Willamette Week, April 5, 2023 - Volume 49, Issue 21 - "Portland Beer Guide 2023"

NEWS: Cuff Me, Daddy. P. 12

MUSIC: The Slants Get Operatic. P. 34

FILM: Peppermint Prune Cookies at Cinemagic. P. 35

What to drink at EVERY BREWERY in Portland. Yes, all 50 of them. PAGE 15

What to drink at EVERY BREWERY in Portland. Yes, all 50 of them. PAGE 15

PORTLAND GUIDE BEER

PORTLAND GUIDE BEER

Steeplejack Brewing

Page 20

THURSDAy 4.20.23

Northwest Cannabis Company is offering all-day cannabis specials, free VooDoo Donuts, swag giveaways with live glass blowing and DJ.

The music festival will take place just across the street from Northwest Cannabis Company located AT THE GARAGES featuring four bands:

PIGS ON THE WING

Pink Floyd Tribute

TRIBU2

U2 Tribute

GOLD DUST

Fleetwood Mac Tribute

COLOSO BAND Reggae

WHAT WE LEARNED FROM READING THIS WEEK’S PAPER VOL. 49, ISSUE 21

Oregon cops can’t pull you over for expired tags , but the parking patrol can still write tickets. 4

A 25-year-old woman fatally overdosed at Washington Center 9

The advocates who work with domestic-violence survivors make about $21 an hour 11

An Oregonian cannot consent to being strangled 12

Arbor Lodge residents purchased Look Long Brewing and renamed it after the neighborhood because they didn’t want it to close. 16

Second Profession Brewing owner-brewer’s other job was copy machine salesman 17 Fire on the Mountain has two locations in Denver. 19

Migration Brewing’s original location is called “The Shop,” a reference to the building’s past as a radiator repair business. 20

A Mountain IPA has elbowed its way into the middle of the coastal takes on the style. 23

Little Hop Brewing is opening a tiny house taproom 30

Skiing pirates will hit the slopes of Mount Hood this weekend. 32

Buzzed adults can now get in on the Easter egg hunt at Bella Organic Farm. 32

The Get Down serves drinks with names like If the Dove Fits 33

We have some bad news about Frank Sinatra 33

The Slants never had a dance number with Ruth Bader Ginsburg. 34

BUFFS, HEADBANDS AND SCARFS STARTING AT $5!

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ALBERTA ROSE THEATRE

Last week, WW published the results of a three-month investigation into the business dealings and political contributions at La Mota, Oregon’s second-largest chain of cannabis dispensaries (“Strange Budfellows,” March 29). The chain’s founders, Rosa Cazares and Aaron Mitchell, regularly hosted fundraisers for top Oregon Democrats. Meanwhile, federal and state officials have issued tax liens totaling $3 million against Mitchell, Cazares and La Mota companies. Cazares, Mitchell and La Mota entities have also been sued more than 30 times by parties alleging more than $1.7 million in unpaid bills. That has not stopped the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission from regularly granting more licenses to La Mota dispensaries. Here’s what our readers had to say:

ROSSHETTEL, VIA REDDIT: “I’m usually pretty meh on the quality of Portland’s journalism, but WW has been putting out some great scoops lately, hope they keep this up.”

PORTLAND LEAGUE OF PISSED OFF VOTERS, VIA TWITTER: “This is like an Oregon-grown (no pun intended) version of Sam Bankman-Fried, the crypto guy who made huge political donations while defrauding investors.”

ANDREW SNYDER, VIA FACEBOOK: “La Mota is a running joke within the cannabis community. I’m genuinely surprised they have any working relationship left with vendors at this point.”

KURTS, VIA WWEEK.COM: “I also love that the OLCC’s interim director was ‘traveling’ and couldn’t answer simple ques-

tions. Maybe the state should buy him a phone with some of that $200M they budget for the OLCC to do…what exactly?”

SERENITYWOW, VIA WWEEK.

COM: “The chair of the OLCC said, ‘I come from an era where you don’t want Big Brother involved in your personal life.’

“That’s rich coming from the head of an agency that dictates statewide prices on a legal product.”

JAYDEN, VIA WWEEK.COM:

“I’m surprised OLCC doesn’t have extensive background checks of applicants prior to granting licenses. It appears they have a thin and shadowy background in regard to sources of capital—one would think this would be a massive red flag for regulators concerned about potential organized crime involvement in legal cannabis sales, production and distribu-

Dr. Know

BY MARTY SMITH @martysmithxxx

Roughly every fourth car I see has expired tabs. Oregon plates, Washington, California—and not just recently expired; some are years behind. It wasn’t always this way. Is this law not being enforced? Am I a sucker for paying out hundreds for new tags? — Keeping Tabs

Technically, Keeping, only a few of the cars you’re seeing have expired tabs. In Oregon, California and the rest of the civilized world, we call them “tags,” as God intended. Only Washington insists on calling them “tabs,” probably at the behest of the same transportation committee that designed their fucked-up freeway exits.

Anyway, you’re not hallucinating (not about this, anyway). It’s been pretty much impossible to get pulled over for expired tags in Portland (unless you’re also talking on your cellphone and smoking a fat blunt) since way back in spring of 2020. The only thing that’s changed is the reason.

First, there was a global pandemic that required the closing of government buildings. Since no one could get to the DMV, the state

tion.

“Also, it appears they made false statements to the OLCC in regard to investors, who indicate in their response to WW they never made purported investments. Unfortunately, this being Oregon (the capital of one-party cronyism) it will most likely require an investigation by the feds to get to the bottom of the likely tomfoolery involved with this pair of transplanted Floridians (if that is truly their background).

“Kudos to WW for a nice piece of investigative journalism! I hope you stay on this story because it likely leads into some dark, shady corners.”

LAVIDAYOKEL, VIA REDDIT: “Wild. The La Mota in Eugene looks like a front; I never see anyone there. I would have never guessed it was part of the second-largest operation in the state.”

LAUREN YOSHIKO, VIA TWITTER: “Apparently anyone owed payment from La Mota ought to reach out to new Gov. Tina Kotek?”

CORRECTION

A chart in last week’s paper incorrectly stated Oregon’s annual revenue from hard liquor sales. It is $633 million, not $650 million. WW regrets the error.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR must include the author's street address and phone number for verification. Letters must be 250 or fewer words. Submit to: PO Box 10770, Portland OR, 97296 Email: mzusman@wweek.com

created a grace period of nonenforcement. By summer 2021, however, the DMV was open again (sort of) and the amnesty was set to expire at the end of the year.

Unfortunately for cops with itchy ticket fingers, summer 2021 was also when Police Chief Chuck Lovell directed officers of the Portland Police Bureau to stop pulling people over for minor violations like expired tags. This time, the reasons were limited manpower and a desire to prioritize moving violations amid rising traffic fatalities.

Of course, that was just in Portland. After the amnesty ended, you could totally get pulled over and ticketed for expired tags in, say, Oregon City. (Trust me on this.) But then, in March 2022, Gov. Kate Brown signed Senate Bill 1510. The law was mostly touted as curbing police searches, but it also forbids Oregon cops to initiate traffic stops based solely on minor infractions like expired tags. In this case, the emphasis was on limiting frivolous stops of people of color.

And that’s where the matter stands. The cops can give you a ticket for expired registration once you’ve been stopped for something else, but they can’t stop you for tags alone. Don’t get cocky, though: The parking patrol has begun picking up the slack. They’re currently writing about 1,500 expired-tags tickets a month, up from 500 a year ago. Sure, you can’t get pulled over while you’re driving. But everybody’s gotta park sometime.

Questions? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com.

KOTEK NIXES REMOTE EMPLOYEE TRAVEL

REIMBURSEMENT : On April 3, Gov. Tina Kotek ended a state policy mandating that agencies pay work-related travel expenses back to Oregon for state employees who have permanently relocated to other states. (Well over 500 state employees have done so.) WW first reported on the policy last August, although it went into effect in December 2021. Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp (R-Bend) blasted the practice last year and this year got all 29 of his Senate colleagues to co-sponsor a bill that would have ended it. Kotek took care of that instead by simply ordering the Department of Administrative Services to change the policy. The issue that Knopp and State Treasurer Tobias Read both found unfair—that the state would pay commuting costs for out-of-state but not in-state workers—will be moot as of Sept. 1, although employees may apply for exceptions. “I appreciate the governor joining us in our effort to end this unfair and wasteful policy,” Knopp said.

FORMER STAFFER SAYS LAWMAKER THREATENED TO PUSH HER OFF FALLS: The woman accusing Rep. Brian Stout (R- Columbia City) of sexual assault took the stand in a hearing March 29 to determine whether a five-year sexual abuse protective order against Stout should stay in place. The woman, a volunteer on one of Stout’s campaigns, said the two of them agreed to have an intimate relationship in 2020. According to the Columbia County Spotlight, the woman testified that Stout told her: “By the way, if you ever tell anyone about this, we will walk to Multnomah Falls and I will push you over the cliff.” On the first day of the hearing, held Jan. 13, Stout denied he had sexually abused the woman on any of five occasions she detailed in her Nov. 7 petition for the protective order, calling her accounts “flatout lies.” The hearing is scheduled to continue April 25. Stout was removed from his House committee assignments in January soon after he arrived in Salem. Nicholas Herman, Stout’s attorney, says, “Mr. Stout looks forward to being vindicated through a dismissal of the sham restraining order after the hearing is completed.”

STATEWIDE RANKED-CHOICE VOTING BILL

MOVING FORWARD: April 4 marked the second legislative deadline by which bills without sufficient support are relegated to the scrap heap. One under-the-radar bill that remains very much alive is House Bill 2004, which would change the way Oregonians vote in elections for statewide and federal offices. The bill, sponsored by the two most powerful Democrats in the House, Speaker Dan Rayfield (D-Corvallis) and Major-

ity Leader Julie Fahey (D-Eugene), would have Oregon adopt ranked-choice voting for those contests. Alaska and Maine already use rankedchoice voting in statewide races, and voters in Multnomah County and the city of Portland last year approved versions of ranked-choice voting for local races. “Ranked-choice voting leads to increased voter satisfaction and provides Oregonians with a simple, proven solution that will lead to more inclusive and equitable elections for all communities,” the Urban League of Portland’s Jennifer Parrish Taylor testified at a recent hearing.

SCHMIDT ATTACK ADS RING IN ELECTION

SEASON EARLY: A massive billboard greeting motorists descending from the Morrison Bridge into downtown Portland is notable not just for its size, but its timing: It’s the earliest negative campaign billboard in recent memory. “Portland Is a Schmidt Show!” it proclaims. Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt announced his candidacy for reelection to WW in January. Since then, he’s been the brunt of a constant stream of online attacks ads funded by People for Portland, a political action committee that spent big on moving Portland City Hall rightward in the last election cycle. The group, founded by political consultants Kevin Looper and Dan Lavey, is encouraging Portlanders to take #SchmidtShow selfies on Twitter. The billboard, which is located just two blocks from an open-air drug market surrounding the abandoned Washington Center, links Schmidt to “record crime” and “empty jail beds.” Schmidt’s office replies that stating a claim in 10-foot type doesn’t make it true. “The truth is, [the DA’s office] is prosecuting cases referred to us by law enforcement at the same rate as we did in 2018 and 2019,” writes spokeswoman Liz Merah. “This dissemination of misinformation undermines the work of the DA and discredits [the office’s employees’] dedicated work.”

OPEN APPLICATION PERIOD BEGINS FOR WW ’S GIVE!GUIDE: After raising $8.1 million for 235 local nonprofits in 2022, WW ’s Give!Guide is ready to do it all over again. Know any great nonprofits making a difference in the Portland area? Tell them it’s time to apply! The application period is now open and closes April 30. Nonprofits of all types and sizes based in Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties are eligible. Give!Guide has raised more than $56 million since its inception in 2004. It runs annually from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31. Application information is available giveguide.org/apply.

“Verselandia! is an amazing and inspiring night. Every Portlander should be enthusiastically rushing forth to be in this year’s audience.”

—Anis Mojgani, Oregon Poet Laureate and Verselandia! 2023 Host

YOUTH POETRY SLAM CHAMPIONSHIP

APRIL 27 | 7:00 P.M.

ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL

SPONSORS:

PEOPLE FOR PORTLAND BILLBOARD

LUCCAS MANFIELD

WILL YOU RUN FOR MAYOR?

No city commissioner rules out running for mayor in 2024.

In 2024, how Portland is governed will undergo a dramatic shift. Instead of five city commissioners, there will be 12. Portland will have four geographic voting districts, and three commissioners will serve in each district. They’ll be elected by ranked-choice voting. Bureaus will be overseen by a city manager, not clustered under the oversight of individual commissioners. The mayor will oversee the city manager and cast tie-breaking votes, if needed, on matters before the Portland City Council.

And though the city is a year and a half away from the shift, members of the City Council are already mulling their political options, including whether they will run again as a commissioner when their voice will go from one in five to one in 12—a considerable downgrade in power.

Another option: run for mayor.

WW asked each of the five city commissioners, including incumbent Mayor Ted Wheeler, whether they might run for mayor in 2024. None ruled it out. SOPHIE PEEL.

WE ASKED: ARE YOU THINKING OF RUNNING FOR MAYOR IN THE NEXT ELECTION? HAVE YOU RULED IT OUT?

COMMISSIONER RENE GONZALEZ (VIA STAFF): “We have no comment on this election. Commissioner Gonzalez is focused right now on his stewardship of our city’s public safety bureaus and restoring Portland’s safety and livability through a challenging and unique period in our city’s history.”

COMMISSIONER MINGUS MAPPS:

“I am not going to comment about my future electoral plans until after the May 2023 election cycle is complete.”

COMMISSIONER DAN RYAN (VIA STAFF):

“The commissioner is focused on the work of his service area of culture and livability.”

COMMISSIONER CARMEN RUBIO (VIA STAFF):

“Commissioner Rubio is focused on the urgent issues facing our city—such as the need for more affordable housing options, community safety, and making progress on climate actions to meet our carbon reduction goals. The decision the Commissioner needs to make about her political future is second to the time and energy that needs to be spent on those urgent issues—and therefore, she won’t be making a decision until later this year.”

MAYOR TED WHEELER (VIA STAFF):

“The mayor is focused on the top priorities facing the city of Portland today and will make an announcement closer to the election.”

Death on the Plaza

Who is responsible for the fentanyl overdoses around Washington Center?

The open-air fentanyl market operating at Southwest 4th Avenue and Washington Street turned deadly March 31, when a 25-year-old woman died of an overdose there.

Portland police say they administered Narcan, to no avail.

The woman was one of three people who died that day from overdoses in the blocks near Washington Center, the two vacant buildings owned by the Menashe real estate clan.

Their deaths came after signs of progress. WW reported on the blighted block last month (“Market Forces,” March 22) and, soon after, the Menashes put a forest’s worth of plywood on the two-story windows in the old KeyBank to keep people from breaking them and going in to take drugs they bought outside.

But the new barrier wasn’t enough. Dealers and users still have access to the two plazas on the south side of the buildings, where overhangs protect them from rain and hail.

“ We’ve been working in that area for months now, and it’s a vexing problem,” says police spokesman Sgt. Kevin Allen. “Officers find that they make arrests or patrol the area only to find that drug dealers move in right after we leave. We’ll continue to work to address this as best we can.”

More measures appear to be in the works. The Portland Bureau of Development Services, which handles nuisance properties, had inspected the buildings March 8 and 10 and gave the Menashes 15 days to come up with a plan for repairing windows and collecting trash and human waste.

The deadline came and went, and instead of issuing work orders and billing the Menashes, BDS stood down and left the matter with Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office, at least for now.

“

The owner is engaging with the mayor’s team,” said BDS spokesman Ken Ray. “Further abatement from BDS is on hold at the moment.”

Eric Zimmerman, an adviser to Mayor Wheeler on cleaning up downtown, says the city and the Menashes are working together toward a lasting solution.

“ The mayor’s office and the owners are talking regularly, and we feel very good about securing this building,” Zimmerman says.

On Tuesday, he said the city restricted parking around the buildings to prepare for a “surge” of deep cleaning, including pressure washing the sidewalks.

Lauren Menashe, daughter of

founder Barry Menashe, has been handling the matter. She didn’t return an email seeking comment on the latest developments.

Every week, WW examines one mysteriously vacant property in the city of Portland. Except this week, when we’re looking at the escalation of trouble at a property we previously covered. Send addresses to newstips@wweek.com.

company

ANTHONY EFFINGER.

CHASING GHOSTS: PUBLIC HAZARDS UNIT

JORDAN HUNDELT

BLIGHTED CORNER: An alcove at Washington Center.

Half Off

BY NIGEL JAQUISS njaquiss@wweek.com

The city of Portland’s Revenue Division estimates a capital gains tax on the May ballot could have sky-high administrative costs, WW has learned.

“The tax is expected to raise $12 million to $15 million per tax year,” division director Thomas Lannom wrote in a March 23 memo to county officials (the city would collect the tax on Multnomah County’s behalf). “The implementation year is estimated to cost approximately $19 million, including startup costs, with ongoing annual costs of approximately $7 million.”

Based on the midpoint of the revenue the Eviction Representation for All campaign hopes to raise—$13.5 million—the costs of administering the tax could consume more than 50% of the revenue.

That’s a lot compared to the Metro supportive housing services measure, which capped administrative costs at 5%, or even the Portland Arts Tax, which over the past decade has cost about 11.5% to administer.

If passed by county voters next month, Measure 26-238 would charge Multnomah County residents a 0.75% tax on long-term capital gains and use the money to provide support and legal representation to tenants facing eviction. (Eviction Representation for All uses the IRS definition of a long-term capital gain: the net profit from the sale of an asset such as a stock, bond, property or

business held for more than one year.) If passed, the measure would be the nation’s only local capital gains tax. It would also be retroactive to Jan. 1, 2023, which is different from the last two local, income-based taxes.

The high administrative costs, Lannom explains in his memo, stem from a variety of factors. The tax is new and has a short implementation window; it would generate a lot of filers. “The proposed capital gains tax is required to be paid by all taxpayers with a capital gain and has no lower income threshold,” Lannom tells WW. “This means tens of thousands of taxpayers who are not currently required to file a personal income tax return for Metro or Multnomah County and potentially even the state of Oregon will be required to file this return.”

Lannom projects that because of one-time startup costs of $11.4 million (in addition to operating costs of $7.9 million), the measure is likely to cost $19.3 million in its first year—far more than it’s expected to raise.

Lannom, whose agency also collects income taxes for Metro and Multnomah County, concedes that his cost estimates could be high. “It is possible that the expenses could come in substantially below budget if the risk-related contingencies are not utilized,” he writes.

Colleen Carroll of the Eviction Representation for All campaign says Lannom’s memo includes some encouraging news: It estimates only about 8% of county residents would have to pay the tax. “As we have always maintained, this tax targets a small and wealthy portion of the population to pay for a proven homelessness prevention and housing stability solution,” Carroll says.

She adds that even if Lannom’s calculations are correct, the cost of the measure would be far less than the overall cost of evictions in Multnomah County, which the campaign pegs at $83 million. “The analysis from the city,” she says, “reflects a worst-case scenario for the most expensive of the available options.”

County Commissioner Lori Stegmann says the high cost of collecting the tax should give voters pause.

“As a small-business owner and representative of east county, I know we need to use every dollar wisely,” Stegmann says. “And this measure misses the mark.”

POD VS. POD

Mayor Ted Wheeler’s plans for mass encampments inch closer to a tiny village model.

THE VISION: Last fall, Mayor Ted Wheeler announced a plan to reduce visible homelessness in Portland. He would build three, 500-capacity sanctioned encampments across the city where homeless Portlanders could pitch their tents, eat three meals a day, shower, wash clothes, and access behavioral and mental health services.

The genesis of the plan came from former mayoral aide Sam Adams. In a memo Adams sent to elected officials early last year, first reported by WW, he laid out a plan for 1,000-capacity sanctioned encampments staffed by social workers, medical professionals and unarmed Oregon National Guard “security specialists.”

At the time, elected officials scoffed at the idea, but Wheeler resurrected the plan last fall with some slight tweaks.

WHERE IT’S AT NOW: It’s been over a year since Adams first sent his plan to regional leaders. It’s shrunk to a much smaller-scale project. The mayor now envisions six encampments across the city, each with initial capacity for 100 people. And instead of tents, some residents may well sleep in tiny pods purchased by Multnomah County using funds from Gov. Tina Kotek’s $200 million homelessness package. (The Oregonian last month reported on Kotek’s reluctance to fund tents with her homelessness package. She asked instead for tiny pods.)

HOUSE BILL 2057

Lawmakers seek to crack down on wage theft in the construction trades.

Wage theft is a big issue in this state. For more than a decade, the Oregon Center for Public Policy has railed against the practice—which can include employers making people work for free, stealing their tips or forcing them to work overtime without proper pay.

The think tank found that workers filed claims with the state for $50 million in stolen wages between 2006 and 2021. The Oregon Bureau of Labor & Industries determined most of those claims to be valid, yet the center found that BOLI forced thieving employers to pay penalties in just 1% of cases.

“The fact that employers risk little when they

violate labor law exacerbates the problem of wage theft in Oregon,” OCPP concluded.

CHIEF SPONSOR: This is a committee bill, introduced by the House Business and Labor Committee at the request of the Northwest Carpenters Union.

PROBLEM IT SEEKS TO SOLVE: Although some instances of wage theft involve labor-intensive industries such as hospitality and agriculture, this bill focuses on construction contractors who exploit undocumented or otherwise vulnerable workers in trades such as carpentry, sheetrocking and painting. Crooked contractors often pay in cash to avoid documentation and withholding taxes.

The bill would hold contractors responsible for their subcontractors’ failure to pay wages to workers and would allow employees owed money to sue for up to six years after wages were due. Putting the onus on general contractors, who tend to be more established and financial-

ly substantial, proponents say, would increase workers’ chances of getting paid fairly.

WHO SUPPORTS IT: Organized labor and progressive groups.

“I encounter wage theft on a weekly basis at the job sites we visit,” testified Eric Morgan, a representative of the Northwest Carpenters Union. “Cash payments, nonpayment and misclassification of workers are some of the tactics that unfair contractors use to undermine the bidding process of contractors that play by the rules. They continue to do this knowing that all they will get, if caught, is a slap on the wrist.”

Oregon Law Center noted that construction sites rely on transient workers and complex layers of contractors. “The tiers of employment make it difficult for workers to reclaim unpaid wages because each tier is free from any liability to the next,” Oregon Law Center’s Martha Sonato testified, adding that wage theft “disproportionately impacts low-wage workers, women, people of color, and immigrant workers.”

“There is a possibility that a select number of pod shelter units and operational costs could be covered under [Kotek’s plan] if included by Multnomah County,” says Skyler Brocker-Knapp, a senior policy adviser to Wheeler. “Ultimately, the plan is developed and implemented by the county.”

DÉJÀ VU? Onlookers can’t help but notice that Wheeler’s encampments now look less like Adams’ proposal than the pod villages operated by Multnomah County since the start of the pandemic and more recently by City Hall.

The city’s pod villages—only two of the promised six villages currently house people—have fallen short of the city’s promises. City Commissioner Dan Ryan has blamed such obstacles as nailing down sites, neighborhood pushback, higher-than-expected costs, and difficulty finding nonprofits to run them.

Now, Wheeler’s encampments are looking more like the villages: Both may sport sleeping pods. The capacity of Wheeler’s camps has dwindled to 100 each. Both will provide basic sanitary services, access to behavioral health support and case management. Both will be managed by contracted nonprofits.

It’s not entirely clear what still separates the two, but Brocker-Knapp says Wheeler’s camps are an “updated” version of the safe rest villages and intend to serve higher-acuity clients than the villages. (The city has hired California nonprofit Urban Alchemy to run some of the camps. It runs similar camps in California and Texas.)

“The service model is intended to serve high-acuity individuals,” Brocker-Knapp says, “by providing intensive, personalized case management with a high [1-to-15] staffto-client ratio.” SOPHIE PEEL.

WHO OPPOSES IT: Associated General Contractors, which represents the state’s largest contractors. Several other business groups panned the bill as well. All the opponents say they condemn wage theft but question whether this is the right fix.

“House Bill 2057 does not take a targeted approach at the bad actors, or at making the workers whole,” said AGC’s Kirsten Adams. “There is nothing in the bill that would require knowledge on the general contractor’s part that the subcontractor wasn’t paying. Thus, a general contractor will be penalized for something they didn’t know about.”

Derek Sangston, a lobbyist for Oregon Business & Industry, which represents 1,600 employers, testified that the bill is redundant, noting, “There are already ways under existing law for those employees to receive the wages they are owed by those employers.”

The bill remains in the House Business and Labor Committee. NIGEL JAQUISS.

The city says admin costs of a capital gains tax could swallow about half the revenue.

A Day Late

Contracting woes at the Joint Office of Homeless Services create instability for survivors of domestic violence.

BY NIGEL JAQUISS njaquiss@wweek.com

Bri Condon recognizes it’s risky to criticize the largest source of funding for the Portland nonprofit she leads. But the executive director of Bradley Angle, the West Coast’s oldest domestic violence shelter, says she has reached a breaking point.

After reading a recent WW story about the Joint Office of Homeless Services’ continual underspending of tens of millions of dollars it gets from Metro’s supportive housing services measure (The Big Number, WW, March 22), Condon decided to go public with her frustration.

Multnomah County officials, who direct the Joint Office, had blamed the sluggish spending on a shortage of capacity in the nonprofit sector—that is, service providers that contract with the county couldn’t hire enough people to handle the work. Condon says the real issue is the Joint Office’s shaky contracting practices and its unwillingness to offer contractors realistic compensation.

She calls the county ’s claims of capacity shortage “political misdirection.”

“It’s not that they don’t have enough partners,” Condon says. “The contracts don’t provide enough support, and we can’t pay a living wage.”

Voters passed the Metro measure in 2020 in an unprecedented response to widespread homelessness. Judging from Multnomah County’s point-in-time count of people living on the streets—it showed a 30% increase in homelessness from 2019—the situation has worsened.

long-term contracts, making it difficult for Bradley Angle to provide clients with stable housing. Second, the county’s contract rate is so low Bradley Angle struggles to retain staff.

Condon’s dilemma is the result of a decision Multnomah County made as far back as 1980 to outsource some of its most crucial work to mission-driven nonprofits staffed by lower-cost nonunion employees.

In effect, the Joint Office functions as a way station for money meant to address the problem. The office provides few services directly to homeless people. Instead, it allocates funding to contractors.

Bradley Angle is one such contractor, focused on women and nonbinary people fleeing domestic violence. The nonprofit gets most of its annual budget—$3.2 million in 2022—from government sources. Condon says the Joint Office is Bradley Angle’s biggest government funder, providing about 45% of the money it gets from government sources.

But Condon says the county is failing to provide the nonprofit with reliable funding in two ways. First, the county has failed to offer

Man y county contractors subsequently unionized, but a Multnomah County spokesman concedes that low wages may be hampering the spending of dollars that taxpayers want to see hitting the streets. He says the county is studying the matter.

Condon says voters who supported the 2020 Metro measure, which will provide more than $100 million of the Joint Office’s $255 million budget this year, may be confused about why things haven’t gotten better.

“It’s not that domestic violence agencies need more staff,” she says. “I don’t want a single additional staffer we have to underpay.”

There’s a nexus between domestic violence and homelessness.

Statistics show that many of the people living on the streets fled their homes for their own safe-

MICK HANGLAND-SKILL

“This is not an organized situation.”

ty. Multnomah County’s 2022 point-in-time count of homeless residents found that 57% of the homeless women interviewed reported they were survivors of domestic violence—that’s more than double the rate among the general population. And 25% of people experiencing homelessness cited domestic violence as leading directly to their loss of housing.

Meanwhile, the pandemic intensified domestic violence. Bradley Angle served 606 survivors last year, for instance, up from 383 in 2021 and 173 in 2020. One number didn’t change: About 80% of clients were people of color. (The Joint Office budgeted $8 million for domestic violence services this year.)

Condon says two factors have made the tripling of her organization’s caseload particularly difficult to manage.

First, she says, the Joint Office told her in the first half of 2022 that rather than offer a new fiveyear contract for Bradley Angle and its dozen or so peers to bid on, the county had decided to extend the existing contract by six months. “JOHS said they couldn’t get the contracts out, so they just did a six-month rollover,” Condon says. “This is not an organized situation.”

That happened again late in the year, and Condon fears it may happen a third time.

Bradley Angle provides safe living spaces, counseling, and skill-building and other services to its clients. Some live in a building the nonprofit owns, but about 45 live in short-term rentals, paid for by direct pass-through dollars from the Joint Office.

The lack of a long-term contract makes such placements dicey— on a six-month contract, Bradley Angle can’t confidently secure yearlong leases for its clients.

“Survivors are fleeing traumatizing situations, facing barriers due to their identities, and often feeling abandoned by the system,” says Rose Ngo, Bradley Angle’s director of programs and services.

“They want a sense of stability and to be able to trust who they are working with.”

Alexxis Robinson-Woods, who until October ran Call to Safety, a 24-hour domestic violence crisis line, describes similar frustrations with the Joint Office.

“I don’t know if it was mismanagement or the turnover in directors,” says Robinson-Woods, now at the Oregon Department of Justice, “but I finally had to find other funding.”

Joint Office spokesman Denis Theriault says a “procurement issue” caused the JOHS’s contracting authority for domestic violence services to lapse, necessitating two six-month rollovers. He expects the agency to resume normal contracting July 1. “Providers will be back on JOHS’s regular five-year contract cycle,” Theriault says.

Low staff pay also contributes to instability. Bradley Angle employs about 30 people, most working in direct service to survivors. Condon says turnover is running nearly 60% a year.

“People are leaving because they can’t afford to stay,” Condon says, adding that staff departures are disruptive to survivors who form bonds with staff.

Bradley Angle pays the advocates who work with survivors about $21 an hour. They can go across town and earn $27 an hour for similar work with better benefits—working directly for Multnomah County.

Condon says Bradley Angle has seen several staff members make that move. They get their training at the nonprofit and then get a big raise from the agency that is Bradley Angle’s largest funder. She doesn’t blame the workers; she blames the county for explicitly signaling Bradley Angle’s employees are underpaid but doing nothing about it.

Theriault says the agency hears that complaint loud and clear.

“The Joint Office is currently finalizing a provider wage study that analyzes the wages of our providers across our system with this issue in mind,” he says. “The Joint Office knows that more funding is needed to ensure providers’ employees earn a living wage.”

TREADING WATER: Bradley Angle executive director Bri Condon.

Lecture Series

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY

AUTHOR OF Silent Spring Revolution:

John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and the Great Environmental Awakening

April 18, 2023 at 7pm

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

Scan to purchase tickets now!

Safe Words

The end of a police roundtable makes some Portland kinksters nervous.

BY LUCAS MANFIELD lmanfield@wweek.com

A police advisory group made up of members of Portland’s LGBTQ+ and sex work communities shut down last year after 27 years of monthly meetings. Its chair had stepped down and no one volunteered to take his place.

It was a disappointment to many, including Theresa “Darklady” Reed, who operates a dungeon in the Central Eastside.

“It’s really important to keep those lines of communication open between alternative lifestyle communities and the police force,” she tells WW

Why? Because Reed, like many people operating in the sexual entertainment business, operates in

a legal gray area. Her business, Catalyst: A Sex Positive Place, is a community space designed for BDSM play parties. (For the unfamiliar, BDSM refers to a set of erotic practices that include bondage, discipline, dominance and submission, and sadomasochism.) Catalyst relies on volunteers and is funded through Reed’s writing, door fees and monthly memberships. But not everything that happens there is strictly legal.

In Portland, which as recently as 2015 was proclaimed the kinkiest city in America by kinkuniversity. com, statutes on the books banning “sadomasochistic abuse” in live shows have been ruled unenforceable by the state’s Supreme Court. Still, aspects of BDSM are

illegal even in the privacy of one’s own home—an Oregonian cannot consent to being strangled, at least not according to a recent Oregon Court of Appeals ruling.

Reed hopes the BDSM community will soon have a voice on the city’s latest police advisory committee, the Portland Committee on Community-Engaged Policing.

Meanwhile, although there’s no evidence that police have any appetite for a crackdown, the loss of a direct line of communication still has some kink practitioners edgy.

Those who practice BDSM have long found ways to distinguish between harm and hurt. The law in many ways has not.

As sex worker Elle Stanger explains to WW, “Law experts typ-

KINKY PLAY: A recent court ruling raises legal questions about some BDSM practices.

ically don’t understand BDSM or kink, so they tend to pathologize it.”

Portland has long been a haven for the kink community. Then-Mayor Vera Katz dedicated a “Leather Pride Week” in the summer of 2002, and the city is host to KinkFest, held annually at the Portland Expo Center, which advertises one of the “largest kinky play spaces in the world.”

And Elizabeth Allen has helped

yers say amounts to the criminalization of BDSM.

A Linn County man, Sunny Stone, was convicted in 2020 for strangling a woman who was then his live-in girlfriend. Stone did not dispute that he wound a power cord around her neck until she passed out before handcuffing her to the bed. Instead, he argued, it was sexual play in a relationship where BDSM was long treated as consensual.

A jury convicted him of strangu-

A Mozart Jubilee

John Butt conducts a sparkling program of Mozart and Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. Dazzling concertos performed by PBO soloists, and a special appearance by Portland soprano Arwen Myers!

teach police how to deal with it.

“I sat down with vice cops and explained to them what BDSM is, so they no longer had a boogeyman to go after,” she says.

Allen, a Beaverton clinical sexologist, had been a member of the Alliance for Safer Communities since its founding in 1995 as a response to harassment of gay men by the cops. She calls its disbanding a major blow, and she’s worried that younger members of the community may not be aware of its importance.

“ We would make way more progress for trans people and for sex workers in Multnomah County than they’re going to make without us,” she says.

Furthermore, she thinks there’s a risk that police could return to raiding BDSM parties. “There’s definitely a risk of backsliding— those statutes are on the books,” she says.

There’s no evidence that the police are preparing such a crackdown, and the Portland Police Bureau says it won’t bother Kinkfest or similar events. “I can say with confidence that PPB does not plan to shut down any events related to Kinkfest,” says bureau spokesman Sgt. Kevin Allen. “Consensual activity of that nature is lawful, not uncommon in Portland, and we rarely get calls for service at those events.”

The reason police indulgence matters so much is because the law allows little room for some of BDSM’s common practices.

On March 22, for example, the Oregon Court of Appeals issued a ruling that criminal defense law-

lation and assault. The judge had told the jury that in cases of strangulation, “consent or nonconsent is simply not a factor.”

Stone appealed, and won a mixed verdict. Appeals Court Judge Robyn Ridler Aoyagi noted that the Legislature offered three instances in which strangulation wasn’t a crime: in medicine, dentistry and religious practices. But sexual play? Not mentioned. She threw out the assault conviction but let strangulation stand.

The conclusion of Portland criminal defense lawyer Rankin Johnson: “Under [State v.] Stone, BDSM is clearly illegal.”

Johnson noted that the decision could have far-reaching implications. “I have no idea how this is going to play out.”

This is not the first such ruling—a federal court in Virginia ruled in 2016 that there’s no constitutional right to engage in consensual BDSM, citing the need to protect vulnerable sex partners at risk of harm—although it might come as a surprise to kink-friendly Portlanders to see an Oregon court come to the same conclusion.

Stanger the sex worker has a solution: amend the laws. “There needs to be methods for people to be heard when they say, ‘I want to do this, even if it looks harmful.’”

Otherwise, she’ll go on breaking them. During a call with a WW reporter, she described being “very lightly” strangled just minutes before, in the shower by her boyfriend.

“Baby,” she teased him, “you just broke the law.”

SONGWRITING DUO CHRISTINE AND CHAD MCALLISTER CREATE A WORLD WHERE THE LISTENER IS FREE TO FEEL EVERY DAMN THING

WILD, FUZZED OUT ROLLERCOASTER RIDE OF RIFFS AND JUNGLE DRUMS WITH DOLL-LIKE VOCALS AND UNUSUAL SUBJECT MATTER THE BAND CALLS BUBBLEGUM DOOM

PORTLAND GUIDE

BEER PORTLAND GUIDE BEER

here are we drinking tonight?

In Portland, the answer is both obvious and a little overwhelming. We get to sip our beers in the same buildings where they’re brewed. And dozens of craft brewers are eager for us to visit.

Those breweries are no longer cold, industrial affairs with a couple of barrels next to the tanks. These days, you can sip on a cask-pulled ale in a century-old renovated church, crush a dry-hopped Pils while seated at a sprawling beer garden that’s basically a sudsy amusement park, or quaff a fruit-forward Flanders red inside a cozy Craftsman home that’s been repurposed as a taproom.

In short, Portlanders get to pick from a dizzying selection of breweries—inventors’ laboratories that double as the neighborhood tap.

Winstance, breweries needed some sort of taproom or pub with regular hours. And their flagship and/or production facility needed to be located within Portland proper. That means the guy running a nano out of his garage, or a business like Backwoods, which has a restaurant in the Pearl but brews in Carson, Wash., didn’t make the cut this time. We also limited our visits to one primary location when it came to brands with multiple outposts, like Breakside and Gigantic.

Let’s be real: Portland brewers could use your help. We still haven’t completely shed our COVID cocoons, which threatens most breweries’ business model: people in seats at the bar. On-premises beer sales remain below their pre-pandemic level. According to the Beer Institute, an industry trade association, draft beer’s share of the overall Oregon suds market last year was 18% below what it was in 2019.

Which means we’ve got work to do. The best work of all: having a beer.

Consider this issue a call to action to seek out a pint from the source: one of the 50 Portland breweries featured in the return of WW’s Beer Guide. It’s a guidebook, too. We hope this becomes a resource to help you navigate them all, quadrant by quadrant, or just direct you to a decent place to meet up with a friend for beers on a Saturday afternoon.

Hoist a glass and have at it.

—Andi Prewitt, Arts & Culture Editor

What

to drink

This week, WW presents the Oregon Beer Awards, a celebration of the best brewers in the state. The event, held April 6 at Revolution Hall, is the state’s only double-blind beer tasting competition, which this year had more than 1,000 entries in 30 style classes. Champions in a dozen other categories, like Best Bottle Shop and Best Beer Bar, are selected by an academy of industry professionals. You can read about the winners, following Thursday evening’s ceremony, at wweek.com/drink.

To celebrate the occasion, we decided it was time for a pub crawl. So we had an epic one: We sampled beer from all 50 craft breweries in Portland, so you know which ones to visit.

An assessment of the local craft scene has been a long time coming. Our last brewery directory hit stands in February 2020, which feels like a lifetime ago—even a foreign country.

So, in this issue, you’ll find a comprehensive list of beer producers operating within the city limits. Writers have been sipping their way through each one for weeks in order to provide you with accurate descriptions of everything from the atmosphere to which brew you should order. We’ve established a few parameters for inclusion. For

STAR RATINGS

★ Highly Recommended

★★ World Class

Our rating system for all Portland breweries in this collection is modeled after the Michelin Guide.

Stars are not awarded solely for the quality of the beer, but also for ambience, distinctiveness and overall experience.

A single star denotes a brewery is highly recommended and its beers are worth going out of the way for. Two stars indicate the experience is exceptional, which means you should not delay planning a special journey.

NORTH

Arbor Beer Lodge & Brewery

6550 N Interstate Ave., 503-286-0343, arborbeerlodge. com. 4-10 pm Tuesday, noon-10 pm Wednesday-Saturday, noon-8 pm Sunday.

IN THE NEIGHBEERHOOD | Arbor Beer Lodge is your friendly and unassuming local brewery in the most Portland of ways. Sharing a gravel parking lot with a vegan food cart right off Interstate, it’s easy to drive by, as I must have done hundreds of times. Formerly known as Look Long Brewing and Homebrew Exchange, Arbor Beer Lodge is the new name of the nano (as of summer 2022) that was purchased by a handful of neighborhood regulars who didn’t want to see the joint close when it was put up for sale in 2020. Inside, the tap list is split 50-50 between house beers and greatest hits from places like Baerlic and Double Mountain. Arbor Lodge’s brews are utilitarian but respectable—just like the space itself, which uses empty sacks of grain as decoration and not much else, save the occasional soccer scarf. The Ctrl Alt Bier is satisfyingly malty, while the nose on the Raspberry Porter made me long for June at the Portland State University Farmers Market. The locals-only theme is reinforced by the bookcase full of board games and two regular trivia nights, one of which is dedicated to Harry Potter. ALEXANDER BASEK.

DRINK THIS: The Citra Bay Pilsner is lighter than light and essential for maintaining during trivia nights.

Ex Novo Brewing

2326 N Flint Ave., 503-894-8251, exnovobrew.com. 4-9 pm

Monday-Thursday, 2-9 pm Friday, noon-9 pm Saturday, 2-9 pm Sunday.

FUTURE EX | In March, the owner of this popular Eliot neighborhood brewpub shocked the beer community by announcing he would be pulling out of Oregon to focus on Ex Novo’s operations in New Mexico. Since both the flagship location and a Beaverton spinoff are now on the market, get to one of them sooner rather than later since there’s no telling how long they’ll be around. Expect a whole gamut of beer styles that will please everyone, from hop heads, who will go for the West Coast Eliot IPA, to those in the mood for an easy drinker—Perle Haggard, a traditional German-style Pilsner, should hit the spot. Looking for something different? Order the awesomely named Cactus Wins the Lottery, a Berliner Weisse made with prickly pear that’s tart and effervescent. The original space, with its industrial accents and exposed-beam ceiling, is an inviting spot for pre- and postgaming when you have tickets to a Blazers game or Moda Center concert. But be warned: The joint fills up fast on event nights. KERRY FINSAND.

Ecliptic Brewing ★

825 N Cook St., 503-265-8002, eclipticbrewing.com. Noon-8 pm Tuesday-Wednesday and Sunday, noon-9 pm Thursday-Saturday.

SHINING STAR | It’s not easy for a brewery to stay fresh and exciting while approaching its 10th birthday, but Ecliptic Brewing remains as vital as the day it opened in 2013 at the southern edge of the Mississippi Avenue corridor. Ecliptic owner and brewmaster John Harris built his résumé crafting some of Oregon’s best-known ales and lagers for the likes of McMenamins, Deschutes Brewery, and Full Sail before opening the cosmos-inspired brewpub—and has since earned acclaim for routinely crafting creative takes on a variety of beloved styles; floral West Coast IPAs, fruity sour ales, and crisp lagers are all on tap. Collaborations with high-profile colleagues (such as Portland’s Baerlic Brewing and Bend-based Boneyard Beer), seasonal releases, and pub-only offerings keep the tap list fresh and encourage repeat visits. Enjoy your pints in the space-themed taproom (also home to an expansive patio) or at the spacious Moon Room in the Buckman neighborhood. MATT WASTRADOWSKI.

DRINK THIS: Ecliptic’s well-balanced Phaser Hazy IPA dials back the tropical notes and chewiness so common among hazys for a more fruit-forward experience bursting with vibrant citrus flavors.

DRINK THIS: If malty beers are your thing, be sure to check out the Great American Beer Festival award-winning Sons of Scotland, a Scotch-style ale that is rich and sweet.

Grains of Wrath PDX Brewery & Taproom

3901 N Williams Ave., Suite A, 503-954-3786, gowbeer. com. 2-9 pm Monday-Thursday, 2-10 pm Friday, noon-10 pm Saturday, noon-9 pm Sunday.

THRASH BAND | The heavy metal theme at Grains of Wrath’s Camas, Wash., headquarters carries on at the much smaller satellite operation in Portland. This was previously Lompoc Brewing’s Sidebar, always a dimly lit space with minimal exposure to ambient light. That general scenario works well for the heavy metal motif, which comes across nicely here. There is, of course, outside seating that patrons can enjoy during the warmer months. The beer list rotates seasonally and includes good variety. Although GOW may be best known for its award-winning IPAs, the brewery is far from a one-trick pony. Not everything on the board is brewed here; some of the beers are produced across the river. The kitchen is small, shoehorned into a former office. As such, the food selection is limited, a subset of the more sprawling menu at the Camas pub. PETE DUNLOP.

DRINK THIS: Frost Hammer is a crisp, clean helles that works well on its own or with food.

Occidental Brewing ★

6635 N Baltimore Ave., Suites 100-102, 503-719-7102, occidentalbrewing.com. 4-9 pm Wednesday-Friday, 2-9 pm Saturday, noon-7 pm Sunday.

WESTERN STAR | Working in the shadow of the St. Johns Bridge, the founders of Occidental chose to sidestep the Western IPA trend when the brewery was founded more than a decade ago. Ben and Dan Engler’s German-style beers, including the helles and Pilsner, are still easy-drinking affairs, but some of the best beers at Occidental are the ones you may not already know. The smoky Rauchbier Spezial is reminiscent, somehow, of kielbasa. The Gose is tart and sour in the gentlest way, a perfect starter beer for those wanting to dip their toe into that style. Occidental’s cavernous space is unmistakably a warehouse, but the vibes are friendly, the seating ample, and board games plentiful. The Urban German Wursthaus across the parking lot serves fortifying sausages and schnitzel should you require sustenance of the non-potato chip variety.

ALEXANDER BASEK.

DRINK THIS: Occidental’s Hefeweizen and Pilsner remain at the top of their respective games.

HILARY SANDER

THOMAS TEAL THOMAS TEAL

CHRIS NESSETH

CHRIS NESSETH

Second Profession Brewing

668 N Russell St., 503-515-8476, secondprofessionbrewing.com. Noon-9 pm MondayThursday, noon-10 pm Friday-Saturday.

RE-PROFESSION | It wasn’t so many years ago that Labrewatory operated in this high-ceilinged space in the Eliot neighborhood, but it was long gone (thanks for nothing, pandemic) when Second Profession owner-brewer Charlie Goman got the chance to move in and take over the existing infrastructure—including a 5-barrel Portland Kettle Works system—while making it his own. Goman, a former copy machine salesman who brewed at home before going pro (the inspiration behind the business’s name), first launched Second Profession in the former BTU Brasserie location on Northeast Sandy Boulevard in 2017, running both the brewery and restaurant, but backed away from the food service side of the business two years later. The North Russell Street taproom became available in 2022, and Goman moved in, holding a grand opening in October that same year. He did a bit of redecorating, which included installing a preserved moss art wall and tree branches to make the place a little more inviting. The wide range of draft beers is accompanied by a selection of tequila and mezcal. Food purveyors next door include Tamale Boy (Mexican) and Smokin Fire Fish (Hawaiian). DON SCHEIDT.

DRINK THIS: The And Fancy Things is an IPA in pale ale clothing.

StormBreaker Brewing

832 N Beech St., 971-703-4516, stormbreakerbrewing. com. 11 am-9 pm Sunday-Monday, 11 am-10 pm TuesdayThursday, 11 am-11 pm Friday-Saturday. 8409 N Lombard St., 971-255-1481. 11 am-10 pm daily.

IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY | Portland loves its patios; across the city, brewpub picnic tables fill to capacity as soon as temperatures first reach 60 degrees each spring—and more or less remain bustling until autumn’s first heavy rains in October. Lucky for us, StormBreaker boasts two of the city’s liveliest patios—and both are open year round; the brewery’s first location offers covered seating and a crackling fire pit alongside North Mississippi Avenue, while its spinoff in St. Johns welcomes imbibers with covered, heated picnic tables and a colorful mural that depicts the neighborhood’s iconic bridge. No matter the weather, it all pairs well with a rotating lineup of excellent ales and lagers that run the gamut of styles—barrel-aged beers, West Coast IPAs, winter ales, stouts, brown ales, sours and more. MATT WASTRADOWSKI.

DRINK THIS: Sunny-day patio hangs call for crisp, sessionable beers—essentially StormBreaker’s Total ReKölsch German lager. Faint citrus notes give way to a pleasant mix of grassy and biscuity flavors, with subtle hints of bitterness on the back end.

Upright Brewing ★★

240 N Broadway, 503-914-5130, uprightbrewing.com. 3-9 pm Monday-Friday, 1-9 pm Saturday-Sunday.

GEM, UNHIDDEN | By moving its taproom to the ground floor of the Leftbank Annex in 2021, Upright addressed the issue of accessibility. Since it opened in 2009, the brewery was somewhat underappreciated because its tiny taproom, located next to the brewery in the basement of the same building, was difficult to find. The move upstairs remedied that. Taproom hours also expanded, providing everyday access to one of Oregon’s best breweries. The accessibility theme popped up again in 2023, when a long-awaited satellite taproom opened in the Cully neighborhood on Northeast Prescott Street. Both locations lean on a jazz motif, and a local history angle is amplified at the Leftbank space. Naturally, the beers are excellent. Owner Alex Ganum is the maestro of farmhouse ales and barrel-aged specialty beers. With the expanded footprint and improved access, there has been a modest shift toward more traditional styles. An example is Money Avenue, a hazy IPA that packs a tropical punch. PETE DUNLOP.

DRINK THIS: Spellbinder Pils is light and quaffable, yet full of flavor. It will be a standard at the Cully location.

WILL CORWIN

Mt Angel Oktoberfest

invites you to two events in 2023

May 19, 20, 21

Mt Angel Festhalle (aka - the Biergarten)

Taste beers from over a dozen local brewers

September 15, 16, 17, 18

In the ‘gartens’ and streets of Mt Angel

German biers and local crafts poured in 5 venues

Entertainment on 5 stages Oktoberfest.org

Food trucks Oktoberfest.org

Culmination Brewing ★

2117 NE Oregon St., 971-254-9114, culminationbrewing. com. 3-8 pm Monday, 3-9 pm Tuesday-Thursday, noon-9 pm Saturday, noon-8 pm Sunday.

BLACKBIRD, FLY | The first time my lips touched a snifter of 4&20, I suspected Culmination would ascend to the upper echelon of Portland breweries. I’ll admit, the circumstances may have caused me to fall harder and faster for a beer than I would these days. The date: New Year’s Eve 2014. The scene: a semi-secret industry party at a yet-to-open Culmination, where the only furniture was a bar frame and a couple of folding camp chairs. As the wide-eyed editor-in-chief of a scrappy beer magazine still learning about the industry, it was easy to get swept up in moments that felt exclusive and brews that tasted novel. But my instincts were correct. Culmination, its founder Tomas Sluiter, and his deep bench of young talent have all gone on to earn numerous accolades, and the tap list still features 4&20, an imperial black IPA that opens as a stout with roasty-cocoa notes before blooming into a bold IPA. But don’t stick to the tried and true. Do your palate a favor and order something that sounds wacky. For instance, the pineapple-cherry dessert sour during my visit seemed a questionable-at-best concoction, but it tasted as lovely as a freshly baked birthday cake. ANDI PREWITT.

DRINK THIS: Don’t overlook another classic, Phaedrus IPA, a beer that tastes as though it’s been infused with the boughs from an entire Christmas tree farm. But while it’s on, order that Last Bite: Pineapple Upside Down. It’s liquefied Funfetti.

Fire on the Mountain Buffalo Wings

3443 NE 57th Ave., 503-894-8973, portlandwings.com.

11 am-9 pm Sunday-Thursday, 11 am-10 pm FridaySaturday.

FIRED UP | Wings and beer, name a better combo. It has certainly proved a winning recipe for Fire on the Mountain, the wing joint that opened in Portland in 2005 and later became a brewery with its addition of a Northeast outpost in 2011. The chain has proven so successful for owners Sara Sawicki and Jordan Busch they expanded by opening a second restaurant in Denver a few years ago and are in the process of launching Bend’s first FOTM. On a recent Sunday afternoon, the Fremont brewery had a line out the door as families split generous baskets of wings and friends chatted over beers as they watched the game. Soft classic rock played on the speakers. Seats weren’t hard to find—there’s a covered patio out back. The bar, framed by a large window that looks into the gleaming brewery next door, has 10 taps total. You can’t go wrong.

LUCAS MANFIELD.

DRINK THIS: Give yourself a jolt with the Vanilla Bourbon Coffee Stout. It’s brewed with local beans from Spella Caffè Espresso Roasters.

Great Notion Brewing ★

2204 NE Alberta St., Suite 101, 503-548-4491, greatnotion.com. 11 am-9 pm Monday-Thursday, 11 am10 pm Friday, 9 am-10 pm Saturday, 9 am-9 pm Sunday.

BERRY GOOD | In seven short years, the Great Notion team has branched out from the original Alberta Street location to

destinations near (Cedar Mill) and far (Seattle), which is practically a miracle if you think about their humble beginnings as homebrewers who took over the moldering Mash Tun space. Great Notion is best known for its hazy IPAs, and with good reason. Brews like Juice Jr. are easy to drink, with lots of citrus on the nose, ideal for sitting in the bustling original Alberta location while waiting for food from the built-in Matt’s BBQ Tacos. Anyone who considers themselves a part of the berry brigade will find plenty of fruit-flavored beers to call their jam—just look for anything named after a breakfast food—though I preferred the Double Gold Digger IPA, which drinks like a Pilsner but punches like an IPA. ALEXANDER BASEK.

DRINK THIS: The Riesling Radler is proof that it’s OK to mix grape and grain after all.

to wonder if there really is a beer garden out there. But, sure enough, it appears: a sprawling brew amusement park with lots of space for kids and dogs to frolic and a delightful high-ceilinged greenhouse that’s somehow both warm and airy. This is Level 1, the original of three video game-themed Portland outlets created by Geoffrey Phillips, Jason Barbee and Shane Watterson, a trio of highly pedigreed beer geeks (Barbee holds a degree in biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology). We tasted through almost the entire menu, which ranged in style and alcohol content, from Let’s Play—a lovely dry-hopped Pilsner (5% ABV) that you could safely drink after a midday run to Costco—to Fatality ’22, a barrel-aged imperial stout (11.5% ABV). Almost all of the beers were delightful, and most were low alcohol, like Sweep the Leg, a rice lager that’s like a Sapporo with more character, and I Am Gruit!, made with yarrow, dandelion and olive leaves, and aged in gin barrels. (“Gruit” is a thing in ancient beer. Look it up.) ANTHONY EFFINGER.

DRINK THIS: Really tough call, but we’re going with Skyward Strike, a hazy pale ale that we could drink all afternoon in this oasis amid industry.

Laurelwood Brewing

5115 NE Sandy Blvd., 503-282-0622, laurelwoodbrewing. com. 11 am-9 pm Sunday-Tuesday, 11 am-10 pm Wednesday-Saturday.

WORKHORSE | Laurelwood, like Portland, has seen its ups and downs. The brewery was opened by Mike De Kalb and his wife, Cathy Woo-De Kalb, in the Hollywood District (where Pono Brewing now operates) in 2001, and expanded over the next decade to Sellwood, Northwest and Portland International Airport. But rising rents and market saturation took a toll on the chain, and now the Sandy Boulevard location is all that remains. It was quiet there on a recent Sunday. Well, except for the occasional thud from Celtic Axe Throwers next door, which occasionally drowned out the Eric Clapton being pumped in from the speakers. Laurelwood may have seen better—or at least bigger—days, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Sure, the trophy case on the wall hasn’t been updated in years. But the beer list is interesting. And, after a few drinks, your friend’s rambling story about their latest workplace drama might be too. LUCAS MANFIELD.

DRINK THIS: The Workhorse IPA has long been the crowd favorite. Mix it up, if you’re so inclined, with the Pantry Punch, which adds even more fruitiness to the style.

McMenamins Kennedy School

5736 NE 33rd Ave., 503-249-3983, mcmenamins.com/ kennedy-school.com. Courtyard Restaurant: 7 am-11 pm Sunday-Wednesday, 7 am-midnight Thursday-Saturday. Boiler Room: 5 pm-midnight Monday-Thursday, 4 pm-1 am Friday, noon-1 am Saturday, noon-midnight Sunday.

STALWART | Even after a quarter century, McMenamins Kennedy School can still surprise. One rainy Sunday in spring, the Courtyard Restaurant had a 25-minute wait, so we went over to the Boiler Room bar, which might be the epitome of McMenamins whimsy thanks to its steampunk tangle of welded pipes and pumps in the balcony. Though less striking than the décor, McMenanamins’ brews are still solid. There’s a reason it still makes Hammerhead and Ruby ales: They’re delicious. Add in newer offerings like Moonbeams & Pixie Dust IPA and The Dinosaur Stout, and there’s something for everyone. The Kennedy School Kölsch is best in class. The only thing that might have improved our afternoon amid all the bent metal in the Boiler Room is a museum dose of psychedelic mushrooms. The place is made for them. ANTHONY EFFINGER.

DRINK THIS: Hammerhead Ale. The dream of the ’90s is alive in this beer.

Migration Brewing Glisan Pub

2828 NE Glisan St., 503-206-5221, migrationbrewing. com. Noon-8 pm Sunday-Thursday, noon-10 pm FridaySaturday.

Level Beer ★

5211 NE 148th Ave., 503-714-1222, levelbeer.com. 11 am-9 pm Sunday-Thursday, 11 am-10 pm Friday-Saturday.

LEVELING UP | Driving north on 148th Avenue past Quality Diesel Parts and Summit Trailer Manufacturing, you begin

TALKING SHOP | Migration’s original pub sits on a bustling stretch of Glisan that some of Portland’s most beloved dining and drinking establishments also call home. Since 2010, the brewery has welcomed a mix of families, neighborhood dwellers, beer nerds and out-of-towners to its taproom and picnic table-lined patio that is unsurprisingly packed on warm summer days. Though Migration has expanded quite a bit, with its massive Gresham production facility and the more sterile space on North Williams Avenue, the Glisan pub has maintained that small, indie

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HENRY CROMETT

NASHCO

AUDREY GIGANDET

MICK HANGLAND-SKILL

NORTHEAST

feel, with its no-frills décor, wood trim and pub fare. Besides the patio, the main draw is Migration’s smaller-batch beers produced on the 7-barrel production system inside what’s also known as “The Shop”—a nod to the building’s past as a radiator repair place. Sure, you can sip staples like Straight Outta Portland IPA and Proper Pilsner, but there are more adventurous offerings to enjoy, like a maple barleywine or a nitro imperial Mexican chocolate stout. The easygoing vibe, impressive tap list and consistency are what have kept us coming back to Migration for more than a decade. NEIL FERGUSON.

DRINK THIS: Salty Mule Gose would be a fairly straightforward take on the underrated style were it not for the pleasing addition of fresh hibiscus, lime and ginger. Hovering around 4% ABV, this is the ultimate summer sipper.

Mutantis Brewery & Bottle Shop

6719 NE 18th Ave., 503-558-4555, mutantis.beer. 3-9 pm Wednesday-Friday, 1-9 pm Saturday, 2-8 pm Sunday.

LOSIN’ THE GLUTEN | Located just east of the Dekum Triangle in the former Hi-Wheel Fizzy Wine space, Mutantis offers a wide range of gluten-free beer styles on tap as well as in bottles and cans. Malted rice, buckwheat and millet are the primary brewing grains (others are used when appropriate) for everything from sours to IPAs to saisons. The airy, well-lit taproom exudes a friendly neighborhood vibe, and the bartenders are patient and knowledgeable. Food from the neighboring Tamale Boy and Ranch Pizza outlets pairs well with Mutantis’ brews, and Tamale Boy does have some gluten-free menu items, but be warned there’s no fully gluten-free kitchen on the premises. DON SCHEIDT.

DRINK THIS: The Mexican Amber Lager is an easy choice, but Mutantis is all about experimentation and variety.

the beers here are boring or self-serious. The Candy Cap Mushroom Ale delivers a crisp punch of umami, while the Council Crest Cucumber Lager is more refreshing than sour or gimmicky. Old Town’s Horchata Stout is polarizing: One friend loved it, while I found it akin to drinking a Yankee Candle. The tavern-style pizzas are a nice asset and make the airy Northeast Portland location kid-friendly. ALEXANDER BASEK.

DRINK THIS: The Mushroom Candy Cap Ale is Old Town’s best and facilitates “fun guy” puns.

Pono Brewing

1728 NE 40th Ave., 503-432-8143, ponobrewing.com. 11 am-10 pm daily.

GOOD VIBES ONLY | The proverbial water is always warm at the South Pacific-inspired Pono Brewing, where easy-drinking and fruit-inspired beers dominate the airy brewpub’s approachable tap list. Pineapple Express, the house Kölsch, is brewed with its namesake fruit—while a saison (measuring just 4.7% ABV) features strong peach flavors for a sweeter than usual pour. The rest of the offerings include a mellow West Coast IPA and a globetrotting lineup of lagers; Italian, German, and Mexican styles were all accounted for on a recent visit. (Ten or so guest taps spotlight regional breweries as well.) You’ll find a few pub standards on the food menu, but Hawaiian and Filipino influences promise an invigorating dining experience; highlights include Korean fried chicken, lumpia, poke and grilled chicken teriyaki. MATT WASTRADOWSKI.

DRINK THIS: Aloha Mr. Hand distills Pono Brewing’s essence into one gloriously drinkable beer: Sure, it’s a light-bodied lager with all the bready notes of a German-style Pilsner—but the beer is also bursting with citrus and floral flavors that offset a slightly bitter backend.

Steeplejack Brewing ★

2400 NE Broadway, 503-206-8880, steeplejackbeer.com. 9 am-10 pm

Monday-Saturday, 9 am-9 pm Sunday.

TAKE ME TO CHURCH | Simply walking into Steeplejack feels like a soul-saving experience. The converted Metropolitan Community Church is probably the most visually stunning brewery in town, with soaring walnut brown beams, a bar top made from a salvaged 250-year-old white oak, and a massive stained-glass window above the tanks. During the right time of day, the translucent artwork bathes the space in blue-green light, as if the sun itself were blessing this beer. Steeplejack, which refers to the person who maintains those pinnacles, is on its own ascent. The company has already grown by two locations since opening in 2021. Despite the fast expansion, the quality of the beer remains impeccable. The crackery Adeena Domestic Lager offers subtle lemon notes, and you could easily throw back several in one afternoon without any head-spinning consequences. And the Amelia Grodziskie is just flat-out fun. The combination of applewood smoke and effervescence was like popping a bottle of bacon Champagne. Be sure to check out what’s on cask. During my visit, it was Eversommer, a pillowy golden English pale dry hopped with Mt. Hoods and Amarillos. It was a truly divine experience. ANDI PREWITT.

DRINK THIS: Anything from the beer engines or the Tepache, a fizzy table beer with notes of cinnamon and nutmeg that say “winter,” but the pineapple could easily carry it into the warmer months.

Old Town Brewing ★

5201 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 503-200-5988, otbrewing.com. 4-9 pm Sunday-Thursday, 3-9 pm Friday, noon-9 pm Saturday.

HOT TIME | New brewmaster Todd Britt hasn’t messed with success at Old Town Brewing since he took over the role in 2022. OTB still makes a textbook version of a hazy: flagship Pillowfist IPA. Of the rotating taps, the Alberta Street Ale, a dry-hopped English-style summer ale, is an all-day drinker. That’s not to say

Von Ebert Brewing Glendoveer ★★

14021 NE Glisan St., 503-878-8708, vonebertbrewing.com. 131 NW 13th Ave., 503820-7721, 11:30 am-9 pm daily.

TEE UP | Von Ebert has been on an aggressive growth trajectory since it opened in the former Fat Head’s space in Northwest Portland. That was early 2018. Later that year, Von Ebert expanded into the former RingSide location next to Glendoveer Golf Course on Portland’s eastside. The place was welcomed warmly by golfers, as well as the surrounding neighborhood, when it opened. It’s a beehive during much of the year,

occasionally swamped during the summer. The food menus at both spots feature traditional pub fare. While the original location serves as the primary production space, the smaller Glendoveer brewery focuses mostly on small-batch and specialty beers. When owner Tom Cook says his goal is for Von Ebert to be a world-class brewery, he’s serious. The beer list is extensive, and there are plenty of excellent choices at any given time.

PETE DUNLOP.

DRINK THIS: There are many fine beers here, but Volatile Substance is one of the best IPAs anywhere. It’s hard to turn down.

WESLEY LAPOINTE

HAPPY HOUR!

3-5PM EVERY DAY

$2 off draft beer and cider, wines by the glass, and signature cocktails.

10 Barrel Brewing ★

1411 NW Flanders St., 503-224-1700, 10barrel.com/pub/portland-brewery. 11 am-10 pm Sunday-Thursday, 11 am-11 pm Friday-Saturday.

HI, DESERT | Bend-founded 10 Barrel has made inroads into every grocery fridge you frequent, rendering its flagship lager, Pub Beer, regionally ubiquitous. So it’s something of a revelation to discover how many other brews it produces, like Nature Calls, which 10 Barrel says splits the difference between a West Coast IPA and an East Coast IPA as a “Mountain IPA.” That’s cute, but what might be more relevant is that it’s the smoothest ale I can recall drinking in Portland, with a tempered hop profile that makes drinking it more like a stroll through a juicy orchard than an endurance test of bitterness. That’s a Bend product, but on my visit, more than a third of the 19 beers on tap were brewed on the premises by Madeleine McCarthy— including a floral, piney pale ale called In Bloom that’s noteworthy because proceeds go to Rose Haven, the women’s day shelter on the other end of Flanders Crossing. Look, the Pearl pub has the atmosphere of a gift shop, but as tourist destinations go, this one lives up to the hype. AARON MESH.

DRINK THIS: McCarthy brews a dry stout called An Illusion, Michael (an excellent Arrested Development reference) that’s startlingly light and airy.

Deschutes Brewery Portland Public House

210 NW 11th Ave., 503-296-4906, deschutesbrewery.com.

11:30 am-9 pm Monday-Thursday, 11:30 am-10 pm Friday, 11 am-10 pm Saturday, 11 am-9 pm Sunday.

Breakside Brewery – NW Slabtown ★★ 1570 NW 22nd Ave., 503-444-7597, breakside.com. Noon-9 pm Sunday-Thursday, noon-10 pm Friday-Saturday.

WINNING STREAK | Breakside built a stellar reputation long before the Slabtown brewery and pub opened in 2017. The beers had won numerous medals in local, state and national competitions. Slabtown was, and is, a nice complement to the original Northeast Dekum Street brewpub. It’s significantly larger and more open. Natural light filters in and bathes the pub during daytime hours. But the real genius of Slabtown is that it put Breakside smack dab in the middle of a vibrant, high-density Portland neighborhood. Patrons can experience Breakside’s beer and food without making the trip to Dekum. The food is top-notch pub fare. The beers run the gamut of styles. Although the board was dominated by IPAs on a recent visit, Breakside brewers possess the chops to produce quality beers of any kind. The helles seems a likely favorite when warm weather returns, but there’s nothing disappointing here. PETE DUNLOP.

DRINK THIS: Thriving Metropolis, a West Coast IPA bursting with tropical aroma and flavor, was an instant favorite.

OLD SCHOOL | With the disappearance of peers such as BridgePort, Portland Brewing and Hair of the Dog and the 2019 closure (pre-pandemic!) of Widmer Gasthaus, the opportunities to drink early-stage Oregon beers are dwindling. Be thankful then, for Bend-based Deschutes’ Pearl District taproom. The company started brewing in Bend in 1988 and opened its Portland location in 2008 in a 10,000-square-foot space formerly home to an auto repair shop. In those days, Deschutes was by far the state’s largest craft beer brewer. Since then, others like Ninkasi and Hop Valley have caught up, but the consistently high quality that made Deschutes’ Mirror Pond Pale Ale and its Black Butte Porter industry icons has never wavered. The beer has always been great, but what makes Deschutes’ Portland location stand out from other beer halls is the food. Thanks to executive chef Jill Ramseier, should you desire, you can skip the standards— burgers and pretzels—and hit more ambitious offerings like the radicchio-bacon salad or the wild Alaskan coho with spätzle and mushrooms that can compete with the neighborhood’s best. NIGEL JAQUISS.

DRINK THIS: The Mirror Pond Pale remains the standard by which all others are judged.

Kells Brewery

210 NW 21st Ave., 503-719-7175, kellsbrewpub.com. Noon–9 pm Monday, noon-10 pm Tuesday-Wednesday, noon-11 pm Thursday, noon-1 am Friday, 11 am-1 am Saturday, 11 am-9 pm Sunday.

SLÁINTE | Kells, which opened downtown in the ’90s, is arguably a Portland landmark at this point, best known for its raucous St. Patty’s Day festivities that expanded to two weekends this year and included everything from a boxing match to a beer garden

that took over a good swath of Waterfront Park. The younger Northwest Portland brewpub—launched in 2012 by the Kells founders’ son, Garrett McAleese—hasn’t quite earned the same hard-partying reputation, but it’s getting there. There’s live music on Friday and Saturday nights and sometimes a crowd that brings with it college frat vibes. Arrive before the evening rush and snag one of the wood-panel booths with sliding doors and stained-glass windows, the best place to enjoy one of Kells’ classic brews, like the Irish Stout. SOPHIE PEEL.

DRINK THIS: The Kells Pilsner. It’s everything you’d want: crisp and refreshing.

Lucky Labrador Beer Hall

1945 NW Quimby St., 503-517-4352, luckylab.com. 4-9:30 pm Monday-Thursday, noon-10 pm Friday-Saturday, noon-9 pm Sunday.

DOG DAY AFTERNOON | If you’re looking for an easy Sunday filled with reliable beers, moderately priced pizza and sandwiches, and a little library of board games, Lucky Labrador Beer Hall is the place. The company may have closed its underperforming North Killingsworth Street pub in December 2022, but its three other locations are testament to the nearly 30-year-old brand’s ability to survive. The owners maintained the open layout of the former Freightliner warehouse when they launched the Quimby Beer Hall in 2006, and even kept some of the equipment, like a 5-ton crane. That means there are plenty of hard surfaces for noise to bounce off of, so you’ll always hear the buzz of other patrons, even if you’re sipping a brew alone. Its rotating beers are traditional, so you won’t find anything coming out of left field. That’s the beauty of the remaining trio of Lucky Labs, consistency. Bonus: You can still snag ginormous cups of coffee from the Quimby Beer Hall at 4 pm. SOPHIE PEEL.

DRINK THIS: The PDX Punch is a fruity, hazy pale ale that’s easy to sip and doesn’t leave you feeling heavy.

13th Moon Brouwerij at 13th Moon Gravity Well

4513 SE 41st Ave., 13thmoongravitywell.com. 4-11:13 pm Tuesday-Thursday, 3 pm-close Friday-Sunday.

ONCE IN A BLUE MOON | Not much has changed here since we featured this taphouse in our Beer Guide in 2022. The quiet, cozy space is like a Dutch brown cafe with an eclectic draft selection, subdued lighting and a neighborhood-hangout vibe. The very tiny 13th Moon house brewery—owner Ari Moss is fond of Dutch culture, hence the name “Brouwerij”—had just a couple of its own beers on tap during a late-winter visit as well as others from small operations like Labyrinth Forge and Cooper Mountain. Moss has also collaborated with Sellwood’s Unicorn Brewing and Tigard’s Cooper Mountain Ale Works. That means there’s always something interesting on the menu, which also features mead, sake, wine and cider. There’s live music three nights a week and a taco truck out back, providing solid sustenance to go with your drinks.

DON SCHEIDT.

DRINK THIS: 13th Moon Brouwerij’s 13th Mountain Scottish Ale No. 2 is a malt bomb, as is right and proper for the style.

from Nancy Meyers, not a traditional British boozer. Some of that olde English pub ambience could be found in Away Days’ sister location, The Toffee Club, before it closed in late 2022. But the remaining tiny taproom does show soccer matches on its pair of TVs, which were switched off during a recent visit even though the NCAA basketball tournament was underway. Must’ve not been any soccer on. There are other signs that this is a footy-focused joint—a map of European clubs on the wall, Away Days-branded scarves, and beers with names like “Post Match Pilsner,” a crisp and crackery drink whose flavor dissolves quickly, keeping you coming back for more. For customers who work up an appetite “oohing” and then forcefully sighing after every near goal, food can be ordered from a nearby collection of carts. But Away Days is in the process of opening a restaurant and production facility in Troutdale’s long-vacant City Hall, finally giving McMenamins Edgefield some competition. ANDI PREWITT.

DRINK THIS: Always order something from one of the casks, like the Great British Pale Ale, which has the alluring aroma of the grain-mashing process and the toasted flavor of Grape Nuts.

Baerlic Brewing ★

2239 SE 11th Ave., 503-477-9418, baerlicbrewing.com. 11 am-10 pm daily.

Cascade Brewing Barrel House

939 SE Belmont St., 503-265-8603, cascadebrewing. com. 4-10 pm Wednesday-Thursday, noon-10 pm FridaySaturday, noon-8 pm Sunday.

Assembly Brewing

6112 SE Foster Road, 971-888-5973, assemblybrewingco. com. 11 am-10 pm daily.

MOTOR CITY | Assembly opened in March 2019 in an area that is underserved. It’s the brainchild of George Johnson, a transplant from Detroit, and partner Adam Dixon. Johnson, one of the few Black brewers anywhere, was a homebrewer who ascended to the pro ranks. Dixon is a friend who liked Johnson’s homebrews and thought they should go into business together. Assembly operates as a beer hall, pizzeria and night spot rolled into one. No minors are allowed at any time. The spacious seating area, filled with ambient light during the day, is flanked by a stunning mural based on Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry frescoes that depicts people at work in a brewery and pub. Johnson’s beers are designed to complement the Detroit-style pizza, which is delicious. It features a thick crust made from a proprietary dough recipe that was developed alongside the late Shawn Randazzo, a world-renowned pizza chef. In fact, one might easily regard Assembly as a pizza destination that has its own line of housemade beers. PETE DUNLOP.

DRINK THIS: The Kölsch is a perfect match for the amazing pizza.

Away Days Brewing

1516 SE 10th Ave., 503-206-4735, awaydaysbrewing.com. 4-8 pm Thursday-Friday, noon-8 pm Saturday, noon-6 pm Sunday.

GOOOOOAL! | Away Days doesn’t look like a soccer bar. With its glazed subway tile backsplash, pastel stools and kitchen island-style tables, the brewery appears to be taking design tips

NEW SLANG | Ah, the glory days of New Portland, before everything went to shit: bike messengers eating pizza slices on the sidewalk outside an airy, wood-paneled beer hall with nearly two dozen handles and a turntable booth. Wait, it opened in fall of 2020? Spike the obituaries: The dream of the Tens is alive at Baerlic Brewing’s “indoor beer garden,” located in a space that for most of the Portlandia decade held a dank cavern of a sports bar called Blitz Ladd. During that time, Ben Parsons and Richard Hall were brewing Baerlic suds in a basement. These days, the beer is made at their flagship right next door to the newer “Piehall,” which features a Ranch pizza window, wood-burning fireplace, retro arcade, and vinyl shop with a DJ spinning The Weakerthans. The tap list is intimidatingly long but disarmingly quirky, including a Golden Girls Golden Ale that would have Blanche Devereaux making a joke about how it “goes down easy,” and a light, peppy pre-Prohibition-style lager called “Dad Beer.” Given how many bescarved papas arrive with a flock in tow to watch the Timbers match, that feels right. AARON MESH.

DRINK THIS: Down Low is a dark lager with a candy shop malt flavor without being cloying.

Brewery 26

818 SE Ankeny St., 971-254-8488, brewery26.com. 4-9 pm Tuesday-Wednesday, noon-9 pm Thursday, noon-10 pm Friday, 11 am-10 pm Saturday, noon-7 pm Sunday.

PIT STOP | Despite the conflicting name and physical address, this 2017 garage-nano startup didn’t get lost on its way to finding Highway 26. The brewery used to be situated on Southeast Powell Boulevard—the name typically associated with the stretch of 26 from the Ross Island Bridge to Gresham—but moved to a quiet corner behind the Jupiter Original Hotel in late 2021. That doesn’t mean Brewery 26 has abandoned its epic Oregon road trip branding, which includes a large wood-grain map depicting the route’s Dow Jones-like downward trajectory across the state. Like the coast-to-stateline drive on 26, there were high points and just a few bumps in the road. The Oregon Sun New England IPA was, oddly, neither hazy nor juicy—though it tasted like a perfectly fine West Coast take on the style, and despite the raspberry blonde’s musty funk, the coral-colored ale offered a tasty squeeze of fruit. Overall, Brewery 26 is worth visiting during those times when you yearn for craft’s earlier era and its simple yet functional taprooms that share square footage with the fermenters. ANDI PREWITT.

DRINK THIS: Local drinkers who miss Portland Beer Week’s Rye Beer Fest should head here for the Banjo in the Rye Pale Ale just to embrace the swirl of nuttiness and anise like a long-lost friend.

SOUR POWER | The Cascade story dates to the early days of craft brewing in Oregon. Founder Art Larrance was one of three partners who started Portland Brewing in 1986. Larrance launched Cascade Brewing after he was forced out at Portland Brewing in 1994. A decade later, Cascade landed on a formula for making sour beers that leans on Oregon fruit and lactobacillus fermentation. The beers soon won numerous accolades and put Cascade on the world beer map. That led to the 2010 opening of the Barrel House, which became a magnet for fans of sour beers. Although Larrance sold Cascade in 2020, the Barrel House carries on much as it always has. It offers a wide range of rotating sour beers, as well as a smaller selection of traditional styles, on draft. Bottles and cans are also available. The food menu has always been limited and eclectic, and that continues to be the case. PETE DUNLOP.

DRINK THIS: Sour fans will enjoy Kentucky Peach and Sang Noir, moderately tart sours with loads of fruit character.

Fracture Brewing

1015 SE Stark St., fracturebrewingpdx.com. 4-10 pm Wednesday-Thursday, noon-11 pm Friday-Saturday, noon-8 pm Sunday.

UNBREAKABLE | The old Burnside Brewing equipment has finally been put back to work. Last year, Fracture took over the mothballed production facility, which was purchased by ChefStable in 2019—just months after the beloved brand folded. After Fracture moved in, it didn’t take long before its beers began showing up at the restaurant group’s establishments, like Loyal Legion and Lardo. Now the brewery has its very own taproom just eight blocks from the source. Fracture’s operators, husbandand-wife team Darren Provenzano and Ny Lee, met in Vietnam, where he worked at 7 Bridges Brewing, winning multiple awards at Brew Asia (formerly SEA Brew)—the equivalent of the Great American Beer Festival if it merged with the Craft Brewers Conference. Provenzano’s brews at Fracture already taste primed for stateside competition. For instance, if pressed to choose between the medallionlike West Coast IPA or the canary-colored Hazy, I’d just cave and order both. The former has clear-as-a-bell pine flavor, while the opaque version drinks like a freshly squeezed blend of peach and mango. Fracture also impresses with its diverse repertoire, which includes everything from a raisiny Dark Lager to a Barrel-Aged, Mixed-Culture Saison. The varied lineup means you should be able to find something to pair with food from the taproom’s eclectic collection of carts in the Lil’ America pod: Guyanese bakes are sold feet from crab boils, vegan corn dogs and Hainanese chicken rice. After all, if you can drink through the world of beer styles here, why not travel the globe with your cuisine, too? ANDI PREWITT.

DRINK THIS: The Pilsner trio (classic, West Coast, New Zealand). Yes, they all taste different.

ROCKY BURNSIDE

THOMAS TEAL

Gigantic Brewing Tap Room and Champagne Lounge

5224 SE 26th Ave., 503-208-3416, giganticbrewing.com.

2-9 pm

Monday-Friday, noon-9 pm Saturday-Sunday.

GIANT LEAP | Watching the metamorphosis of Gigantic’s original taproom, tucked into an industrial strip of the Reed neighborhood, has been a fun ride. What began as a small, cozy clubhouse-style space with some couches, chairs and a couple of tables expanded outside, with the addition of picnic seating, and later took over an adjoining barrel room. The company continues to live up to its name by expanding its footprint. Founders Ben Love and Van Havig have opened two more locations, most recently a family-friendly pub on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard with an in-house kitchen and full food menu. The beer selection has something for everyone, including Gigantress, a citrus sour for people who don’t really like sours, and the flagship Gigantic IPA. The Hawthorne location is perfect for folks with kids, but I still prefer to order my pints at the original scrappy taproom. Grab a beer, pet a dog, and cheer on the Timbers or Thorns in the barrel room. JOHN CHILSON.

DRINK THIS: Kölschtastic, which was inspired by the founders’ trip to Cologne, Germany, is made with Oregon-grown Mt. Hood hops, German Pilsner malt and Kölsch yeast.

Gorges Beer

2705 SE Ankeny St., 503-455-4674, gorgesbeer.com.

3-8 pm Monday-Thursday, 3-9 pm Friday, noon-9 pm Saturday, noon-8 pm Sunday.

TAKE A HIKE | At Portland’s Gorges Beer, there may be no view of the mighty Columbia River cutting its way through evergreen-covered ridges like there is at the Cascade Locks flagship, but you’re always guaranteed a rainbow at the urban outpost. Sure, the painted stretch of Southeast Ankeny that came to be known as “Rainbow Road” during the pandemic, isn’t as dramatic as the Gorge, but the outdoor dining plaza— essentially an extension of the brewery’s deck—is a charming COVID holdover that should suit you just fine on a sunny day. And if you’re drinking at the former Coalition Brewing space, you’re probably outside anyway since the rebranded Trailhead Taphouse is tiny. Co-founder and former Lompoc Brewer Bryan Keilty does a lot of good things with a lot of different flavors at Gorges. The barrel-aged Cabernet Currant Saison is like a red wine on its Rumspringa—black currants and swirls of sweet fig are zesty in beer form. And while getting to the top of Gorge landmark Mount Defiance is a slog, its namesake imperial IPA is smooth drinking, with notes of grapefruit leading the way to a dry finish. I’ll summit that peak, easily, over and over again. ANDI PREWITT.

DRINK THIS: With layers of Tabasco, horseradish, peppercorn and rosemary, Smoldering Embers has flavors that are more complex than you might have thought possible for beer.

Grand Fir Brewing ★

1403 SE Stark St., 503-477-6011, grandfirbrewing.com. 3-10 pm Tuesday-Thursday, 11 am-11 pm Friday-Saturday, 11 am-9 pm Sunday.

INTO THE WOODS | It was only a matter of time before brewer Whitney Burnside and chef Doug Adams went into business together. When the couple married in 2019, both were focused on seperate professional endeavors. Top Chef finalist Adams was only about six months into the launch of Bullard, a love letter to his East Texas hometown, serving Lone Star State-sized cuts of meat that brought back memories of the barbecue shacks of his youth. Burnside was the award-winning brewmaster at 10 Barrel’s Pearl District location, having opened the buzzed-about space in 2015. Grand Fir is the first time they’ve merged their talents, creating high expectations, and while I have yet to gnaw on a smoked wing or tuck into a plate of potatoes, I can definitively state that Burnside’s beers are uniformly top notch. After ordering my first, Tack Shack East Texas Lager—an ode to Adams’ smalltown upbringing and Shiner Bock—Hank Williams Jr.’s “A Country Boy Can Survive” started playing over the speakers, as if on cue. The beer is all toasted bread with a hint of caramel—light enough for a humid day in swampy Bullard or a summer heat wave in Portland. Old Growth Pale is a throwback to craft’s more balanced era, at least when it comes to this style. And the Lichen IPA practically vibrates with robust grapefruit verve. ANDI PREWITT.

DRINK THIS: The GFB IPA is as invigorating as inhaling the forest air at the beginning of a morning hike before it veers dank. Or get the Tack Shack, because a country boy can survive.

Ground Breaker Brewing

2030 SE 7th Ave., 503-928-4195, groundbreakerbrewing. com. 2-8 pm Wednesday-Sunday, by appointment Monday-Tuesday.

GLUTEN-FREE O.G. | Oregon has more gluten-free breweries than any other state, and Ground Breaker’s founder, James Neumeister, helped lead the charge. Since opening in 2011, the brewery has endured a name change (thankfully, it upgraded from Harvester), a pandemic, and a shift in taproom business, now operating with a separately run kitchen, Salvi PDX, which serves Salvadoran pupusas and fried chicken wings. The gluten-free beers sometimes have a hint of flavor or aroma that isn’t exactly barley malt, but their range, body and character all still say “beer.” The dark lager is even better from the nitro tap. Cheers to Ground Breaker for surviving and thriving in its specialty market niche. DON SCHEIDT.

DRINK THIS: The Defiance Dark Lager on nitro goes well with the kitchen’s chips and guac.

Hopworks Brewery

2944 SE Powell Blvd., 503-232-4677, hopworksbeer.com.

11:30 am-9 pm Sunday-Thursday, 11:30 am-10 pm FridaySaturday.

HOME | Hopworks figured out a long time ago that a lot of parents like to drink beer and they don’t necessarily want to hire a babysitter every time they go out for a pint. So, for 15 years, Hopworks has catered to families—including thousands of parents with students at Cleveland High just blocks away. Another favorite constituency: cyclists, whose importance to founder Christian Ettinger and his wife, Brandie, are evidenced by the dozens of retired bike frames lined up above the bar. Hopworks won’t blow you away with its cutting-edge brews or scare you away with a hardcore Carhartt-and-beard culture. Instead, it’s as comfortable as an old pair of hiking shoes and as reliable as spring rain. Oh, and the axes. While it may not seem intuitive that beer and axes mix, Hopworks hosts a Celtic Axe Throwers league with six weeks of chucking followed by a tournament. What could go wrong? NIGEL JAQUISS.

DRINK THIS: The Robot Panda Hazy IPA. OK, it’s a goofy name that you might feel awkward saying out loud, but the taste is worth it.

Leikam Brewing

5812 E Burnside St., 503-477-4743, leikambeer.com. 4-10 pm Wednesday, 4-11 pm Thursday-Friday, 3-11 pm Saturday, 3-9 pm Sunday.

TIME VORTEX | Wife-and-husband team Sonia Marie and Theo Leikam launched Leikam Brewing from the backyard of their Southeast Portland home in 2014, selling ales and lagers at restaurants, bottle shops, and farmers markets before moving into a onetime home-turned-taproom on East Burnside Street in 2019. Since then, the kosher-certified brewery has created a delightfully laid-back gathering spot for enjoying an eclectic lineup of ales and lagers; on a recent visit, the beertender dubbed the converted home and music studio—replete with a spacious patio, Leikam family photos, and upholstered seats—a “time vortex” for how easy it is to, well, lose track of time. Hip-hop and funk-inspired classics provide an unobtrusive soundtrack for sampling a mix of well-worn classics (Leikam’s core beers include an American lager, a West Coast IPA, and a red ale) and creative recipes (including a Turkish coffee-inspired porter and a Key lime sour crafted with peach, pineapple and mango purees). MATT WASTRADOWSKI.

DRINK THIS: Janis Hoplin, Leikam’s take on the West Coast IPA, beautifully blends bright flavors of citrus and pine while dialing back the bitterness common to the style.

JULIAN ALEXANDER

CHRIS NESSETH

CHRIS

NESSETH

SOUTHEAST

Little Beast Brewing Beer Garden ★

3412 SE Division St., 503-208-2723, littlebeastbrewing.com. 2-9 pm MondayThursday, 2-10 pm Friday, noon-10 pm Saturday, noon-9 pm Sunday.

WE WANT THE FUNK | With the abundance of IPAs and lagers in Portland, sometimes you want something different. Enter Little Beast Brewing, makers of Belgian-inspired farmhouse beers from seasoned brewmaster Charles Porter. The award-winning wheat ale has just the right amount of tartness, making this beer easy to enjoy. Expand your taste buds even further with Ferme Rouge, a Flanders red with fruit-forward, sour and distinctly sharp flavors that will keep your tongue busy. Although best known for beers on the sour and funky side, Porter and team also brew a solid selection of classic styles, from lagers to IPAs. The Beer Garden itself is a pleasant respite from the bustle of Southeast Division. The cozy Craftsman home, manicured lawn, and heated tent make for a relaxing spot to get away and have a beer with a friend. And if you are hungry, try the delicious Kansas Citystyle smoked meat from resident food vendor Lawless Barbecue. KERRY FINSAND.

DRINK THIS: The Czech Dark Lager is a fuller-bodied dark version of Little Beast’s Czech Pilsner with the right amount of malt and a bitter finish.

Living Häus Beer

628 SE Belmont St., 503-477-6792, livinghausbeer.com.

3-9 pm Monday-Thursday, noon-10 pm Friday-Saturday, noon-8 pm Sunday.

LET IT GROW | They say the third time’s the charm, and hopefully that’s true for Living Häus, co-owned by Conrad Andrus and Mat Sandoval and located in the space formerly occupied by The Commons and Modern Times. These are big shoes to fill, but where it differs is in its focus on lagers and clean IPAs. Sure, the team at Living Häus has brewed hazys and imperial stouts, but where they showcase their talent is in their crisp, crushable lagers, bright and piney West Coast IPAs, and overlooked traditional styles, like hefeweizen, grodziskie and festbier. The taproom is filled with plants and bathed in natural light thanks to the abundance of large windows, giving it a relaxed vibe, though it’s somewhat awkwardly bright during the evening. Being centrally located within walking distance to several other top-notch breweries make this a worthy stop. NEIL FERGUSON.

DRINK THIS: Harris is case in point: The West Coast IPA combines flavors of pine and citrus that make it a refreshingly clear beer that truly embodies the style.

Montavilla Brew Works ★

7805 SE Stark St., 503-954-3440, montavillabrew.com. 3-8 pm Tuesday-Sunday.

ROCK AND ROLL | Montavilla Brew Works is what happens when your Grateful Dead-obsessed uncle finally settles down and takes a blue-collar job but doesn’t want to give up day drinking with his buds on the tour bus. OK, maybe founder and head brewer Michael Kora wasn’t the rock band’s roadie, but the Detroit native does have a background in music performance and composition. Since brewing beer is as much a creative stoner art form as a Frank Zappa interlude—both of which also require real technical skill—it was only natural that Kora began homebrewing, eventually turning pro inside an old auto garage in

Portland. In the industry’s modern era, when beer often tastes more like Jamba Juice smoothies and Nesquik, Montavilla’s offerings are refreshingly classic. This is the kind of tasting room experience where everyone will know your name and the tap list is filled with familiar flavors. EZRA JOHNSON-GREENOUGH.

DRINK THIS: East Glisan Mosaic is a little bit old and a little bit new—an IPA that’s maltier than most with a righteous dank and citrus hop flavor.

Portland U-Brew & Unicorn Brewing

6237 SE Milwaukie Ave., 503-943-2727, portlandubrew. com. 11 am-7 pm Tuesday-Wednesday and Sunday, 11 am-8 pm Thursday-Saturday.

PAPAZIAN’S PLACE | If your living room were equipped with a bunch of 1.5-barrel vessels, and you hosted a big brew day with a bunch of friends and downed multiple beers during the process, you’d have a scene that looks something like Unicorn Brewing. The unique atmosphere can be attributed to the fact that there are actually two businesses here: a homebrew shop and a taproom/brewery. Downstairs, Unicorn has all the equipment to make house beers, but anyone can sign up for a brewing class using the same system. If you’re feeling too lazy to roll up your sleeves and mash in, order any of Unicorn’s approachable and traditional beers, including a Pilsner (the bestseller) and an IPA. Since this is a nanobrewery, you can also expect plenty of experimental small batches on tap as well. Yes, there are “For Lease” signs in the window, and owner Zach Vestal’s current lease is good through July. There are parties interested in purchasing the business, though Vestal says it’s possible things will continue as is for the foreseeable future, so don’t let the potential sale prevent you from visiting this very community-focused business. JOHN

CHILSON.

DRINK THIS: 5858 Pale is a perfect beer for a Saturday (or any) afternoon. Balanced and nothing too complicated.

Rogue Eastside Pub & Pilot Brewery

928 SE 9th Ave., 503-517-0660, rogue.com/rogueeastside-pub-pilot-brewery. 11 am-10 pm daily.

AIN’T DEAD YET | Not much brewing happens here now that the Green Dragon homebrew collective has moved out, but you will find an extensive tap list with a wide range of one-offs, including experimental IPAs, stouts, barleywines, kettle sours and lagers alongside Rogue classics. They may all be brewed in Newport, but at least they provide the illusion of having come from the brewpub. And if you don’t want to drink Rogue, the pub even features guest taps. There are also Rogue spirits, ciders and seltzers along with loads of Dead Guy merch for superfans. Rogue’s beer generally falls below the high bar that Portland has set, but much of the country still considers it to be top of the line for craft, making this a perfect spot for out-of-towners who want to experience the iconic brand without going to Newport. Plus, it’s hard to beat the expansive beer garden in the summer. Tasters are cheap, so try a few different beers. NEIL FERGUSON.

DRINK THIS: Creamy and smooth, Double Chocolate Stout’s 9% ABV hides behind the balance of baking chocolate bitterness and malty warmth. It brings you back to the days when a chocolate stout was considered edgy.

Rosenstadt Brewery at Olympia

Provisions Public House ★★

3384 SE Division St., 503-384-2259, rosenstatdbrewery. com. Noon-9 pm Monday-Thursday, noon-10 pm Friday, 10 am-10 pm Saturday, 10 am-9 pm Sunday.

ROSENSTADTLICHKEIT | The beer patio at Olympia Provisions Public House will be unpopulated on a cold, drippy night, but inside, it’s all about the Portland-style Alpine gemütlichkeit— the German equivalent of “hygge,” or a general state of coziness and contentment. It’s not hard to find a Rosenstadt lager on tap around town, but they’re the house beers here, making the OP a stammhaus for Rosenstadt’s assortment. The Otto Pils pairs perfectly with the rich and filling house schnitzel, and the big sausage boards could feed a small army. Rosenstadt has been brewing at Hopworks and Conspirator Beverage in Clackamas of late, still operating as a tenant brewer since starting up eight years ago. DON SCHEIDT.

DRINK THIS: Rosenstadt Kölsch is inspired, and the Otto Italian-style Pilsner is a delicious, hoppy treat.

Ruse Brewing ★★

4784 SE 17th Ave., 503-662-8325, rusebrewing.com. 3-9 pm Monday-Thursday, 3-10 pm Friday, 1-10 pm Saturday, 1-9 pm Sunday.

BAG OF TRICKS | On your first visit to Ruse, you might accidentally drive right on by. That’s because the brewery is one of many businesses located inside the sprawling Iron Fireman Collective building in the Brooklyn neighborhood. But once you find it, you’ll want to return again and again. The sun-soaked tasting room—get one of the window tables if you can—offers an ever-changing lineup of innovative beers. Fluorescent Farm, for instance, is a fan-favorite series that Ruse has been producing for two years. On tap during my visit was Vol. 21 in the program, a smoothie-style tart ale (4.5% ABV) with loads of tangerine and apricot. Yeah, it’s fruity. And Ruse’s wildly popular West Coast IPA, Translator, has a somewhat regularly tinkered with recipe to keep up with the times. Hungry? The brewery just launched its Crust Collective pop-up pizza kitchen every Friday through Sunday. JOHN CHILSON.

DRINK THIS: Queen of the Earth is a classic example of a low-ABV American stout similar to what founders Shaun Kalis and Devin Benware drank during their formative homebrewing years.

Threshold Brewing & Blending ★

403 SE 79th Ave., 503-4778789, threshold.beer. 4-9 pm

Monday-Friday, noon-9 pm Saturday, noon-8 pm Sunday.

VARIETY STORE | One of Portland’s most promising newer breweries feels like a throwback to an era when beer establishments operated out of bare-bones industrial spaces designed mostly for production. But the brews here are anything but retro. Threshold’s offerings are part of a new wave, postcraft beer bubble where anything goes. The lineup changes frequently and can include everything from a chocolate-covered plum-inspired ale to a grzaniec—a hot mulled beer that’s a nod to brewer and co-owner Jarek Szymanski’s Polish heritage. You’ll also find an edible tribute to his home country on the small food menu: zapiekanka, a traditional street food similar to a pizza log with a secret ketchup recipe and toppings like house-brined cucumbers, imported morski cheese, mushrooms and Polish sausage. Threshold punches above its weight class when it comes to hazy IPAs and fruited beers reminiscent of the legendary versions popularized in New England, but no matter what ends up in your glass, each visit should offer something new, fun and tongue-stunning. EZRA JOHNSON-GREENOUGH.

DRINK THIS: Any hazy IPA on the menu.

Wayfinder Beer ★★

304 SE 2nd Ave., 503-718-2337, wayfinder.beer. Noon-9 pm Sunday-Thursday, noon-10 pm Friday-Saturday.

AT LAGERHEADS | Portland’s industrial inner eastside still feels like the gritty city captured on film decades ago in Drugstore Cowboy, and resident Wayfinder looks like the brewpub that time forgot thanks to its rustic brick walls and sprawling warehouse aesthetics. The taproom sits behind an elevated gated deck, as if the last vestiges of Old Portland had walled themselves off with their favorite beer styles. Inside, you’ll find a monument to the lager, with a tap list dominated by refreshing malt- and yeast-driven beers, like a Czech-style Pilsner and a helles. This is coming from the brewery that invented the cold IPA, though using adjunct grains, like corn and rice, and the house lager yeast at much warmer fermentation temperatures. The food is as good as the beer—it’s like a brewery version of a steakhouse, even if half the customers are vegan metalheads who won’t touch the smoked prime rib cheesesteak, but will crush the cauliflower banh mi sandwich and a Vienna lager. EZRA JOHNSON-GREENOUGH.

DRINK THIS: Hell is a pale blond beauty with honeylike cracker graininess and just enough hops as well as a crisp finish to remind you that it’s a lager beer.

Zoiglhaus Brewing ★

5716 SE 92nd Ave., 971-339-2374, zoiglhaus.com. Noon9:30 pm daily.

PROST | Walking into The Zed, Zoiglhaus’ brewpub turned food hall, is a disorienting experience. What started in 2015 as a bright and colorful, family-friendly love letter to its namesake—small communal home breweries that date back centuries in Germany—is now a bustling and dimly lit mish-mash of culinary cultures. Trading out its German food menu (except for a handful of items available only on weekends), Zoiglhaus now serves Venezuelan, Nepalese, Thai and American food from four kitchen stalls. The beer hasn’t changed, though. If you come here looking for an IPA, you will find one, but Zoiglhaus’ strength lies in its German styles that don’t veer far from the classics, and brewer Alan Taylor has the awards to prove it. From the counter-service bar, you will almost always find world-class and unfiltered versions of Pilsner, helles, Kölsch and black lager brewed with Northwest ingredients that really cut the heat and complement a plate of steaming Sherpa Kitchen dumplings, pairings so good you’ll hardly miss the schnitzel. EZRA JOHNSON-GREENOUGH.

DRINK THIS: There aren’t many places in town where you can find a Kölsch, especially one like Zoigl-Kölsch, which has a crackery flavor and lemony-floral aroma.

Little Hop Brewing

4400 SW Garden Home Road, littlehopbrewing.com. Noon-8 pm Saturday. Grand opening 3-8 pm Friday, April 7.

BIG HOP ENERGY | Bigger isn’t always better. Sometimes the small guys win. Most homebrewers dream of going big, and Zak Cate achieved that goal as a pub brewer for McMenamins Kalama Harbor Lodge before deciding to scale back and open a nano operation at home with his wife, Lisa. Brewing just a few kegs at a time, the Cates are free to take more risks and use premium ingredients, like estate-grown malt, and naturally occuring yeast in the air for fermentation. Since it’s so small, Little Hop frequently sells out of its products at the Tigard Farmers Market. Fans will be happy to learn that the Cates recently purchased a trailer and will begin selling draft beer out of the rig April 7. Located next to Planted PDX, a vegan food truck, the tiny taproom and beer garden are open one day a week while the Cates wait for permits to be approved to launch a larger indoor space in an adjacent building. Though their motto remains quality over quantity, sometimes less is more. EZRA JOHNSON-GREENOUGH.

DRINK THIS: Top-quality Central Oregon-grown grain and corn make the American-style Little Hop Lager a full-flavored light beer, with notes of sweet grits and floral hops.

Old Market Pub & Brewery

6959 SW Multnomah Blvd., 503-224-2337, drinkbeerhere. com. 11 am-10 pm Monday-Wednesday, 11 am-11 pm Thursday-Friday, 9 am-11 pm Saturday, 9 am-10 pm Sunday.

FLASHBACK | The dream of the ’90s is alive in this sprawling Garden Home pub. In some ways, that’s surprisingly comforting. If you have fond childhood memories of your hometown’s local pizza joint, which undoubtedly had a couple of arcade games and a fleet of candy dispensers near the entrance, a visit to Old Market will transport you back to those Friday night family dinners and post-Little League game gatherings. The pub has all of those accessories and more—shuffleboard, pool tables, TV sets galore—making it a popular spot for people with kids in tow. But there are signs this place could be stuck in a rut. Aside from the chile beer and a blueberry shrub, the tap list looks like it could’ve been the original from 1994. A solid lineup of classics can be commendable, but most here lacked punch, and the flagship British Bombay tasted like a Harry Potter Butterbeer. This brewery has seen top talent in the past, so I hope Old Market was just in a temporary slump—Lord knows we all have been at some point during the past three years—and can rebound by tweaking its techniques. That way, every exhausted parent who walks through the doors with a rambunctious brood can momentarily relax with the beer they deserve. ANDI PREWITT.

DRINK THIS: Stick to the wheats, particularly Mr. Slate’s Gravelberry, a refreshing raspberry brew with a delicate sweetness that finishes tart.

CHRIS NESSETH

JULIAN ALEXANDER

GET BUSY

DRINK: Oregon Beer Awards

The largest drunken assemblage of local brewers takes place this week, and you can join their party if you act fast. The WW-sponsored Oregon Beer Awards is the state’s only double-blind beer tasting competition, which means whole teams of brewers show up to see who will win the coveted trophies. Champions in a dozen or so categories, like Best Bottle Shop and Best Beer Bar, which are selected by an academy of industry professionals, will also be announced. This year, there are now two ways you can watch. For the rowdiest experience, snag a seat among the brewers in the second-floor auditorium. Those tickets tend to sell out quickly, so there’s now something of an overflow area in Rev Hall’s Show Bar, which will livestream the ceremony. Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark St., 971-808-5094, revolutionhall. com. 6 pm Thursday, April 6. Sold out. 21+.

WATCH: Ceremonials: A Florence + The Machine Drag Show

Using the historic Clinton Street Theater film screen as a dynamic backdrop, Ceremonials pays tribute to Florence + The Machine’s 15-year catalog through a lens of queer artistry. Longtime local drag performer Sugarpill hosts the event, where you can expect to hear the English indie rock group’s greatest hits, like “Dog Days Are Over,” but also lesser-known tracks. “Before becoming a worldwide sensation, Florence Welch performed in London drag bars,” Sugarpill says of their motivation for serving as master of ceremonies. “Her reverence for our community has intertwined her history with ours, and I can’t wait to celebrate that at the show.” Clinton Street

Theater, 2522 SE Clinton St., 971-808-3331, sugarpillpdx.com/ceremonials. 7:30 pm

Friday, April 7. $15. 21+.

GO: ’80s Video Dance Attack

18th Anniversary Party

It may seem hard to believe, but Portlanders have been sweatin’ to the oldies for nearly two decades. VJ Kittyrox will mix the greatest ’80s-era MTV music videos for Video Dance Attack’s tribute to the Decade of Greed, which is marking its 18th anniversary. Bust out the leg warmers and Aqua Net because costumes are encouraged. Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark St., 971-808-5094, revolutionhall.com. 8 pm Friday, April 7. $18. 21+.

LISTEN: Sa-Roc

Sa-Roc has taken the conscious hip-hop movement to another level with her poetic and metaphysical lyrics, which touch on everything from her ancestry to revolution to feminism. Her fiery MC style has earned praise, with tastemaker Okayplayer describing Sa-Roc as “one of the most formidable microphone mavens in the game.”

Get ready for her to burn lyrical sage in Portland with longtime DJ and collaborator Sol Messiah. The Get Down Music Venue, 615 SE Alder St., Suite B, thegetdownpdx.com. 9 pm Friday, April 7. $20.

GO: Mazot Fest

Skiing and pirates aren’t an obvious combination, but Mt. Hood Meadows has brought back its fan-favorite, buccaneer-themed fundraiser for the resort’s Snow Safety Training Program. Expect loads of barbecue and Double Mountain beers on both days of the event. Friday’s schedule includes a DJ and costume party,

and Saturday is for hardcore skiers, who can run the slalom course as many times as they’d like for $5 a pop. And don’t miss the meet-and-greet with everyone’s favorite mountain employees: the Meadows Avalanche Dogs! Mt. Hood Meadows, 14040 Oregon Route 35, 503-337-2222, skihood.com. 11 am-3 pm Friday-Saturday, April 7-8. $50 for lift tickets.

WATCH: Of Mice and Men

After a long hiatus, Life in Arts Productions will present Of Mice and Men in 21Ten’s intimate 40-seat theater. The classic story about the ways in which people are labeled and discarded because of their differences has been told on page and screen, but nothing compares to seeing a live performance of the tragic tale. 21Ten Theatre, 2110 SE 10th Ave., 541-525-4349, life-in-arts.org. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday, 2:30 pm Sunday, April 7-22. $15.

GO: The Theater Lover’s Bash

As Portland Center Stage’s 2022-23 season prepares to come to a close, the company is thanking its patrons, donors and volunteers with this soiree. A pre-show reception will feature food by Best Baguette, Charcuterie Me and Pho Van Fresh as well as a trio of Multnomah Whiskey Library cocktails. A one-night-only performance of Back by Unpopular Demand and a dance party are scheduled to follow. Portland Center Stage at the Armory, 128 NW 11th Ave., 503-445-3700, pcs.org. 6:30 pm Saturday, April 8. $25-$200.

GO: Bella’s Bunny Hop! 3rd Annual Easter Egg Hunt

Easter egg hunts aren’t just for kids anymore. Bella Organic, the Sauvie Island

farm best known for its fall pumpkin patch and corn maze, has started inviting the crowds out in spring. After two years of smaller kids’ egg chases, the property is letting the adults in on the action. The 21-and-over crowd will get one boozy beverage to celebrate their haul. Yes, the Easter Bunny will be on hand and, no, you’re never too old to pose with him for a photo. Bella Organic Farm, 16205 NW Gillihan Road, 503-621-9545, bellaorganic. com. Multiple times Saturday-Sunday, April 8-9. $5-$15.

EAT: Easter Champagne Brunch

Cruise

If boiling an egg is about all the cooking you’re capable of, let someone else prepare your Easter meal, like Portland’s favorite floating buffet. The Portland Spirit is hosting two brunches this Sunday as it meanders across the Willamette River. The spread includes everything from eggs Benedict to French toast to carved ham along with the titular Champagne, plus mimosas and sparkling cider. You’ll need to knock back a few to handle the presence of the boat’s “Cinnabunny.” Portland Spirit Salmon Springs Dock, 1010 SW Naito Parkway, 503-224-3900, portandspirit.com. 9:30-11:30 am and 2:30-4:30 pm Sunday, April 9. $80 for adults, $40 for children, $10 for infants.

DRAFT KINGS: Members of Baerlic Brewing accept its award at last year’s Oregon Beer Awards. This year’s ceremony takes place April 6.

Becoming and Booming

The Get Down is celebrating its first anniversary with a party featuring electronic-rock duo BoomBox.

BY DANIEL BROMFIELD

Blake Boris-Schachter couldn’t even attend the opening of his own club.

“I caught COVID for my opening weekend,” says the owner and founder of Southeast Portland music venue The Get Down. “I ended up watching the grand opening from my security feed at home.”

If all goes well, though, Boris-Schachter will be able to indulge in a much-delayed celebration at The Get Down’s first anniversary party on Saturday, April 8, with live music by electronic-rock duo BoomBox.

The Get Down has been Boris-Schachter’s dream since 2009, when the Massachusetts native graduated from Clark University in Worcester, Mass. “Out of college I decided that I wanted to own and operate my own music venue someday,” he says. A venture in Worcester converting the basement of a hookah bar into a venue fell through in 2010—“not a great time for getting bank loans,” Boris-Schachter says—and he put his plans on pause to work in tech in San Francisco for most of the decade.

Eventually, his attention drifted to Portland as a launchpad for his project due to its cheap liquor licenses and “strong collection of independently owned music venues as opposed to venues mostly owned by the larger conglomerates,” leading to fairer competition as opposed to competing with the likes of Ticketmaster and AXS. He moved north in 2018, and after one abortive attempt and another major setback in 2020 as COVID brought live music to a screeching halt, he finally signed a lease on a spot in December 2021.

Boris- Schachter says the name “The Get Down” has carried through the longest of any of his ideas for a club. “By coming up with that name, I always thought of it as a place to go see music that you would more than likely dance to,” he says.

But Boris-Schachter knew he had to book some serious talent before anyone would come to groove.

“One of the key elements that I was told by multiple venue owners is to have a really good booker who knows the industry, who’s done it for a long time,” he says. Enter Josh Pollack, an event promoter with nearly 20 years of experience who met Boris-Schachter through a mutual friend in San Francisco. Already well connected and reputed among promoters, Pollack was crucial in getting artists and agents to trust the as yet untested venue as a potential place to play.

“From the get-go, I basically just had to put my personal reputation on the line and leverage the preexisting relationships

I had with artists I’ve been booking already for years,” Pollack says. “I was able to convince people, hey, this is a great space, you’re going to want to play here.”

The first event at The Get Down in April 2022 was headlined by Mark Farina, a house DJ who’s been performing since 1988.

“If I had tried to reach out to his agent, I doubt that they would’ve been interested in booking something they didn’t know with someone they didn’t know,” Boris-Schachter says. “But Josh, who’s booked Mark many times and knew his agent, reached out, and they said yes.”

Since then, the 400-capacity venue has hosted regular performances by both local and international touring artists, plus the occasional comedy show.

WHAT TO SEE AND WHAT TO HEAR

BY DANIEL BROMFIELD @bromf3

SATURDAY, APRIL 8:

Another crucial consideration for any dance club is the bar. The Get Down uses a kegged cocktail system, aiming in the words of bar manager Andrew Harrison “to keep the line moving and get you back out to the show without sacrificing on quality or service.”

Inspired by author and cocktail wizard Dave Arnold, Harrison makes frequent use of a culinary centrifuge to create, among other drinks, the clarified lime cordial crucial to the house, the Delorean Margarita. This complex concoction, alongside others such as If the Dove Fits and the Ella Spritzgerald, will be available at The Get Down’s anniversary party.

As for BoomBox, they have no prior affiliation with the venue; comprising two sons of the Grateful Dead’s Donna Jean Godchaux, the band just happened to book The Get Down on this auspicious date. Yet their rhythm-forward music fits in neatly with The Get Down’s vision—and Boris-Schachter will finally have the chance to boogie along after missing his brainchild’s birth.

“It carried a lot of emotion with it, to miss something I looked forward to for so long,” he says. “Which does make the one-year anniversary something that I’m extra excited for, to be able to be there and celebrate.”

SEE IT: BoomBox plays The Get Down, 615 SE Alder St., Suite B, thegetdownpdx.com. 9 pm Saturday, April 8. 21+.

Somewhere in the world, a teenager has probably just slammed the door of their room and started blasting 100 gecs. The duo of Dylan Brady and Laura Les might not have set out to be the official youth-against-everyone band of the early 2020s, but their sound so gleefully mashes up everything anyone born in the past 30 years might’ve been embarrassed to like in middle school (nu-metal, dubstep, Auto-Tuned pop rap) that it creates a cocoon of annoyingness within which its millions of fans can feel safe. Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside St., 503-225-0047, crystalballroompdx.com. 8:30 pm. $30. All ages.

MONDAY, APRIL 10:

Any history of American indie rock in the past 20 years would be incomplete without Screaming Females , the power trio that’s spent the better part of the 21st century blazing through just about every kind of loud guitar rock imaginable—punk, grunge, stoner metal, and even arena rock on their new album, Desire Pathway. Despite their New Jersey origins, the Females’ scuzzy sound is right at home in the rainy Northwest, especially amid a Portland indie scene defined by loud young bands with as much artfulness as attitude. Dante’s, 350 W Burnside St., 866-777-8932, danteslive.com. 8:20 pm. $18. 21+.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12:

If you still have it in your head that “not writing their own songs” is a valid argument to dismiss an artist’s work—well, first of all, I have some bad news for you about Frank Sinatra. Second, check out Jake Xerxes Fussell, who’s established himself as one of the most interesting acoustic guitar troubadours on the touring circuit by drawing on a deep well of public domain folk songs, most of them Southern, some of them over 100 years old. The Old Church, 1422 SW 11th Ave., 503-222-2031, theoldchurch.org. 7:30 pm. $20. All ages.

BEYOND THE LIGHTS: The Get Down.

“I always thought of it as a place to go see music that you would more than likely dance to.”

SHOW REVIEW

BY ROBERT HAM

Opera House of the Rising Sun

Why The Slants are getting operatic.

BY JAY HORTON

For a band that announced their effective retirement three years ago, The Slants have been remarkably busy.

The Portland-based dance-rock group’s charitable foundation continues to support Asian American artists across the country. A long-gestating new album featuring both original members and celebrity guests has been tentatively scheduled for an autumn release.

And the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis commissioned a 20-minute work based on The Slants’ landmark Supreme Court victory—the culmination of a decadelong legal battle to safeguard their trademark.

Speaking to WW just before the world premiere of Slanted: An American Rock Opera in March, Slants founder Simon Tam looked back on the peculiar challenges of singing about dance music.

WW: Your opera! How did that happen?

Simon Tam: The Opera Theatre of Saint Louis launched a program called the New Works Collective where they commission works outside of the traditional opera world. They’re known as an edgier house willing to roll the dice, but many of the recent pieces they’ve developed have gone on to the Met. If we’re the first for this particular program, it’s still in line with what they do.

When did you hear about it?

A fan from St. Louis, this Asian American community leader on their board who has known the band for some time, reached out to me and said we should apply to turn our story into an opera. I put together a pitch, we were selected, and, over a few months, we

created something that brought everybody to St. Louis along with about eight to 10 singers to perform the different parts. That was December. After staging and choreography, now it’s March.

Was this the band or just you?

Before filling out the application, I spent a bit of time talking to my guitarist Joe Joe [X. Jiang] because I really didn’t want to go it alone. That’s how these conversations started. We’ll do this, but it has to reflect The Slants a bit more. They invited us here to St. Louis last summer so we could see a couple of operas in production, and we were just, like, wow, this is awful. We wanted to do the complete opposite.

Basically, pitching the opera, they were excited about bringing rock ’n’ roll into the opera world, but we wanted, like, a synth-pop thing.

You contributed new material for the project?

Yeah, we wrote all new stuff because the songs have to more explicitly tell a story, you know? Opera lines are very much in dialogue form, like Broadway theater, as opposed to traditional verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge format. We originally just started writing songs the way we would anyway— maybe a bit more theatrical—with the thought that they’d, like, opera-fy them, but things turned out a little different…

It was hard to get ideas from the world of opera because the music seemed so inaccessible. Once we had our core vision down, we went back and listened to soundtracks and other operas and only then started figuring out how to bring some of those ideas back into the work but make it still fit the overall vibe or vision we were looking for.

We wrote the pieces like we were developing songs for an album— recording full demos with multiple parts and actually creating fully produced songs for them to listen to and learn—but they completely ignored all of that. They only wanted the music in written form and would only work with what they call a piano-vocal score throughout rehearsals.

So, instead of chopping up RBG samples…

I took a bunch of her speeches from the arguments during our oral hearing at the Supreme Court and rewrote them as a song. The lines sung by the person playing Ruth Bader Ginsburg are basically all words that she actually spoke. We tried to make it as authentic to her as possible.

There’s a courtroom scene?

As you know, [the opera is] loosely based on our experience at the Supreme Court, but that particular journey took almost 10 years. In order to really compress the timeline, we start the story in court when attorneys are already launching full debates and arguing against each other.

Midway through, the character playing me begins this inner monologue. I had to stay silent in the courtroom so the character’s singing out the thoughts in my head—frustrated, feeling very invisible until actually seen. Taking a little break from reality, Ruth Bader Ginsburg acknowledges me, we share a duet, and we’re able to sway the court, which eventually leads to the decision in our favor.

Which did not happen in real life?

She did acknowledge the band, but there was no exchange. It wasn’t like we had a dance number.

Aaron Barnes really doesn’t want Portland jazz fans to turn in so early on the weekends. Since reopening his venue The 1905 post-pandemic, the brash businessman has been hosting late night shows on Fridays and Saturdays in hopes of introducing a little New York-style energy to an otherwise dark stretch of North Shaver Street. The experiment seems to be a success, if the one-off gig by the local ensemble known as Chibia on March 31 was any indication. It wasn’t a packed house at The 1905, but folks who braved the damp weather were fully engaged and occasionally clamorous during the quintet’s 45-minute set.

Led by, and named for, singer-songwriter Chibia Ulinwa, the group works in that luminous interzone where jazz, future pop, and modern R&B mingle. Drummer Chris Parkman and keyboardist Alex Kohler set the backdrop, playing with a loose splashy feel that incorporated tasteful touches of noir swing and drum ’n’ bass. It was the perfect canvas for Ulinwa to apply her various lyrical shades. On “Honey,” a song that was featured prominently in an episode of the Disney+ series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, she dripped down bright, sensual tones as she sang of an all-encompassing love affair. Elsewhere, there were touches of dark regret with Ulinwa sifting through the wreckage of a failed relationship.

In spite of those melancholy moments, the mood of the set was decidedly up. Ulinwa introduced the mournful numbers with wry self-deprecation and a beaming smile. And she and the band knew how to balance those songs out with blithe numbers like their fleet-footed take on the theme from Reading Rainbow or a scrappy deconstruction of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” It was a blend of tonic highs and astringent bitterness befitting the wee small hours of a chilly Friday night.

MUSIC

Editor: Bennett Campbell Ferguson | Contact: bennett@wweek.com

MOVIES

Contact: bennett@wweek.com

STREAMING WARS

YOUR WEEKLY FILM QUEUE

BY BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON @thobennett

HOLLYWOOD PICK:

Right Side of the Traxx

Cinemagic is bringing back the ‘80s crime-and-cookies flick Traxx for its next VHS Night.

BY ROSE WONG

If Cinemagic’s upcoming VHS Night is anything like its previous few months, tickets for the April 7 screening of Traxx (1988) will sell out before auditorium doors open.

On the first Friday evening of each month, the Hawthorne theater introduces moviegoers to obscure gems from the straight-to-video era of the ’80s and ’90s the way many of us first experienced motion pictures at home— popping a VHS into a videocassette recorder, which then reads the video and audio signals on the tape’s winding magnetic strip. But instead of watching the faded images and static interruptions on your parents’ gray old-box TV, you get to relish in the analog aesthetic as its projected across the big screen.

VHS Night fans range from intrigued high schoolers to retired seniors who had known several heartbreaks before the first signs of streaming media. After the monthly screenings, co-owners Ryan Frakes and Nicholas Kuechler hang out in the lobby to chat with moviegoers who often reminisce and recommend old favorites for future screenings. Sometimes they bring in boxes of their own tapes or posters featuring previous VHS Night films.

“It’s become a lot bigger than we anticipated,” Frakes says. “We didn’t anticipate to sell auditoriums out within the first year.”

Between both their personal collections, Frakes and Kuechler have hundreds of tapes they’re eager to show Portland cinephiles. Traxx, and Australian horror flick Howling III (1987), are the only titles on the debut lineup that will be shown again this year.

“I love the comedy aspect of [Traxx] and how heartfelt it is,” Frakes says. “It knows exactly what kind of film it is, and I want more and more people to know about it.”

In Traxx, Shadoe Stevens plays an international mercenary who decides to re-create himself as a cookie entrepreneur, despite little evidence that he can bake. A radio broadcast of his hometown sheriff (John Hancock) denouncing the inordinate crime rate leads Traxx to hiring himself out as a town tamer for $10,000 to fund his gourmet enterprise.

A parody of ’80s action films, the movie’s over-the-top, cartoonish violence is juxtaposed with endearing mon-

tages of Traxx and his hostage-turned-sidekick Deeter (Willard E. Pugh) burning and spitting out cookies in their woodland hideout as a genuine friendship blossoms. Unlike countless B movies that rely on cringe to elicit audience laughter, Traxx’s humor is witty and intentional, breaking tension with unexpected absurdity. In other words, it’s actually funny.

Still, the film is chock-full of cringe. Love scenes featuring Hadleyville Mayor Alexandria Cray (Priscilla Barnes), who throws herself at Traxx with abandon, feel preposterous at best and sexist at worst. Traxx’s proud Old West attitudes—“know nothing about the law, everything about justice”—may also grate for Portlanders who continue to wrestle with our own complicated relationship with crime and justice. But ultimately, effective comedic writing and a zippy plot, punctured by a galvanizing score, succeeds in captivating the viewer until the end credits roll.

Cinemagic has a special treat for moviegoers on Friday, Frakes says. Wally Amos, or Famous Amos—whose cookies inspire Traxx to start baking—makes a final-scene cameo and asks for a peppermint prune cookie. The theater commissioned Hawthorne neighbor Farina Bakery to develop the quirky flavor, and a limited supply of cookies (along with commemorative buttons featuring Traxx and VHS Night) will be available for purchase after the screening. Ambition has marked Frakes and Kuechler’s operation since the two longtime Cinemagic employees bought the theater in June 2021. Cinemagic showed 100 movies last year, a feat for any single-screen theater. Frakes expects to far exceed last year’s total, reaching a hundred movies by April.

After the theater finishes installing a 35 mm changeover system and a 16 mm projector, moviegoers can visit Portland’s oldest movie house for digital films, VHS, laser disc, and 35 and 16 mm prints.

“ We’ve spent day in and day out working for the past almost two years,” Frakes says. “In a few months, when we have actual film running through, this will be the theater of my dreams.”

SEE IT: Traxx plays at Cinemagic, 2021 SE Hawthorne Blvd., thecinemagictheater.com. 10 pm Friday, April 7. $7-$9.

Whatever fate befalls media titan Logan Roy (Brian Cox) on HBO’s Succession, the show is slated to end with its current season. So if you’re addicted to Cox’s velvety villainy, it’s time to find other fixes—and, luckily for us, the marvelously charismatic Scotsman has been working since the ’60s.

You could always revisit his turn as Hannibal Lecter in Manhunter (which predates Silence of the Lambs) or his performance as Rushmore’s Dr. Nelson Guggenheim (whose description of Jason Schwartzman’s Max Fischer—“he’s one of the worst students we’ve g-aaaaaaah-t”— is classic Cox).

That said, I’m particularly partial to his soul-chilling performance as Col. William Stryker in X2 (2003). In a decade when Alfred Molina (Spider-Man 2) and Jason Lee (The Incredibles) brought humane gravitas to comic-book villains, Cox’s Stryker is a sadistic precursor to Heath Ledger’s thoroughly monstrous Joker in The Dark Knight

While Stryker was a reverend (!?) in the graphic novel X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills, X2 reimagines him as a military scientist plotting a mutant genocide—with the help of his own mutant son, Jason (Michael Reid MacKay), a brainwashed psychic.

“Allow me to introduce Mutant 143,” Stryker says as the skeletal Jason is wheeled into a dungeon tinged with sickly green light. There’s not a trace of empathy in Cox’s voice as Stryker refers to his child as a numeral; each syllable radiates pure rage and disgust.

What’s interesting about an unambiguously cruel man? Not much, unless you’re Cox. He understands that pure menace can be a symphony of staccatos, crescendos and grace notes, seducing moviegoers even as it repulses them.

Just listen as Stryker confronts Wolverine (Hugh Jackman): “Don’t shoot him!” he roars to his troops, before smugly adding, “Not yet.” While some of Cox’s Royal Shakespeare Company peers might have bellowed the entire line, Cox quietly adds “not yet” as if gingerly placing a maraschino cherry atop a decadent sundae.

The best part of that scene is when Wolverine and Stryker are separated by a wall of ice, then extend their silhouetted hands toward each other, like a pair of doomed lovers. Sure, the look of perverse attraction in Jackman’s eyes could be a trick of the light, but there’s no denying that when Cox embodies evil, he’s irresistible. Disney+.

THE GOLDEN CURTAIN: Cinemagic.

Editor: Bennett Campbell Ferguson

Fallen Angels (1995)

Wong Kar-Wai’s Fallen Angels is a happily bifurcated film, not just in story, but sometimes within the same shot. Even when a violent bar fight erupts behind a character contemplating their life, they’re so completely of a piece with nocturnal street chaos that desensitization and transcendence look the same.

That’s just one of many exquisite images in Wong’s artfully halved follow-up to Chungking Express (1994). In the film’s first layer, a hit man (Leon Lai) and his handler (Michelle Reis) try to keep a professional distance, despite the suggestion of a touchless love affair—a plot that Wong originally intended to include in Chungking Express

In the second story, Wong illuminates the obscurity and stylization of the former narrative with the near-slapstick tale of mute fugitive Ho Chi-mo (Takeshi Kineshiro), who breaks into small businesses after hours and forces his services on unsuspecting customers. Ho is something like the jester version of the other 20-somethings in Fallen Angels, all of whom cling to the possibility of opportunity, ownership and self-actualization in pre-handover Hong Kong.

Originally reviewed as a hyperbolic appendage to Chungking Express, Fallen Angels stands all on its own with a little distance. Catch the beautifully bleary film April 6 at Clinton Street Theater.

ALSO PLAYING:

5th Avenue: The Hobbit (1977), April 7-9. Academy: The Cat Returns (2002), The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972), April 7-13. Cinema 21: 12 Angry Men (1957), April 8. Clinton: A Colt Is My Passport (1967), April 10. Empirical: Spirited Away (2001), April 5 and 8. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), April 6. Grave of the Fireflies (1988), Princess Mononoke (1997), April 7. Castle in the Sky (1986), My Neighbor Totoro (1988), April 8. Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989), Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), Ponyo (2008), April 9. Hollywood: Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989), April 6. The Outsiders (1983, director’s cut), April 7-10, 12. Time Bandits (1981), April 7. Blazing Saddles (1974), April 8. Frankenhooker (1990), April 8-9. Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), April 9. Finding Nemo (2003), April 10. Shaolin Challenges Ninja (1978), April 11.

RETURN TO SEOUL

Standing next to his daughter, a father points to an island. It’s so small, he tells her, that he and his childhood friends called it Mouse Poop Island—and when the tide was low, they could walk there. The father’s reminiscence is so precise that as you listen, you feel as if you are reliving his memories. Whether or not the daughter feels the same way is the thorny question at the heart of Return to Seoul, Davy Chou’s soulful and slippery saga of family, regret and rebirth. Park Ji-min stars as Freddie, a South Korean woman raised by French parents. On her first visit to Seoul, she reunites with her biological father (Oh Kwang-rok), but she can’t bear the weight of his anguish. To know that he gave her up to give her a better life is one thing; to believe it is another. So painful and tender are the scenes between Park and Oh that when the film leaps a few years into the future, it’s hard not to sigh with disappointment. With its clean lighting and pained silences, the first act is movingly real; the second, with its neon gleam and bizarre subplot about Freddie selling missiles, is disappointingly heightened. Still, it’s fitting that both the film and its heroine experience an identity crisis. Is Freddie French or Korean? Is Return to Seoul a stylish thriller or a stripped-down drama? Those mysteries aren’t entirely solved, but you glimpse the silhouette of an answer in the final sequence. By then, Freddie has ditched the glamorous clothes and dark crimson lipstick of the second act, opting for a plain jacket and shorn hair. Maybe the transformation mirrors a newfound sense of self; maybe it’s just a new outfit and a haircut. But either way, you want to see where Freddie is going. R. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Cinema 21.

JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4

A 169-minute shootout may be as impervious to review as the tailored suits of vengeful assassin John Wick (Keanu Reeves) are to gunfire, but let’s compare the fourth installment in the Wick saga to its other blockbuster franchise contemporaries. Like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it features a cipher of a hero defined by garish antagonists (Bill Skarsgård’s Marquis, Clancy Brown’s Harbinger, Shamier Anderson’s Tracker). Like The Expendables, it assembles an ensemble of allies (Laurence Fishburne’s Bowery King, Hiroyuki Sanada’s hotelmaster/warlord) with allusions to cinema past that are less homage than guiding purpose. Like in the Bond films, any emotional nuance has been bestowed on Wick’s rather more interesting opposite number (Donnie Yen’s blind assassin Caine), while specificities of plot have been sacrificed for extended slaughterings intercut with worshipful sequences glorifying the hyperluxe corridors of power so shamelessly that they may as well be commercials for wealth. Which poses the question: Is John Wick: Chapter 4 an obscene glorification of capitalism unbound or cutting satire that insists all money is blood money? A profoundly inane exercise in empty violence or a transcendent ballet replacing exposition with movement? A stillborn spawn of a deadened culture or the apotheosis of a self-referential interactivity rendering originality itself irrelevant? To quote Wick, “Yeah.” R. JAY HORTON. Academy, Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Evergreen Parkway, Fox Tower, Joy Cinema, Living Room, Lloyd Center, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Progress Ridge, St. Johns Twin, Studio One.

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES

Edgin (Chris Pine) is no hero— just ask Edgin. “Shut up, I’m a moron, you know that,” he declares after being cheered for battling a dastardly wizard. His avowed stupidity makes him a perfect protagonist for Dungeons & Dragons, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein’s adaptation of Vin Diesel’s favorite fantasy role-playing game. In their last film, Game Night (2018), Daley and Goldstein cast Jason Bateman as a man who makes peace with his utter patheticness—and in D&D, they’ve handed Pine a similar role. Edgin’s quest to steal the secret to resurrection from a foppish former ally (Hugh Grant) is a series of ghoulish misadventures, including a showdown with a corpulent dragon and a series of morbidly witty interviews with talking skeletons. These spunky, satirical scenes offer much-needed relief from Edgin’s endless brooding over his dead wife and adorable estranged daughter (Chloe Coleman), which threatens to drown the comedy in solemnity. While Game Night took the piss out of Fight Club by turning a David Fincher-inspired sequence into a game of hot potato with a Fabergé egg, D&D seeks to balance gleeful absurdity with Tolkien-style melodrama. It’s a numbingly tidy film—and a far cry from Daley and Goldstein’s Vacation (2015), which peaked when the Griswold family was nearly drowned by a deranged river rafting guide (Charlie Day). That scene may have been mean-spirited and distasteful, but it was an undeniably funny testament to a truth Daley and Goldstein used to understand: In comedy, it’s hard to score critical hits (to borrow a D&D parlance) by playing nice. PG-13.

BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Cinemagic,

Eastport, Evergreen Parkway, Fox Tower, Laurelhurst, Living Room, Lloyd Center, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Progress Ridge, Studio One, Tigard, Wunderland Milwaukie.

A THOUSAND AND ONE

Not, importantly, One Thousand and One Nights, in which a lovely young bride ensures her own survival by spinning an ever more fantastical tale. If anything, A Thousand and One aims for the opposite effect. By focusing on the dreariest stretches of a young mother’s fight to raise her son in the face of manifold torments wrought by generational poverty, bureaucratic dominion, and encroaching gentrification, the indie festival fave threatens to cloud Teyana Taylor’s sparkling star turn as single mom Inez. While determined to rub our noses in the burnt-orange glories of late-’90s Brooklyn, the film still seems curiously old-fashioned. The minimal story harks back to the age of weepies, and save for an adult situation or two with the strapping suitor (William Catlett) enlisted as father figure, it’s easy to imagine Bette Davis or Joan Crawford as the beleaguered heroine trudging through this hard-knock life. Considering the well-traveled plot and romanticized reveries of oldish New York’s bustling urbanity, A Thousand and One never quite commits to its nostalgia. Moreover, a truly unexpected late-stage revelation implies Inez’s guiding impulse wasn’t that different from the tech-bro slumlords buying up her block, though the revelation arrives far too late to spice up the story’s sodden trudge through yesteryear. The three most important words in storytelling? Motivation, motivation, motivation. R. JAY HORTON. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Living Room, Vancouver Mall.

by Jack Kent

JONESIN’

BY MATT JONES

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries-born René Descartes (1596–1650) was instrumental in developing of modern science and philosophy. His famous motto, "I think, therefore I am" is an assertion that the analytical component of intelligence is primary and foremost. And yet, few history books mention the supernatural intervention that was pivotal in his evolution as a supreme rationalist. On the night of November 10, 1619, he had three mystical dreams that changed his life, revealing the contours of the quest to discern the "miraculous science" that would occupy him for the next 30 years. I suspect you are in store for a comparable experience or two, Aries. Brilliant ideas and marvelous solutions to your dilemmas will visit you as you bask in unusual and magical states of awareness.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): The dirty work is becoming milder and easier. It's still a bit dirty, but is growing progressively less grungy and more rewarding. The command to "adjust, adjust, and adjust some more, you beast of burden" is giving way to "refine, refine, and refine some more, you beautiful animal." At this pivotal moment, it's crucial to remain consummately conscientious. If you stay in close touch with your shadowy side, it will never commandeer more than ten percent of your total personality. In other words, a bit of healthy distrust for your own motives will keep you trustworthy. (PS: Groaning and grousing, if done in righteous and constructive causes, will continue to be good therapy for now.)

(PS: I'm only half-kidding. I really do believe your financial luck will be a peak in the coming weeks.)

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): It's an excellent time to give up depleted, used-up obsessions so you have plenty of room and energy to embrace fresh, succulent passions. I hope you will take advantage of the cosmic help that's available as you try this fun experiment. You will get in touch with previously untapped resources as you wind down your attachments to old pleasures that have dissipated. You will activate dormant reserves of energy as you phase out connections that take more than they give.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): "The best revenge is not to be like your enemy," said ancient Roman philosopher Marcus Aurelius. I'm tempted to advise every Scorpio to get a tattoo of that motto. That way, you will forever keep in mind this excellent advice; As fun as it may initially feel to retaliate against those who have crossed you, it rarely generates redemptive grace or glorious rebirth, which are key Scorpio birthrights. I believe these thoughts should be prime meditations for you in the coming weeks.

ACROSS

1. Skip levels, in early video games

5. Blasts with a ray gun

9. Part of a pasture

13. Standoffish

15. Fitzgerald of songdom

16. Sought damages in court

17. It's now just ... a bowl of hot water with roses and daisies (look to the right!)

19. Cribbage score markers

20. Jot stuff down

21. Bushy maze barrier

22. Early color TVs

23. Lowly, as a task

24. Mattress's place

27. "Where've you ___?"

29. Early 8-bit game console

30. Say with certainty

31. Philanthropic providers

33. They're now just ... bread and lettuce meals (look above!)

39. Julius Caesar's assassin

40. Comedian Kondabolu

41. Sat ___ (GPS system)

44. Iowa State's town

45. Encouraged, with "up"

47. Elite squads

49. "___ & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming"

50. System of principles

51. Recreational noodle?

56. "Bus Stop" dramatist

William

57. It's now just ... a tree in your texts (look to the left!)

58. Wet weather

59. Ballet jump

60. Senegal's capital

61. Winter transportation

62. Get snippy with

63. Ceremonial flames

DOWN

1. Be carried on a breeze

2. "It was ___ dream"

3. Kasparov piece

4. Hostile takeover

5. Outer parts of peels

6. Succulent leaf plant

7. Favorable factor

8. Sugarhouse stuff

9. "Trembling" tree

10. Caught up to speed

11. Singer Carly ___ Jepsen

12. Ford fiascoes

14. Boundary marker

18. Type of show or warrior

21. Painter Matisse

23. Cat comment

24. Certain college degs.

25. Green of "Casino Royale"

26. Toothpaste form

27. Paycheck booster

28. Terminal points

31. Invitation info

32. It may help you find your

©2023 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) For answers to this puzzle, call: 1-900-226-2800, 99 cents per minute. Must be 18+. Or to bill to your credit card, call: 1-800-655-6548. Reference puzzle #JNZ990.

classes on the first day

34. Playhouse offering

35. Adds up

36. Barn bale

37. "... ___ he drove out of sight"

38. "Science Kid" of PBS

41. Lowest points

42. Discordant, as music

43. Compete (for)

45. Lightning flash

46. Like a hungry pet, probably

48. Change, as a document

49. Skeleton parts

51. Legal appeal

52. Cheerios ingredients

53. Adjective that the Addams family are "altogether"

54. Slightly opened

55. Spare in the trunk

57. Late-night wear

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): "'Tis the good reader that makes the good book," wrote Gemini philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. "In every book, he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakably meant for his ear." In the coming weeks, a similar principle will apply to everything you encounter, Gemini—not just books. You will find rich meaning and entertainment wherever you go. From seemingly ordinary experiences, you’ll notice and pluck clues that will be wildly useful for you personally. For inspiration, read this quote from author Sam Keen: "Enter each day with the expectation that the happenings of the day may contain a clandestine message addressed to you personally. Expect omens, epiphanies, casual blessings, and teachers who unknowingly speak to your condition."

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Traditional astrologers don't regard the planet Mars as being a natural ally of you Crabs. But I suspect you will enjoy an invigorating relationship with the red planet during the next six weeks. For best results, tap into its rigorous vigor in the following ways: 1. Gather new wisdom about how to fight tenderly and fiercely for what's yours. 2. Refine and energize your ambitions so they become more ingenious and beautiful. 3. Find out more about how to provide your physical body with exactly what it needs to be strong and lively on an ongoing basis. 4. Mediate on how to activate a boost in your willpower.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): I won't ask you to start heading back toward your comfort zone yet, Leo. I'd love to see you keep wandering out in the frontiers for a while longer. It's healthy and wise to be extra fanciful, improvisatory, and imaginative. The more rigorous and daring your experiments, the better. Possible bonus: If you are willing to question at least some of your fixed opinions and dogmatic beliefs, you could very well outgrow the part of the Old You that has finished its mission.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The Supreme Deity with the most power may not be Jehovah or Allah or Brahman or Jesus's Dad. There's a good chance it's actually Mammon, the God of Money. The devoted worship that humans offer to Mammon far surpasses the loyalty offered to all the other gods combined. His values and commandments rule civilization. I bring this to your attention, Virgo, because now is an excellent time for you to deliver extra intense prayers to Mammon. From what I can determine, this formidable Lord of Lords is far more likely to favor you than usual.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Sometimes love can be boring. We may become overly accustomed to feeling affection and tenderness for a special person or animal. What blazed like a fiery fountain in the early stages of our attraction might have subsided into a routine sensation of mild fondness. But here's the good news, Sagittarius: Even if you have been ensconced in bland sweetness, I suspect you will soon transition into a phase of enhanced zeal. Are you ready to be immersed in a luscious lusty bloom of heartful yearning and adventure?

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): What shall we call this latest chapter of your life story? How about "Stealthy Triumph over Lonely Fear" or maybe "Creating Rapport with the Holy Darkness." Other choices might be "As Far Down into the Wild Rich Depths That I Dare to Go" or "My Roots Are Stronger and Deeper Than I Ever Imagined." Congratulations on this quiet but amazing work you've been attending to. Some other possible descriptors: "I Didn't Have to Slay the Dragon Because I Figured Out How to Harness It" or "The Unexpected Wealth I Discovered Amidst the Confusing Chaos."

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): It's sway-swirl-swivel time for you, Aquarius—a phase when you will be wise to gyrate and rollick and zigzag. This is a bouncy, shimmering interlude that will hopefully clean and clear your mind as it provides you with an abundance of reasons to utter "whee!" and "yahoo!" and "hooray!" My advice: Don't expect the straight-and-narrow version of anything. Be sure you get more than minimal doses of twirling and swooping and cavorting. Your brain needs to be teased and tickled, and your heart requires regular encounters with improvised fun.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): When I was growing up in suburban America, way back in the 20th century, many adults told me that I was wrong and bad to grow my hair really long. Really! It's hard to believe now, but I endured ongoing assaults of criticism, ridicule, and threats because of how I shaped my physical appearance. Teachers, relatives, baseball coaches, neighbors, strangers in the grocery store—literally hundreds of people— warned me that sporting a big head of hair would cause the whole world to be prejudiced against me and sabotage my success. Decades later, I can safely say that all those critics were resoundingly wrong. My hair is still long, has always been so, and my ability to live the life I love has not been obstructed by it in the least. Telling you this story is my way of encouraging you to keep being who you really are, even in the face of people telling you that's not who you really are. The astrological omens say it's time for you to take a stand.

Homework: What do you love most about yourself? Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com

"On the Hunt"--they've been relocated.

Mufasa lost his home when his person lost his, and afterwards had nowhere to go. Described as a great playful dog, ever since he became homeless too he has been at a local animal control hoping someone will notice and take him home. Don’t let his kennel presentation deter you! It is just how he presents behind bars. He is really just a big ole lover boy! Mufasa is looking for attention and affection, walks nicely on leash and once you get him home he will thank you with a thousand play bows and kisses! Five years old, 101 pounds, Has lived with a small dog! For more pictures call 503-625-4563 or e-mail gocbwatchdog@aol.com