Tag Archives: Reel M Inn Tavern

You’ll Want to Tarry at Jerry’s

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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 and so the narrative is not clipped or shortened.(External photo attribution at the end of the post) 

The above photo shows what one sees walking in the front door of Jerry’s Tavern and gives a good idea of what to expect inside. Those who haven’t experienced this great dive bar in the Northwest Industrial District of Portland, might wonder how a bar that’s been opened for only about eighteen months became “World Famous.”

But those who know owner Jared “Jerry” Benedetto and his wife, Lauren, and followed him when he opened Jerry’s Pizza (as a hobby) and talked about his future dream would not be surprised.  Besides, the description on the door about global notability doesn’t mention a timeline. (#1)

Jerry – a guy who pursues his dreams

One of my good friends who follows Thebeerchaser wondered about my tendency to write about a lot of stuff besides just bars and breweries. He asked if I had toned down my quest to visit new watering holes.

I pointed out my recent post about my newest discovery – Top of the Hill Tavern and my list of favorite dives in that post and assured him that my journey would continue. I then responded that after writing boring memos on legal management for 40+ years, the opportunity to address a broad spectrum of topics was compelling.

As an aside, my brother-in-law, Dave Booher, who has been a frequent Beerchasing companion, just sent me an article entitled, “The Best Dive in Every State.” Having been to about 435 watering holes in the last fourteen years including about 200 throughout the US, I devoured the piece with enthusiasm.

I then sheepishly told him that I’d only been to one on the list – Portland’s Reel M Inn Tavern – a unique spot known primarily for its roasted chicken and jo jo’s, but not for its dive bar trappings. (I then asked Dave if was ready for a road trip….)

Why Jerry’s?

Well, let’s start with just the ambiance of this small (approximately 750 square feet) space, which is filled with Green Bay Packer (Jerry), Chicago Bears (Lauren), Milwaukee Bucks, Chicago Blackhawk, Milwaukee Brewer and Wisconsin Badger (where Lauren got both her BA and MBA) pennants and gear. And it’s not store-bought stuff – most of it is from Jerry’s personal collection.

You’ll see photos of regulars, old beer signs (especially Hamm’s and Miller), an iced bucket of Miller High Life in bottles, untapped kegs sitting on a table and multiple TVs with games (generally not being watched except for Packer and Bear contests), Christmas lights which stay up all year and ……well, you get the picture. (#2 – #3)

In fact, Jerry’s brought back memories of one of my top-five dives in Portland I visited in 2012 – the Ship Tavern. (The Ship is about the same size, a Chicago Bears and Cubs bar, has sawdust on the floor and the front exterior is unforgettable.)

I learned about Jerry’s from my son-in-law, Ryan Keene and his dad, Ron, who both have offices nearby. Since the last time the three of us had Beerchased was in 2017 at the Labrewatory, we were long past due. (This creative enterprise was one of the casualties of the pandemic and closed permanently in 2020.)

We decided to meet for lunch which allows me to talk about another great feature of the bar – the food – a limited menu because of the small kitchen, but we loved it and it gets great reviews.

The prices are also surprisingly low – where can you get a cheeseburger for only $8, a hot dog with grilled onions for $5 or three tacos for $10? The sides are also dive bargains – chips ($1), fries ($2), chili ($3) or cheese curds ($4).

Ron and I had an outstanding meatloaf sandwich for only $10. Ryan dug in on the wings (6 for $11) and we shared their cheese curds with ranch dressing – a Midwestern tradition. (#4)

Great in a sandwich
A Midwest tradition

I’d never seen a meatloaf sandwich in a dive bar, but given Jerry’s Midwest focus, I assumed the inclusion of meatloaf in the menu was because some guy in Racine, Wisconsin created it in the 19th century.

But, in an effort to enlighten you, here’s what I discovered:

“The concept of meatloaf dates back to ancient times, with evidence of similar dishes found in various cultures around the world. One of the earliest recorded recipes for a meatloaf-like dish comes from ancient Rome, where a dish called ‘patina’ was served. Patina was a mixture of ground meat, vegetables, and spices, baked in a pie crust.” (Tastefood.com)

The Drinks

I had a sample of the Stevens Point Lager – a great midwestern beer and they have a reasonable tap list, but the flagship beer at Jerry’s is my favorite – Miller High Life in a bottle – the Champagne of Bottled Beer – born in Milwaukee in 1903 and flavored with Pacific Northwest hops. (See this article from Vinepair.com for the interesting story on the slogan.)

According to the personable Bar Manager, Ranessa Williamson-Callen – a Wisconsin native – they went through forty cases during the previous weekend.

Most dive bar aficionados would not hit their favorite establishment for a cocktail, but that’s again where Jerry’s breaks the mold. You can get a quality margarita, old fashioned, seven & seven, white Russian or Tom Collins. 

What will bring me back, however, is the chance to have one of Ranessa’s Bloody Mary’s – also to meet Jerry in person. I’m relying on a Spring 2025 article in Portland Monthly Magazine (I would suggest this quality magazine has probably not written up a dive bar previously.)

“But the can’t-miss star here is Williamson-Callen’s impressive Bloody Mary: a 20-ingredient mix, lager back, and a skewer of summer sausage, Muenster, pickled onions, olives, and a whole pepperoncini. It’s the best Bloody Mary I’ve ever personally consumed in Portland, full stop, and an emblem of the perfected-classics ethos that guides Jerry’s Tavern.”  (#5)

Fully loaded – best in Portland

Now besides beer and great cocktails, those looking for a mellow option can choose from several Jello-shots ($2) including strawberry, lemon or Malort.- a Chicago favorite.  And Ranessa, spent most of the time during our lunch working on preparing pudding shots ($5) (pumpkin spice) from scratch for the rest of October.

She has a delightful personality and we chatted while she worked on making the pudding.  (Fortunately, the television you see below with Stephen A. Smith pontificating was muted.) (#6)

The Other Stuff

Jerry’s has a great “juke box” with mostly country-western tunes on the “most played” list although it included numbers by Creed, 3 Doors Down and Sean Kingston (who will have time to write more songs while serving his three-year prison sentence). Surprisingly there were no selections by Meat Loaf.

There is an expansive patio immediately adjacent which also sees a lot of Miller downed on good weather days.

In short, Jerry’s Tavern is a wonderful dive bar and I will definitely return to meet Jerry and Lauren personally as well as downing one of Ranessa’s Bloody Mary’s. The following two reviews (and they are almost all positive) may help convince you that Jerry’s will, in fact, become “World Famous.”

“Jerry’s isn’t just a bar. It’s a cathedral of character…The man himself, Jerry, is behind the bar, slinging drinks like he was born for this. He’s part bartender, part therapist, part shaman. He could be my dad if he wanted to, but this morning he feels like my brother–the kind who’d bail you out of jail without asking questions.” (Yelp 12/1/24)

“This place looks like it’s been plucked directly from the Midwest and dropped in Portland’s NW Industrial area. It also looks like it’s been here for years, not days. It feels cozy and familiar without trying too hard. I have been following Jerry’s journey for the past few years.”  (Restaurant Guru – 2024) (#7)

Jerry’s dream was to not just to open a bar:

“…but a community space in the tradition of a great Midwestern bar. Or, as Benedetto puts it, ‘a place to gather when times are good, when times are bad, or any time for that matter.’ ”   (Oregon Live)  (Photo courtesy of Michael Novak/Portland Monthly magazine.)

He’s a dreamer.

So far, so good, Jerry and Lauren!

Cheers

External Photo Attribution

#1. Linked in logo – (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jared-jerry-benedetto-5a69a4180/).

#2. Yelp Reviews (https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/jerry-s-tavern-portland?select=snWOH0M6WDbb9sp0dsHFhg)  miller lite

#3. Yelp Reviews (https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/jerry-s-tavern-portland?select=Ngyf0LVcTCzgPXlREDj8hg).

#4. #Wikimedia Commons (File:Meatloaf on white plate.jpg – Wikimedia Commons) This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. Author: Roundhere44 – 7 March 2016. 

#5. Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bloody_Mary_2.jpg) L licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.  Author: goblinbox https://www.flickr.com/people/25977089@N00) – 15 March 2014.

#6. Yelp Reviews ((https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/jerry-s-tavern-portland?select=h_PosqSFpag7lxZ7-JANZQ).

#7. Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10105147031135361&set=pb.22016580.-2207520000&type=3).

#8.  Portland Monthly (https://www.pdxmonthly.com/eat-and-drink/2025/01/jerrys-tavern-restaurant-bar-review). Courtesy of Michael Novak/Portland Monthly magazine.

Guess Who’s Coming to…..Beerchase!!

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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 #1)

At the end of April, we were delighted to have two separate house guests. Archie, our three-year old grand-pup, visited for ten days from Seattle while his family was on a Hawaiian vacation.  

And my old consultant friend with whom I worked at the Schwabe law firm before I retired in 2011 – “West Coast” Dave Hicks – flew in from an east-coast business trip for two days before he returned home to Ventura, Ca.

In the early days of my Beerchasing hobby and over the next five years, Dave was a frequent companion as you can see from the photos below at the Double Barrel, Reel-Em Inn, the Horse Brass Pub, the Richmond Bar, Crackerjacks, Belmont Station and the Ranger Station. 

Dave has used his Princeton and University of San Diego Law School education well and is now Chief of Staff at Garnett Capital Advisors – a financial services firm specializing in managing loan portfolio sales for credit-granting institutions.

He is also known to use his experience as a Princeton Nassoon – the university’s oldest acapella group – with his identical-twin brother, to entertain at parties although he refrained from doing this at the dive bars we visited. 

We usually toasted one of my first and most memorable Beerchaser-of-the-Quarter, the late Dr. Harry Frankfurt – Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Princeton and author of the wonderful essay “On Bullshit.” (#2 – #4)

The Princeton Nassoons in 2008

Some Trepidation…?

Archie had visited and stayed overnight with us in the past, but it was always with his family – Mom and Dad and two young daughters.

Question No. 1:  “How would he react to staying with us for ten days?”

 Question No. 2: “How would he react to our male out-of-town visitor for a day and one-half?  Did he have an aversion to the Ivy League?”

Well, our concerns were short-lived.  Archie immediately went over to Dave sitting on the couch and curled up next to him and rolled over to have his stomach rubbed. Dave is a walker and the next day, he and I took Archie on a long walk on which Dave was the main leash holder.  And the pup was a prince for his entire stay with us.

Trepidation unwarranted!

Beerchasing

Dave and I had an ambitious agenda.  On the Friday afternoon, we drove the twenty-four miles to the Mount Angel Abbey to have some beers at the Benedictine Brewery and St Michael Taproom and say “hello” to Fr. Martin, the Manager and Head Brewer.

Fr. Martin stopped his work to say hello

No brewery will ever surpass my affection for this enterprise on the grounds of the Abbey in Mount Angel Oregon – one of just three owned and operated by Benedictine monks in the US.

Those who follow this blog, may recall that I was involved in the planning and development of the Brewery starting in 2016 until it opened in late 2018 including the amazing event in 2017, when over 125 monks, priests, seminarians and volunteers and members of the Mount Angel community, gathered for an “old-fashioned barn rising.” 

As shown in the videos in this post, we started with a cement slab that cloudy morning and by the end of the day, had a framed structure for the brewery and taproom.   https://thebeerchaser.com/2017/11/21/the-benedictine-brewery-beam-me-up/  (#5 – #11)

Dave and I had a great sampler of six beers and toured the beautiful Abbey Hilltop including a visit to the famous Alvar Aalto Library before returning to our home in West Linn. (#12 – #13)

Dave had invited Janet and me to dinner the next evening at the Bellpine Restuarant at the top of the Ritz Carlton Hotel in downtown Portland. While Janet spent her Saturday afternoon on a variety of activities, Dave and I drove into Portland for beers at two of my favorite downtown dive bars.

The Yamhill Pub – as I stated in the title of my 2015 blog post  https://thebeerchaser.com/2015/05/14/the-yamhill-pub-a-dive-bar-with-character-or-grunge/ the aura of this hole-in-the-wall was best described in the now defunct Portland Barfly Website (another COVID victim…)

“A genuine dive-bar lurking midst the downtown shopping arcade, the Yamhill Pub maintains an unreconstructed seediness through blaring juke, food…(and, for that matter, toilets) best avoided, actively-encouraged graffiti upon the smoke-stained walls, pennies-a-serving pitchers, and a fiercely-protective cadre of underemployed regulars (seniors, rockers, bike messengers) willing to throw themselves in front of Hummers to prevent the forces of gentrification. Intimidating for the first-time visitor, but that’s sort of the point.”

This was my fourth visit to the Yamhill, and I was happy to see that it was still in business.  As one regular commented to me in 2015, “Mark my words, this place will be gone in five years and that will be a tragedy.”  

Willamette Week reported in November 2020, that Kevin Hill, the owner, launched a $15,000 GoFundMe campaign to raise $15,000 to save the bar – evidently it worked.

But grunge is still the watchword – from the graffiti-infested walls, the bathrooms and even the entrance sign in which the name has become essentially illegible.   Look at the difference in the sign over the front door between 2015 and last month!

2015
2025

But as stated in its own Wikipedia page and as affirmed by, Neal, our friendly bartender, the Yamhill Pub, founded in 1939, still retains its legacy for draft PBR. “The bar has been recognized as the top Pabst Blue Ribbon seller in Oregon.”

Not only that, but at one time in the ’90’s they were #5 in North America!!  Before I could scoff, he pointed out this PBR sign (see below) from 2012 – Number 18 in North America in PBR sales. 

Dave and I chatted with Neal about Portland bars and watched the The Other Guys – a “buddy-action-comedy” movie with Mark Wahlberg, Will Ferrell and Michael Keaton which was streaming on the of the two small screen TVs hanging at the corners of the bar. (It seemed appropriate given the setting.)

Kelly’s Olympian – We walked around Portland some more – noting how the City was coming back from the depths but still had a way to go – and I suggested we drop into another favorite dive.  Kelly’s Olympian, which evolved even before the Yamill (in 1902 – the third oldest Portland bar in continuing operation) has class and a great theme as you will see from the pictures below and this description from their website:

“The crowning glory is the collection of a dozen vintage motorcycles hanging from the ceiling and about, each restored to perfection. One of the owners is a motorcycle enthusiast and finally found a home for his impressive motorcycle collection.

Complementing the motorcycles are other motorcycle accessories, combined with museum quality neon signs, antique gas pumps and historic photos of Portland and motorcycles.”   

If you enjoy history, read the full account in my 2015 blog post.  Even the name chronicles the legacy:

“The name was derived from the name of one of the original owners, ‘Kelly’, and the Olympia Brewing Company, which was involved in the inaugural opening so that it could sell its product, Olympia Beer. It was originally called ‘The Olympian Saloon’. The name ‘Kelly’s’ was added a few years later…..”

And part of the bar’s historic identity goes back even further.  The sections of downtown Portland – mostly in Old Town Chinatown – were known for their “Shanghai Tunnels.”  According to Wikipedia, this is really a misnomer, and an urban legend:

“They connected the basements of many hotels and taverns to the waterfront of the Willamette River. They were built to move goods from the ships docked on the Willamette to the basement storage areas, allowing businesses to avoid streetcar and train traffic on the streets when delivering their goods.”

I had seen some of these on a tour by Adam Milne, owner of Old Town Pizza and Brewing, below his establishment in Old Town (right three photos below), but behind the Kelly’s Olympian Bar is a stairway down to the basement (photo on the left).

In my 2015 first visit to the bar, Lucia, the Manager, verified that servers still descend the stairs through the trapdoor behind the bar to get ice and that’s where their kegs are also stored.

We left after Dave refused to believe my story that the 1912 Princeton Student Body President visiting Portland one summer, got drunk at Kelly’s and was last seen being shuttled to a Chinese freighter.

Bellpine at the Top of the Ritz Carlton – We headed to West Linn to pick up Janet and get into our fancier duds and then drove back into Portland where notwithstanding our offer to dine on pub food at a brewery, Dave treated us to a wonderful six-course dinner (plus dessert) at the Bellpine on the 35th floor of the Ritz.

“Led by acclaimed Executive Chef Pedro Almeida, the culinary journey features ingredients indigenous to the region and is accentuated with world-class wine selections and unique spirits crafted by the region’s master distillers.”

Although the opulent bar was sparsely occupied on a Saturday night, the restaurant was hopping and it was a wonderful meal (yes, I drank wine instead of a PBR) and a fitting farewell to Dave who flew out the next morning to his Ventura, Ca. home. (#14 – #16)

Final Note

I chuckled on the way back home about having a bit of culture shock based on our three establishments that day ending with Bellpine after Kelly’s Olympian and beginning at the Yamhill Pub.  Perhaps it was tantamount to a high-rise outhouse…..

And unfortunately, the 2019 timing of the development of the Ritz, by noted Portland developer, Walt Bowen, was disastrous. A fascinating March 2025 Willamette Week article charts the history:

“After two huge wins, he was ready to gamble again. A new project, called Block 216, would be his most ambitious ever. It would have five floors of prime office space, a Ritz-Carlton hotel, and 132 Ritz-Carlton condominiums…

That may be the most ill-timed guarantee in the history of Portland real estate. A year later, the world locked down because of COVID-19. Hotels emptied. People fled urban condos for ranch houses in the suburbs…

It appears Bowen’s dream tower will instead be a 460-foot tombstone for his career. As first reported by WW on March 5, the construction lender for Block 216 said in an earnings report that ‘ownership and serial asset disposition on the components would be the best net present value outcome for the loan.’

Translation: take the keys and sell the building in pieces.” (#17)

Well at least Kelly’s and the Yamhill will still be serving good cheap beer!

External Photo Attribution

#1. Garnet Capital Website (https://www.garnetcapital.com/aboutus/management#1)

#2. Wikimedia Commons (File:2008NassoonsHolzhaus.jpg – Wikimedia Commons) Lhttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en – Attribution:  Nassoons at English Wikipedia – 5 July 2008.

#3. Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (File:On Bullshit cover.jpeg – Wikimedia Commons) This image of simple geometry is ineligible for copyright and therefore in the public domain, because it consists entirely of information that is common property and contains no original authorship. Author: Dr. Harry Frankfurst, Princeton University Press – 2008.

#4. Wikimedia Commons (File:Harry Frankfurt at 2017 ACLS Annual Meeting.jpg – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.  Author: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN30Qk9j0bKuWF2ulC9CtVQ – 29 October 2018.

#5 – #11. Benedictine Brewery Website (https://www.benedictinebrewery.com/home-1).

#12 – #13.  Mount Angel Abbey Website (https://www.mountangelabbey.org/).

#14 – #17. Wikimedia Commons (File:Portland, Oregon, May 2024 – 54.jpg – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.  Author:  Another Believer – 19  May 2024. (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Another_Believer).