for his perfect delivery of one of Thebeerchaser’s favorite bar jokes at the City Club of Portland when he was a presenter on Metro area transportation planning two years ago:

“A traffic engineer walks into a bar with a slab of asphalt under his arm and says to the bartender, ‘Give me two beers – one for me and one for the road.”

The Asphalt prefers Budweiser….with an oil chaser…..

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The Ship has been in the same location since 1946 and this site of a former garage has big-time history and character. Visit The Ship and remember the intent of James Lawrence’s (skipper of the USS Chesapeake) famous last declaration in 1813 – paraphrased – “Give up the Ship??? — Knot!!”

Three rotating taps -- microbrews and all these beers in cans available...

Three rotating taps plus several microbrews and the old standards like PBR on tap — plus all these beers available in bottles and cans…

The Ship Tavern 7827 SW 35th Ave Portland

Thebeerchaser

Bars, Breweries and Watering Holes – An Exploration

Tag Archives: City Club of Portland

Portland Attorney, Jim Westwood Beerchaser of the Quarter for January – March, 2013

Say “Tug Boat (Brewery)” Ten Times Really Fast……

All Hands on Deck at the Ship Tavern