Guess Who’s Coming to…..Beerchase!!

Posted on May 15, 2025 by Thebeerchaser

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!

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).

You’re Overdue! (For a Visit to the Multnomah Whiskey Library)

Posted on January 23, 2017 by Thebeerchaser

Followers of this blog know that the title – Thebeerchaser – is a misnomer of sorts. While it mentions good lagers we taste at various watering holes, the focus is on the bars as an institution – the history, the character, the regulars and the staff. That said, of the eighty-three Portland bars, taverns and breweries visited and reviewed since August, 2011, only one – the Pope Bourbon House – has focused on hard liquor or distilled spirits.

That is until the first Beerchasing event in 2017 – the Multnomah Whiskey Library (hereafter MWL), which Beerchasing regulars, Dan Eller, Michael Jones and I visited on January 4^th (more about those two fellows below).

Eller and Jones

In the three + years since opened by owners, Greg Goodman and Alan Davis, this unique gathering place has taken Portland by a storm and received national attention. For example, Thrilllist includes it in its 2014 list of the “Twenty-one Best Whiskey Bars in America.” (“MWL ia about as close as you can get feeling like part of the 1% without going broke.”)

The MWL on its website lists forty-five links to newspaper and magazine articles ranging from the New York Times to the United Airlines Hemisphere to Travel and Leisure to Portland Monthly. (Click on the links to see the articles) An article in Paste Magazine was entitled “This May Be the Greatest Whiskey Bar in the World “ https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/07/this-might-be-the-greatest-whiskey-bar-in-the-worl.html

Inconspicuous entrance

And while the reviews (including this one) have been overwhelmingly positive, there are some who feel it is not consistent with Portland values and culture: “…..The pretentious vibe, however, was a bit much…” (Yelp 12/3/16). Most of the negative comments relate to the doorman and staff at the vestibule – they check-in every person entering the bar – it’s in an old building (formerly a piano warehouse) on SW Alder Street. You’ll have to look for a small sign above the door, overshadowed by the sign for Chizu – a sushi bar for cheese in the space next door.

There is a sound rationale for the check-in staff and procedure set forth below based on the MWL business model. Those who simply drop in can expect to wait from forty-five minutes to two hours or more (on weekends) in the Green Room – the smaller bar on the ground floor, before being ushered up to the spacious and ornate lounge above.

The Green Room downstairs

Because many don’t want to hear the hostesses’ message or resent having to wait, the recipients of their ire are the ones who convey the message. For example:

“The hostess at the front repeats an automated, pretentious, stone-cold response to stomp the hopes out of every potential patron…..” (Yelp 11/7/16)

“The waitress (in the Green Room) was standing behind the bar ignoring us. She was rude and hostile the entire time.” (Yelp 9/28/16)

“My guest and I were greeted by a pretentious lackey masquerading as a maître d’…with the ferociousness of an angry kitty, this bow-tied fella who I suspect was the victim of bullying as a child has embraced his role as a table Nazi by taking tremendous pleasure in turning people away…..” (Yelp 5/6/15)

You see, the MWL is primarily a member-based bar with 600 of Portland’s power-crowd paying the $600 annual fee which allows them unfettered access during normal operating hours and preferred reservations to special and educational events – and don’t forget a “Set of the Library’s custom tasting glassware”!?!. Although that same amount could buy you 400 Happy-hour draft PBRs at the Yamhill Pub, there are more than 600 people on the waiting list.

So maybe it was appropriate that my companions were Eller and Jones, since Dan is a tax and estate-planning lawyer at Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt and Jones is an investment counselor/financial adviser with Merrill-Lynch. Given the increased scrutiny the IRS gives to meals and entertainment expenses, Eller would be able to advise to ensure maximum deductibility and Jones could develop a financial strategy so you could experience at least most of the 1,500 different labels (a total inventory of 1,900 bottles) well into retirement.

Eller on Cycle Oregon ride

These two gents have accompanied me on two other Beerchasing events – the Oregon Public House, the Pope Bourbon House. Both fit the profile of successful young, civically- involved Portlanders the MWL would want on its roster. Eller, besides his Masters in Finance at Portland State and law degree, has an LLM (Masters in Taxation) from the University of Washington. He’s is on the board of Cycle Oregon and past chair of the Leukemia-Lymphoma Society besides being an adjunct professor at both Northwestern Law School at Lewis and Clark and Portland State in his spare time….

Jones in his favorite non-bar environment

Jones after his undergraduate degree at Marylhurst University earned his MBA, is a US Army veteran, and worked in management positions in Japan before returning to the states. He has been on the City Club of Portland Board and chairs the annual Alzheimer Walk for the Oregon Alzheimer Association. Mike is a skilled woodworker as well as an avid hunter and outdoorsman as you might deduce from this picture. Both of these gents are also great family men.

Dan made sure that our group had a “Hall Pass,” so we did not have to wait to get in. This entry fee for non-members at the MWL costs $25 per person. The fee seemed inordinate since my only other experience with a hall pass was in grade school. Then you could secure one at no cost by just raising your hand and looking at the teacher with an imploring and strained look on your face. But in both instances, it’s a great way to avoid a wait.

Antibiotic and janitorial resistant……

Upon entering, I was struck by the stark contrast with the one “grunge bar” visited on my Beerchasing journey (three times…) – the Yamhill Pub where one almost expected an inspection by the Oregon Health Division in order to get out of this bar – the toilets may be a breeding ground for hostile invasive species in all likelihood immune to antibiotics.

The stairs at the Whiskey Library lead up to a spacious dimly-lit room with what was described by one Trip Advisor reviewer as “an absolutely dazzling selection” (8/16) and the MWL website proudly asserts is “…an exhaustive collection representing all major and lesser styles of distilled spirits known to the modern world.”

There are a number of twelve-foot ladders which the staff use to retrieve many of the bottles – “organized categorically by region, ingredient and distilleries’ production practices. In short, this is a whiskey lover’s paradise.” (PDX Eater 6/4/14)

Fear of heights might be a problem when dusting the bottles

Indeed, the collection is so extensive that the new employees each take part in the ongoing cycle of “dusting” the bottles. Our server, Jason, confirmed this informing us that the dusting shifts for new employees also help them learn the names of the brands served.

The ornate framed portraits lining the walls stand out. These are “the most important people in whiskey, all done by local artists. They include Jack Daniels, Mary the Jewess (‘the first true alchemist of the Western world’), George Washington, and Shinjiro Torii (the founder of Suntory whiskey). (Munchies Magazine 5/7/15)

Portraits of Whiskey Icons

And one’s initial exposure to the stained-glass skylights, the dark wood tables and long wrap-around bar, leather chairs and over-stuffed couches, exposed brick, twenty-foot ceilings, chandeliers and the hushed efficiency of the vested and tie-wearing servers, may be responsible for multiple ethereal references:

“I feel that this is what man heaven must be like.” (Yelp 5/4/16)

“(I thought) I died and went to whiskey heaven.” (Yelp 8/24/16)

“The host checking people in…pretends to be the gatekeeper to heaven.” ( 5/29/16)

The scope of this review doesn’t provide space to amplify on the Green Room, but it also reeks of class and evidently has a nice selection of spirits. Similarly, I will not address the food served at the MWL which has been described as good and reasonably priced.

And lest you think that the sophisticated ambiance and upscale trappings mean a stuffy or staid group of patrons, there was a nice energy in both bars and the crowd was diverse in demographics as one reviewer described it:

“(The crowd was) also classy, buzzing with conversation. It feels like people here are talking about culture and worldly experiences vs. whose sports team is better or the Kardashians.” (Yelp 12/23/16) (not that the latter should be a standard…..)

Jason, our personal bartender

Jason, our bartender/server, as reflected in most of the reviews on the staff, was knowledgeable, very helpful and a nice person. Having worked there for eighteen months, he loves his job and answered our ongoing stream of questions about the bar and the selection of whiskeys as he prepared our cocktails at his rolling cart by our table.

Notwithstanding some stories about the extravagant tabs run up by some high-rollers (one rumored at $15,000 over two nights), the prices are pretty reasonable and we sampled a broad range of libations without requiring bank financing. For example, I had an Old Fashioned, their “go to” drink, while Eller had a Manhattan and Jones a Cadet (40 creek barrel select, fundador, nocino, house spirits coffee) and the round cost under $30 without tip. They also have three beers on tap as well as a number of bottled beers for those with a myopic perspective.

The Private Tasting Room

I had a friend who went there on business who told me that he shared the most expensive bottle of scotch he’d ever drunk costing $350 (bought by the other party…) and MWL’s most expensive offering is a single-malt Macallan Royal Marriage, with a price tag of $1,785 a shot. according to Munchies Magazine. You have to shell out $1,250 to procure your own “spirit locker.”

Our visit was a great experience and I don’t expect to visit another bar where the head bartender has the title of “Librarian” or “Curator” and where “Membership cards are personalized with your name laser etched into cherry wood…. making them, quite possibly, the coolest library card in the word.” (Montecristo Mag 9/30/14). My only comparable experience was in my junior year at Oregon State when NROTC midshipmen Mulvey, Riley and I sneaked a pint of Wild Turkey into the William Jasper Kerr Library to help us study for a final exam in our navigation course.

While one can sympathize to a certain extent with those who encounter an unexpected and very long wait, it’s only requires a modicum of common sense to do a little research before going to a high-profile bar of this type rather than just dropping in. A hall pass can eliminate the wait and is well worth the price. The Multnomah Whiskey Library fills a good niche in the Portland food and beverage sector.

The Multnomah Whiskey Library 1124 SW Alder Street