Bölümler
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"Faster, Higher, Stronger...Drunker?"
To commemorate these Games of the XXXIII Olympiad in Paris, the HBTG boys set their sights on the Marathon Taverna (SW 18th & Burnside), arriving just past opening at 7 a.m. alongside several of Portland's world-class early morning drinkers (including one bourbon-loving fly) to take advantage of the economical breakfast special, jaunty bar conversation, and live Olympic coverage.
A corner drinking spot by several different names since the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, the Marathon was established in 1974 by Greek immigrant Harlambos “Bobby” Polizos who, along with his wife Diane, also ran the legendary Acropolis Steakhouse (strip club) in deep SE Portland. Both continue to be family owned and operated today.
It's the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, and all the rise and chug magic you love in this gold medal caliber episode of History by the Glass!
Bar visit and episode recording: Friday, August 2, 2024
HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers
Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers
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*DRUMS PLEASE*
Here it is, the pod, slightly transformed, just a bit of a break from the norm, just a little somethin' to break the monotony...
Yes indeed, it is SUMMERTIME in the city and on the eve of America's birthday, the HBTG boys put their sunglasses on, oiled each other up like a pair of Navy fighter pilots prepping for a sand volleyball game, and headed north to the mighty Columbia River to seek, no, not the Northwest Passage, but the oldest bar in Portland's sector of this legendary waterway -- the Sextant Bar & Galley (4035 NE Marine Drive)!
Built in 1973 by longtime owner/proprietor Dean Burch, this venerable, unpretentious local spot continues to be run by the same family today. It's a classic neighborhood bar & grill, featuring back patio river views interspersed with aircraft fly-overs -- a perfectly satisfying place to have a cold one.
But with the sun in your face, a Corona or two coursing through your veins, and the endless possibility of summer on your mind, satisfaction is sometimes only as good as the next bar down river...
...So think of the summers of the past, adjust the bass and let the Apline blast, play this episode and let 'em run a rhyme and put yourself on cruise and lay back 'cause this is summertime...
Bar visit and episode recording: Wednesday, July 3, 2024
HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers -
Eksik bölüm mü var?
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Fathers. You have 'em, you may be 'em, you probably love 'em, and you may also drink in dark bars because of 'em. But there's no better place in Portland to linger over a stiff pour and big ol' pile of eggs while thinking about yours than My Father's Place aka MFP (523 SE Grand Ave.).
Established as MFP in 1978 (yes, ANOTHER late '70s bar!) and a local watering hole since at least 1935, it features a triple option of drinking/dining/entertainment experience to suit whatever outlook on life you enter with and is known for being one of the best places in town to start and/or finish your drinking day.
The HBTG boys strolled in at 10 a.m. on a sunny Friday, ensconsed themselves into one of the more uniquely designed bars they've ever come across, taught themselves how to use fork and spoon over 18 inches of vaulted padded vinyl, and, as always, enjoyed this episode's rollicking post-bar visit reminiscence.
PLUS, thoughts on the best new-old/old-new bar in town, Jerry's Tavern, and a fond farewell to the incomparable Bill Walton -- forever a champion of Portland and unabashedly optimistic living. Thank you for your life Bill.Bar visit and episode recording: Friday, May 31, 2024
HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers
Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers -
Five 1/2 years ago...two earnest, but slapdash episodes into this grand experiment called the History by the Glass podcast...we were contacted out of the blue...by an actual BAR.
And not just any bar, but an honest-to-god OLD bar who simply said, "Love your podcast!" -- the first inkling we had that maybe this thing might possibly resonate beyond our immediate friends and family.
Of course, that bar was none other than McPeet's Portland Pub (4501 NE Fremont St., Est. 1979), which we had the pleasure of FINALLY visiting on a warm Monday evening to enjoy some cold High Lifes, a damn fine burger, memorable restroom, and great conversation with owner Chris Peterson and bar hype man (and social media manager) Mitch Forness.
You may find plenty of bars in this town that are older, quirkier, more elegant or more divey, but sometimes what you really need most are the simple pleasures of a wonderfully basic neighborhood pub that's been serving up local comfort and fellowship for generations.
Bar visit and episode recording: Monday, April 22, 2024
HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers
Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers -
Established in 1907, Dan & Louis Oyster Bar is Portland's oldest family-owned restaurant. Is it really a bar though? Or just a restaurant that serves drinks?
We'll leave that for you to decide. But is it a FANTASTIC place to eat, drink, and connect with Old Portland?
Abso-shuckin'-lutely.
Yes, like Roger Sterling and Don Draper in Mad Men's Season 1 classic "Red in the Face" oyster lunch scene, the HBTG boys were busting after a midday bacchanal of invertebrates, martinis, and cheesecake.
Thankfully for all involved there were no flights of stairs to be climbed en route to the recording studio afterward and the only expulsion was the pure joy of experiencing a Portland classic for the first time.
PLUS, reflections on our visit to one of the newest bars in the city -- Too Soon -- in our April Fool's episode!
Bar visit and episode recording: Friday, March 29, 2024
HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers
Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers -
Join us dear friends for another succinct and well produced episode of History by the Glass -- Portland most popular podcast tour of the city's freshest, hottest, and relatively historic bars, pubs, and saloons…whiskey libraries, modern speakeasies, craft brew pubs, and mixology dens.
In this rare commercial-free episode, we asked how soon is Too Soon when we visited Northeast’s 8-week-old Too Soon cocktail lounge -- the oldest bar in Portland serving complimentary warm cookies at last call.
Bar visit and episode recording: Thursday, March 7, 2024
HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers -
Remember FUN?! Well, thanks to vibrant old locals like The Slammer Tavern (500 SE 8th Ave.) it's BACK.
And, hey, so are WE for a THIRD season of History by the Glass!
We were thrilled to get busy living at one of Portland's most unique, friendly, and fun-loving dives (or is it?), which has been sentencing folks to good times as "The Slammer" since the late '70s on the ground floor of a towering, mysterious 135-year-old building that's featured a neighborhood watering hole since the start of WWII (if not earlier).
Lovingly family owned and operated, we had the pleasure of grabbing a bolted stool alongside owner/bartender/contractor/maestro of bar mojo Christopher -- whose legendary mom, Lizzie Robarts-Dille, has worked and/or owned the place for about as long as it's been The Slammer -- to learn all about the magic of this Portland institution.
There's the refreshing simplicity of the beer selection, the intentionality of games both offered and NOT offered, and...hands down, one of the most memorable bar bathrooms we've ever experienced.
All this, plus reflections from our recent borderland bacchanal in Alfredo's hometown of El Paso, Texas, and more!
Bar visit and episode recording: Friday, Feb. 23, 2024
HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers
Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers -
"It was after Christmas babe...in a Chinese restaurant dive bar...an old man said to me, won't see another one..."
The season 2 finale and annual holiday special found the HBTG boys holed up at St. Johns' historic and wonderfully divey Wishing Well Chinese restaurant lounge (8800 N. Lombard St.), fulfilling a Christmas tradition for Nathan while reflecting on the poetic melancholy of the season and a banner year of old bar adventures.
Thank you all for listening and telling your fellow bar aficionados about us. It's been one of the true creative joys of our lives to be able to celebrate these places and communities with you.
We'll see you all in February of 2024 for season 3 of History by the Glass. In the meantime, may we never let auld acquaintance be forgot and enjoy many cups of kindness yet for auld lang syne.
Happy New Year!!
Bar visit and initial recording: Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2023
Special Guest: Bill Clifford
HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers
Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers -
Just like one of John Madden's legendary turduckens, we squeezed an obscene amount of goodness into THIS, our Thanksgiving/inaugural listener's choice/5-year anniversary special!
Longtime listener Matt Wyss was our lucky winner with his submission of his live music lovin' local, the Laurelthirst Public House (2958 NE GlisanSt.), and we were thrilled to jam ourselves into Portland's Grand Ole Opry on a lively Monday night before digging into the somewhat surprising history and unique experience of this venerable Portland institution.
Bar visit and initial recording: Monday, November 20, 2023
HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers
Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers -
Episode No. 30(!!) finds the HBTG boys enjoying their Halloween Spooktacular happily drinking among the undead at Holman's Bar & Grill (15 SE 28th Ave) -- no, not the youthful clientele, but the bar itself!
Established in...ehhh, let's just call it pre-WWII...Holman's appeared to be ALL dead when it locked its doors during the sweeping pandemic closures of 2020. However, thanks to the local legends of historic bar reanimation, Warren Boothby and Marcus Archambeault, it proved to only be MOSTLY dead and was brought back to life in late July of 2023.
This beautiful Frankenstein of an old bar (featuring pieces from some of its deceased peers) is back and puttin' on the Ritz better than ever. With unpretentious drinks, great food, historic authenticity and character, and plenty of patrons, it's proof that old joints don't have to be "Bar Rescued" to stay relevant and vivacious today.
Bar visit and episode recording: Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023
HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers
Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers -
Fall is officially upon us. Which, for the HBTG boys, means sports, sports, SPORTS!
Once upon a time, the venerable Claudia’s on SE Hawthorne would’ve been atop the list of beloved old local places to grab a cold one and watch the game, but with its October closure after 75 years of service, it was time to evaluate one of its worthy successors.
This is how we found ourselves parachuting into NE Portland‘s North Tabor neighborhood on a Monday Night Football night to experience the underrated and historic A & L Sports Pub — the latest of a series of watering holes in this century old building going back to 1945.
The epitome of a local sports bar with nightly regulars, knowledgeable and affable staff, and enough space to fit the entire 1979 Pittsburgh Steelers team, the A & L has been bringing folks together to slosh pitchers of beer, catcall opposing fans, and do all that good communal sports bar stuff we know and love so well since the dawn of the ‘90s. Buckle up your chinstrap and get in the game!
Bar visit and recording: Monday, Oct. 2, 2023
HBTG theme song: “Frozen Egg” by Lame Drivers
Interlude music: “Right Track” by Lame Drivers
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The Yamhill Pub is a Fox News producer's wet dream. It's the grimy, thrashed, chaotic, debauched, unrepentant, undeveloped, iconically menacing "lowest down diviest dive in Portland"...and we couldn't be more proud.
Established in 1933 or 1939 in a century-old downtown building, the Yamhill Pub supernaturally resists all attempts to categorize it or neatly explain it. Its history is unknowable, yet infused throughout the sneaky warmth and undeniable character of the place. It is, in fact, a neighborhood bar that gives everyone who dares an opportunity to be their most weirdly normal selves and is the type of place every single neighborhood in our city and yours should feature and celebrate.
If you like the F-word, bar movies, unforgettable lavatories, obscure Seinfeld references, and confused middle aged suburbanites attempting to decipher modern day sex/drug parlance -- this is your episode!
Bar visit and recording: Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023 HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers -
Downtown Portland’s Driftwood Room has been shaking up craft cocktails and intimate, dimly lit hotel bar connections since opening in what was then Hotel Mallory (and today Hotel DeLuxe) in 1954. Once a pioneer of the city’s mixology scene, today it remains a beloved, luxurious, unctuous, and, as we can now attest, potent purveyor of spirits.
Yes, we had an AWESOME time at Driftwood Room…and then proceeded to continue having an even awesomer time with overflowing glasses of Canadian Club at the HBTG studio over the course of a jaunty, increasingly slurry, and eventually unintelligible mess of an initial recording.
We just plain kicked the shit out of it folks.
And, after listening to the end result, decided the only way forward was the unprecedented choice to re-record the back half of the episode six days later. We had too much respect for the bar, this project, and, hell, maybe even ourselves(?!) not to take that mulligan. Unorthodox, yes, but without a doubt, a better product.
So here’s to Driftwood Room, Downtown Portland, and hotel bar frequenters everywhere…this episode (and its many MANY drinks) are for you.
Bar visit and initial recording: Thursday, July 20, 2023
Partially re-recorded: Wednesday, July 26, 2023
HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers
Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers
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Anthony Bourdain was our generation's greatest explorer of places near and far. Five years ago, he chose to leave well before his family, friends, and fans around the world were prepared to say goodbye. His legacy is baked into our effort to celebrate the venerable bars (and the communities that love them) of Portland and beyond, as well as how we engage with the world around us on a daily basis.
We took time to pour a couple of drinks and reflect on how his impact continues to resonate with us and others today before sharing highlights from our most recent Bourdain Day adventure (19:30) to the Germanic farmlands (and bars, of course) south of Portland, as well as a ludicrously self-indulgent trip to Las Vegas -- and specifically Downtown Vegas -- to celebrate Alfredo's 10-year bachelor party anniversary (29:08).
PLUS, we announced the bar destination for our next episode (37:51), pondered the oldest bar in Oregon, and, finally, raised a glass to the Stonewall Inn bar in The Village, NYC on the 54th anniversary of the LGBTQIA regulars there giving a defiant "we're not gonna take it anymore!" to those who would attempt to push them around in their local. (44:15)
Bars are community and communities are love and power. Cheers friends.
Recorded: Wednesday, June 28, 2023
HBTG Theme Song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers
Interlude Music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers
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With 56 locations throughout Oregon and Washington and annual revenue in the range of $200M annually, we're willing to bet, if you're listening to this podcast, you've been to a freaking McMenamins! You know the vibe, you know the art, you know the history, and you know the consistent, if perhaps overly scrutinized, food, beer, and service.
Well, 40 years ago, nobody knew much of anything about Mike and Brian McMenamin's fist bar together, the Barley Mill Pub (1629 SE Hawthorne, Portland). It began as a chill, uncontroversial, infrequently visited public house when it opened in the summer of 1983 with few indications of the seismic shift in the region's bar and beer landscape it would soon help usher in. The humble Barley Mill was indeed the Pub that launched a thousand quirky boozy ships in the Northwest.
We visited on a beautiful day in SE Portland, did all the classic McMenamins things, and, eventually (once functional recording equipment arrived 48hrs later), recorded a rollicking stein-swinging conversation covering McMenamins unparalleled historic preservation efforts, a salute to the cajun tot, the polarizing Grateful Dead, and the glory of disco lit men's rooms.
Bar visit: Thursday, May 25, 2023
Recording date: Saturday, May 27, 2023
HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers
Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers
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In the course of producing this episode, our 25th HBTG bar night out, there were three things we became (fairly) certain about:
1. That Slim's Restaurant & Lounge (8635 N Lombard St.) offers one of the best, most authentic old bar experiences you'll find in Portland.
2. That Slim's is also about 24 years younger than it has long believed.
3. That, in the grand of things, we don't really gives a shit (see certainty No. 1).
In the greatest old bar neighborhood in the city (St. John's, formerly an independent city of its own), Slim's is our, hands-down, favorite so far. They brought tears to our eyes by selling us a High Life bottle AND Hamm's tallboy when we sat down at the bar. They have a $7 burger that blew Nathan's doors off, deliciously healthy menu options you almost never see at a blue collar bar, and the vintage decor is spot-on. In this perplexing modern world, they are vibrant, nostalgic, convivial, and, basically, everything you want from a historic (give or take 2 1/2 decades) neighborhood bar.
And at the end of a long day or graveyard shift, nothing in the world is more important than that.
Bar visit & recording date: Monday, April 24, 2023
HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers
Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers -
Belonging. Believe it or not, it's what we're all ultimately looking for when we walk into a bar as a patron or, even, an employee. We all just want to be seen and known...and the drinks taste so f--king good.
The Stockpot Broiler Lounge & Restaurant (8200 SW Scholls Ferry Rd, Beaverton, OR) has been serving up belonging for nearly 50 years at a former farm turned golf course in the Portland-Tigard-Beaverton borderlands to a bevy of devoted regulars (like us) and its long-tenured staff who happily intermingle when the shifts are done.
Owner Murray Miller laid the foundation when he took over in 1981 and, for the past two decades, head bartender Andy Mason has presided over what's quite possibly the best, most convivial bar atmosphere in the metro area.
In this, our first, visit as primary historians, we knew we could never meet the standard of the love we hold for this bar (and between our rust and a few technical issues, we didn't)...but it sure meant the world to try.
Bar visits & recording dates: Thursday, March 16, 2023 and Sunday, March 19, 2023
HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers
Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers -
Still riding the high from their Season 2 premiere at Bill's Steakhouse... *checks calendar*... EIGHT GD weeks ago (!?!?), the boys welcomed back longtime friend of the podcast and veteran Portland bar aficionado Bill Clifford in-studio to test drive a new HBTG interview segment, and reflect fondly on his most formative/traumatizing bar moments, the shuttered local joint he misses most, and the only way to get a proper dry Manhattan with a twist.
Along the way, they blew the lid off of the Dry January movement which, in one of the most SHOCKING episodes ever, appears to have even radicalized one of their own...it's all on this episode between the episodes we call HBTG: Shots in the Dark.
Episode Recorded: Jan. 15, 2023
Willamette Week Sloan's Tavern eulogy article
HBTG Theme Song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers...Interlude Music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers.
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Filled with gratitude, gravy, and goodwill, the HBTG boys emerged from their hiatus refreshed and ready to kick off season TWO of the podcast at the place it all inexplicably began nearly 5 years earlier -- Bill's Steak House (10227 NE Sandy Blvd) in Portland's Parkrose neighborhood. This time, instead of near-crippling depression and doubt, the boys found an earnest, scrappy regulars bar that continues to roll with the punches thrown its way decade by decade, night by night.
Founded in 1940 as a hot dog stand called Bill's Streetcar (because, you know, they served hot dogs out of a literal streetcar), Bill's is thought to be the oldest continuously operating restaurant east of 82nd Ave., but, more importantly for us, it's been a beloved local watering hole since its days of 25-cent glasses of wine.
Nevermind the literal name on the front though -- don't come from your airport hotel looking for a classic Portland steakhouse. Come in search of an honest pour, respectable bar food, and a chance to bend elbows with some real life Portlanders and all their beautiful, sometimes unsettling, complexity. We checked our preconceptions at the door this time around and left with our HBTG cups full.
Special thanks and cheers to bartender Lisa -- it was an honor to watch you steer that ship!
Bar visit & recording date: Saturday, Nov 26, 2022
HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers
Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers -
The second half of our epic Phase One finale concludes at the only place it possibly could -- the iconic Bud Clark's legendary Goose Hollow Inn. It's a place that, despite its rigorous adherence to COVID precautions at the time of our visit, STILL reminds us of all that was once good about bar-going in Portland, and could be again.
Bud, who died on Feb. 1, 2022 after 90 incredibly well-lived years, understood that community building was the essence of bar culture. He designed his taverns to bring people together, regardless of ideological alignment, with a polite, yet firm expectation to "develop your verbal ability or leave." Because at the end of the day, if we can still clink glasses after a lively debate -- and there's no shortage of those today -- then we're still able to recognize each other's humanity, and just might have a decent shot to make it in this world.
Over the past four years and 42 bars, human connection is always what this project has been about -- exploring the communities and interacting with the people that make up this wonderful city through the neighborhood bars where they and generations before have long felt most free to be their authentic selves.
It's what inspired "History by the Glass" author Paul Pintarich, a friend of Bud Clark's, to begin documenting these uniquely Portland stories in 1996, despite 13 years on the wagon. They were too important, too essential to our collective civic character to let fade away.
We owe an incredible debt of gratitude to Paul and his family (which has so kindly raised a glass in our direction during the course of this project). We hope we might've made him proud and are honored to carry his torch onward in the next phase of research and warm, blurry conversations about these famously historic and infamously endangered bars, pubs and saloons. Thanks for coming along with us on the ride.
Pool Tables.
Show Notes:
"Expose Yourself to Art" Bud Clark/Mike Ryerson
"This Bud's for You" Bud Clark Poster (1983)
HBTG Theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers
Interlude music: "Drink Up Me Mateys" by Black Bones - Daha fazla göster
