McMenamins and the Broadening Definition of a Pub

The pub's the thing. That's been the inspiration for McMenamins since 1974, when the Portland-based company, channeled by brothers Mike and Brian McMenamin, opened its first location. Championing ever since the philosophy, "It's got to be fun," the two brothers have created a "Kingdom of Fun," with more than 55 (and counting) neighborhood gathering spots in Oregon and Washington.

In the early ‘70s, older brother Mike, then a recent Oregon State grad, recognized that Oregon's standing definition of a pub was stale and in need of reconfiguration. The local tavern scene—dark, smoky, male-dominated and hard-drinking—was a far cry from the all-age community pubs, cafés and piazzas that marked the landscapes of Ireland, England, France and Italy.

Good Food, Good Wine and Good Beer movements were already underfoot in Oregon. So in 1974, Mike and his college friends-turned-business partners stood at the vanguard of the emerging Good Pub movement when they opened Produce Row Café. After some time, Mike moved on from his workings with Produce Row and started a distribution business. Following a self-proclaimed "not-so-successful" run, Mike and younger brother Brian decided it was time to get back into the pub business. It was just a matter of finding the right place.

When a rough-and-tumble bar formerly known as the Fat Little Rooster became vacant, Mike and Brian felt that they had found the place. After a good cleaning inside and out, the location was given new life as the decidedly more family-friendly Barley Mill Pub on S.E. Hawthorne Blvd. The place was decked out with exuberant neon lights and imaginative murals painted by Norm Forsberg and Joe Cotter. The pub's namesake, a heavy barley mill (originally a kitty litter grinder), was set up with great effort in the front bay. It's a prized relic rescued from Oregon's first microbrewery, the Cartwright Brewery (1979–82).

Soon after the Barley Mill Pub's opening, Oregon law changed to allow breweries to sell beer on the same property as it was brewed—thus was born the brewpub concept. The now-famous microbrew revolution took over the Pacific Northwest. In fact, the first brewpub to start brewing its own beer in Oregon was McMenamins Hillsdale Brewery & Public House in southwest Portland in 1985. 

Over time we've learned that what makes a good pub is the journey that you take to get there. At the outset, it seemed clear that fun had to be a key ingredient. "Be wary of things too formal, too complicated and too orthodox" became the company's rallying cry. Simplicity is the goal, but it's a goal we've often found maddeningly difficult to attain.

Along the way, we came to understand the power of art, live music and history to draw people of all backgrounds together under one roof, reinforcing a sense of community. Ultimately, the most important realization has been that the essence of a pub is its people. Trendy decor doesn't attract a lasting clientele. Instead, it's the clientele itself that makes the atmosphere.

Children, grandparents and the whole of the neighborhood should feel comfortable at a pub, whether that spot is three stools in a rustic shed or a 74 acre estate. Keeping this in mind, we continue to happily tweak the notion of what a pub can be, adding such new twists as historic preservation (the Cornelius Pass Roadhouse being our original National Register property), theater-pubs (the Mission Theater became the first in 1987), vinting, distilling, gardening, lodging, golf (all first served up at Edgefield, which opened in 1990) and the staging of national music acts (at the historic Crystal Ballroom, beginning in 1997, and now at Edgefield, beginning again in 2006).

McMenamins continues to create imaginative and comfortable gathering spots for friends and family, tossing in unexpected turns of fun wherever possible. Stay overnight in a former Kennedy Elementary School classroom, take in the majestic 360-degree view from the Hotel Oregon's Rooftop Bar, dance on the Crystal's marvelous floating floor, make new friends through all-inclusive conversations at Edgefield's Little Red Shed—it all happens in a good pub.