The Micro-Brew Revolution and the McMenamin Brothers

The first Portland micro-brewery to open was the Cartwright on SE Hawthorne, by Chuck Koury. It sold a brand of home brew called Portland Beer. The micro-brew operated from 1979 to 1982, but it was eventually closed because the beer it produced was too inconsistent.

Koury was the first to show that beer could be produced and sold on a small scale. This attracted others to the idea of micro-brewing and selling their own brand of beer. Don Younger, the Widmer brothers, and especially the McMenamin brothers took this idea and gave birth to the Oregon micro-brew revolution.

In the decades since The Cartwright, the McMenamins have established their locations as some of the finest and most original establishments for eating, drinking, taking in a movie, or staying in a room for the night.

1983 - Brothers Mike and Brian McMenamin open the Barley Mill on SE Hawthorne Blvd.

1984 - Hillsdale Brewery and Public House is opened after laws in Oregon are changed to allow beer to be brewed on the same location as it is sold, this becomes the first successful brewpub.

1987 - The first theater-pub is opened in Portland, The Mission Theater. This becomes the McMenamins' company headquarters as well.

2007 - The McMenamin brothers continue to operate 54 brew-pubs in Oregon and Washington, and are in modern times the Northwest's most well-known micro-brewers of beer and spirits.

Timid Childhood Leads to Intriguing Discoveries as an Adult in Portland

I grew up in Hillsboro, but as a child never ventured much into the city. I was about 25 when I was first taken to the Mission Theater. I saw the movie Fight Club, enjoyed a couple pints of Ruby along with some nachos, and spent much of the time before the film staring around the place wondering how many other historical buildings there might be in this town that I have yet to visit.

Over the next few years, and now back from college, I settled into the city at an apartment on King Street, and began to venture out of those streets in NW, discovering all manner of bars and dives that became for me ritual pilgrimage each weekend.

Far from being the only renovated theater of the McMenamins, The Mission still has a unique charm, but its history is much less charming, than intriguing... in its transformation from church to union hall to movie theater. I could have researched the history and wrote about it myself, but the historians from McMenamins did a much better job than I could have hoped with this piece.

Does anyone out there have any experiences worth sharing about their discoveries in Portland?

Huber's - The History Behind the Bar

Huber's was established in 1879 at the corner of First and Morrison as the Bureau Saloon. Its first proprietor was W.L. Lightner. In 1884 Frank R. Huber was hired as bartender. Mr. Huber had tended bar in Portland for many years. In 1887 Frank Huber became a partner with W.L. Lightner at the Bureau and the following year became the sole proprietor.

Jim Louie left his home in Canton, China at age 11 and landed in Portland in 1881. He found work in a bakery, then later worked at the old Peerless Saloon on Alder Street before going to work in 1891 for Frank Huber at the Bureau.

In 1895, the saloon was moved to Washington Street, the name was changed to Huber's, and it became the favorite saloon of the downtown businessman. Huber's moved to its present location, then called the Railway Exchange Building, in 1911.

With the coming of the Prohibition Era in 1920 plans were made to close the bar. But at the urging of Huber's many patrons, Jim Louie decided to convert the saloon into a restaurant. Although Huber's was primarily a restaurant, it was also a speakeasy. Manhattans were known to be served in coffee cups.

In 1979, Huber's celebrated its 100th anniversary of continuous operation. The arched stained-glass skylight, the solid Philippine mahogany paneling, and the tile floor are original fixtures from 1911.

Huber's today is third-generation owned and operated.

Most of this passage was taken directly from the Huber's website.