Sixteen and counting.

December 11, 2003

Sixteen McMenamins restaurants/breweries and counting. Today marked the grand reopening of the Rock Creek tavern out here in the Hillsboro area relatively near my Mom’s house, and my Dad and I had been planning on attending for about two months or so.

The Rock Creek Tavern is one of the most interesting pubs that the McMenamin brothers owned, and instead of trying to summarize its history, I’ll just copy and paste from their website.

“Dating back to the 1920s, the history of Rock Creek Tavern makes for great storytelling nestled up next to the tavern’s roaring fireplace. Originally constructed as the Rock Creek Store, the place was built next to Adolph Fuegy’s 1890s-era blacksmith shop, which was considered a focal point for the small community of German-Swiss farmers. The storied locale was quickly and unwittingly drawn into the “Beer War,” as the press liked to call this post-Prohibition clash between ex-bootlegger Peter Marinoff’s renegade Northwest Brewing Company and the Teamsters Union which was hungry for more power and stridently opposed to Marinoff distributing his own ales. Continuing to sell Marinoff’s beer despite the increasing pressures, intimidations and gang-like tactics perpetrated by the teamsters, the Rock Creek Store came under attack in May 1935, when a homemade dynamite bomb shattered the store windows and left an ominous crater out front.

“Despite surviving the bombing, the store was destroyed in a fire in 1941, only to rise again when the old Fuegy blacksmith shop was moved and converted into the new Rock Creek Store. Reopened shortly before World War II, the place thrived for nearly a quarter of a century before its reinvention as Rock Creek Tavern in 1973. A popular hangout for locals, the tavern quickly developed a reputation as a “hip” hangout that also attracted visits by members of the rock bands The Eagles and Santana, as well as celluloid cowboy Clint Eastwood. McMenamins became custodians of Rock Creek Tavern in 1995.”

In late 2002, the Rock Creek tavern burned to the ground leaving only the chimney standing, thus destroying one of the older buildings in that area as well as taking a chunk of business with it. Not to be held back by trivial things like their bars being leveled by Acts of God, the McMenamin brothers rebuilt it. They made it better. They made it faster. They made it stronger. I’ve read several different stories about the rebuilding, and they put more effort into building the new structure than is given to most places. To get the same aged feeling, they raided late 19th and early 20th century barns in the area for wood, and used bricks and rocks from other old structures to build other parts of it. The bar is circa the early 20th century and was flown in from a pub in Germany to have that used look to it. Really, it was all fantastic.

So my Dad and I went with the two men we drove to Lincoln City with to go to the McMenamins there, and the four of us had a blast. Prior to today, the Kennedy School was my favorite McMenamins; a refurbished elementary school that had been closed for nearly 40 years turned into a hotel, meeting center, theater, and pub. Great atmosphere. But the Rock Creek Tavern is way out in the country, overlooking not strip malls and highways like some of the other pubs, but countryside, farms, and forests. There’s even a balcony upstairs that can be opened up in the spring and summer for people to sit outside above the scenery. Inside, everything had a mxture of new and old looks, making for a very interesting atmosphere while never once making me doubt that I was in a McMenamins. This was by far the best one I’ve ever been to. Number 16 is number 1 for me.

If I’m still living around here in the spring summertime next year, I’m definitely going to be spending some time out there. I should have taken my camera to capture the building on its grand opening day. The place was absolutely packed, and for the first time in probably ten years of going to McMenamins pubs and breweries, starting with the one in Corvallis long before I could drink or even CONSIDERED drinking, I had to wait for a table. So we stood around for ten minutes and looked at the building: its new fireplace attached to the old chimney, its wood-fired stove in the middle of the room for additional warmth, the old timbers rustled up from the surrounding communties, and the European signs on the wall that probably dated from the 1940’s. This is really a neat place.

And so that’s how I spent my lunchtime. Not the closest McMenamins to where I live, but it’s my new favorite and close enough to go to whenever I want, only about 10 or 15 minutes away compared to 30 or 45 to the Kennedy School.

I really don’t have anything else to say, I just wanted to brag about the new McMenamins. In brief, I emailed one of the people I”m waiting on hearing from about a job and he said that he’s been busy but hasn’t forgotten about me, and my friend Emily’s sister said she’s put in a good word for me at OMSI. Other than that, it’s slow as usual. The rest of this week will be spent will include running an errand for my Dad tomorrow morning in the Beaverton area, hanging Christmas tree decorations tomorrow night, and then heading over to my Dad’s house Saturday to house- and pet-sit for the night. Sunday is a Christmas concert with my Mom and sister, and after that the sky’s the limit. For now, I think I’m going to lie back infront of the fire here in the living room and see what happens when I close my eyes. Maybe sleep, maybe no. I have Moby playing in the background (I already listened to all the Christmas CDs that are sitting out when I did this yesterday), so that may not help me sleep, but sitting in front of the hot fire feels good nonetheless.

Cheers, all.

Posted in Beer, Geekery, General