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With so many watering holes to explore just in Portland – other than the standard two visits I try to make as part of my Beerchasing protocol – I usually don’t return to an establishment I’ve reviewed.  There’s just too many great bars and breweries I still need to experience and too little time to accomplish this sudsy journey. (I decided not to quote Robert Frost…)

From 2011 until the pandemic in 2020, which caused a temporary hiatus in my pursuit, I had visited and reviewed 366 bars of which 119 were in Portland.  From that time onward, I’ve added about another fifty of which thirty are in the Portland area.

Although admitting, my post-pandemic count is not as precise, I believe that since starting this journey in fall of 2011, I’ve shown my face in 416 watering holes with 139 or 33% in the Rose City.

And my “return” to the Hi-top Tavern has to be qualified, because my first visit there was in the summer of 2012 when it was named Bottles.  https://thebeerchaser.com/2012/07/06/bottles-the-preferred-alternative-to-a-glass-ceiling/    

Bottles – originally a small Turkish import store – was a nice bar to sample the esoteric inventory of beers and wines which graced its shelves (between 450 and 500 different bottle beers with eight on tap), but it closed sometime in 2019.

Resurrection of the building came with the Hi-top in July 2019 by the Three on a Match Bar Group under the guidance of its principal, Ezra Ace Caraeff. 

I wrote about these bar revivalists in my recent review of the outstanding Holy Ghost Bar – one of five they own and operate besides the Hi-top, the others are the Old Gold, Paydirt and Tough Luck – all of which I still have to explore. (#1)

Memories

Before describing the visit to Hi-top, it gladdens my heart to remember the Beerchasing event at Bottles and County Cork, another Fremont Street bar, on the same day in July, thirteen years ago with colleagues from the Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt Environmental and Natural Resources Group.

Brien Flanagan, is still at Schwabe and a leader in that group. Patty Dost, Laura Maffei and Cheryl Rath, who now practice with other firms, also raised a mug at both of these bars – with dinner at Bottles after toasting Brien’s Notre Dame undergrad alma mater at the Irish Bar.

 All have had distinguished legal careers since that day and their expertise in air, water, hazardous waste and other environmental issues is notable. We’ve Beerchased on occasion since that day including a great reunion at Old Town Pizza in   with a number of other alumni of that group.

I was always happy that they indulged me when I would spout environmental stories and jokes from bar visits such as the old guy sitting next to me at a dive bar who asserted:

“You know it’s not pollution or industry that is harming the environment. It’s the impurities in our air and water.”

I also remember conveying the contemporary version of an old adage about personal development which got shrugs and moans from my friends:

“Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.  Teach him how to fish and he will be dead of mercury poison in three years.” 

The Bar

Hi-top is not going to wow you with its layout or features.  It’s pretty generic although there are some neat smaller spaces, an expansive patio and a long bar with an impressive display of liquor bottles backing it. As stated in a Willamette Week article:

“The first thing you’ll notice in the old Bottles space is its bunkerlike atmosphere, which is both its biggest hindrance and its most admirable quirk. The ceilings are low and the floor plan is segmented into a variety of nooks and crannies, with garage doors and a vast expanse of whiskeys on offer.”

And while you may not come for a unique ambiance, the draw is the superb cocktail choices and an opportunity to taste Single Barrel Bourbon, evidently hand-selected by the staff and flown in from Kentucky.

You won’t see many beers on tap although I liked the concept in their bottled beers including four PBR Tallboys in a shiny bucket for $12 or a Miller High Life Bucket – four in a golden bucket for $12.

The food is also a plus with an excellent sandwich menu and quite a few small-bite and salad options – all at reasonable prices.  You might not be able to resist the $5 Chocolate Chunk Cookie (Brown Butter, Bourbon, Maldon Sea Salt).  I understand it pairs quite well with a PBR Tallboy

* You might wonder about the title of this post and the asterisk after the word “shoe.”  Two reasons – first, I’m doing a lot of reminiscing in this narrative.  And the last and one of the only times I’ve seen “Hi-top” used is in reference to the beloved Chuck Taylor Converse All-Stars. (You can pick up a new pair for only $64.99.) (#2)

As I’ve mentioned in the blog several times, my 1966 Oregon City High School TYV League Championship Team wore those sneakers with pride into the State Tournament where, although decimated in the first round by Lincoln of Portland, we made it to the consolation semi-finals where we lost by one point in overtime to Thurston.

My long-time friend and former teammate, John Davidson (#30) who went on to have an excellent run in hoops after high school at Grays Habor Junior College ,and I reunited last fall when he flew up from San Diego to have a free-throw contest at a local grade school. (None of the kids wanted to scrimmage with us.)

It was followed by Spanish coffees at Hubers’ Restuarant and an outstanding steak and martini dinner at Portland’s legendary Ring Side Steakhouse, where John worked part-time when he was a junior-high teacher years ago.

And to conclude on a Hi note, I have to mention my Beerchasing companion at the Hi-top – another long-time friend dating back to the 80’s (I think) when she was a research intern for the City Club of Portland and I was on the Research Board.

Hillary Barbour is one of the smartest and most industrious people I know, having graduated from Reed College, working for many years on the staff of Congressman Earl Blumenauer and then as the Director of Strategic Initiatives at Burgerville.

She is now Director of Business Development at the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative. OBRC serves as the not-for-profit operator of Oregon’s Bottle Bill. (Perhaps there’s a certain earthly synchronicity since my visit to the predecessor bar, Bottles, was with the Schwabe Enviromental attorneys.)

Hillary is a Beerchasing regular, having visited the Sandy Jug, the Jolly Roger, the Vern and Mad Hanna on previous Beerchasing experiences. (It was a coincidence that the first two initials of her first name are the same as that of the bar….)

Going to the Hi-top was actually inadvertent in that I thought we were going to another bar – the Top of the Hill Tavern – a classic dive on NE Glisan only 3.6 miles or eleven minutes away. 

I’d driven by this bar a number of times and thought it would be a great place to add to my list but got confused with the name and address and gave Hillary the NE Fremont address of the Hi-top instead. (We agreed to a future visit to Glisan Street.) (#3)

In Conclusion

While the Hi-top was an okay neighborhood bar and evoked a lot of great memories, rather than return, I’ll try Three-on-a-Matches’ two other bars – the Old Gold and Pay Dirt – to see how they compare.

And in a final tribute to my Beerchasing colleagues – a bar joke:

“An environmental lawyer and a non-renewable resource walk into a bar and sit down for a couple of pints. After a while, the non-renewable resource orders two more beers. The bartender turns to the lawyer and says, ‘I’ll serve you, but not your friend, he’s getting wasted'”

Cheers

External Photo Attribution

#1. Three-on-a-Match Bar Group (https://www.threeonamatchbars.com/).

#2. Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons  (File:A classic Black pair of Converse All Stars resting on the Black & White Ed. Shoebox (1998-2002).JPG – Wikimedia Commons).  I, the copyright holder of this work, release this work into the public domain. This applies worldwide. Author: Hadley1978 at English Wikipedia – 18 November 2006.

#3.  Yelp site for Top of the Hill Tavern – (Photos for Top of the Hill Tavern – Yelp). Photo by Mark S. – July 28, 2008.