The Poor Farm, built in 1911, had been a self-sufficient facility, with a meatpacking plant, power station, rooming house, and infirmary. McMenamins purchased some of the acreage and buildings that remained from the Multnomah County Poor Farm in 1987. Artist Lyle Hehn created what became iconic company characters, Ruby Witch and Hammerhead, which appear on the company’s murals, posters, and coasters. McMenamins also introduced fruit beers, with early batches featuring blackberries from the Hillsdale brewpub’s parking lot.Īt the same time, the company developed three beers that are brewed at all of its breweries: Terminator Stout (1985), a dark, English-style brew Ruby (1986), a light, raspberry-flavored beer and Hammerhead (1986), a classic Northwest pale ale. They were made with apples, spices, and candy bars, for example, as well as chocolate and crystal malts. At first, some found McMenamins’ beers to be unsettling. In 2022, the company operated twenty-four breweries from Mill Creek, Washington, to Roseburg, Oregon. McMenamins opened Oregon’s first theater pub in 1987-the Mission Theater in northwest Portland, originally a Swedish tabernacle built in the 1890s. Later that year, it opened Lighthouse Brewpub i n Lincoln Cityand, two years later, the Fulton Pub and Brewery and the Highland Pub and Brewery. In 1986, the company purchased a farmhouse in Hillsboro and turned it into Cornelius Pass Roadhouse. During the first year, several brewers moved through the facility, including Conrad Santos, John Harris, Scott Barrow, and Alex Farnham, the company’s first woman brewer. Ron Wolf brewed their first beer, Hillsdale Ale, a bitter made with malt extract. Governor Vic Atiyeh signed it into law on July 13, 1985, and a few months later the McMenamins opened Hillsdale Brewery and Public House in southwest Portland, naming the attached brewery Captain Neon's Fermentation Chamber, a nod to Mike’s nickname. The bill allowed breweries to brew and sell beer in the same location and was a major development in Oregon’s beer industry. In the 1980s, the McMenamins joined the owners of Portland Brewing, BridgePort Brewing, and Widmer Brothers Brewing to lobby for Senate Bill 813, known as the Brewpub Bill. The pub became known for its Grateful Dead memorabilia and namesake barley mill, which had been used by Chuck Coury at Cartwright Brewing Company, the first new craft brewery to open in Oregon after the repeal of Prohibition. In 1983, they bought the Fat Little Rooster tavern in southeast Portland and renamed it the Barley Mill Pub. Rather than the smoky, male-dominated taverns common in Portland at the time, they were inspired by European public houses that served as community hubs. Mike McMenamin then opened a wine distributorship, which failed, and in 1983 the brothers decided to open a new bar together. In 1974, Mike McMenamin and two college friends purchased Produce Row Café in southeast Portland, where they sold over a hundred types of beer he bought Bogart's Joint in 1975. Most of the company’s properties are rehabilitated historic buildings in Oregon and Washington twenty are on the National Register of Historic Places.īoth McMenamins graduated from Oregon State University, Mike in political science (1974) and Brian in business (1980). It also owns a coffee roaster, winery, cidery, and distillery. The company has over sixty properties, including twelve hotels dozens of breweries, pubs, and restaurants movie theaters music venues and spas. McMenamins was founded by Mike and Brian McMenamin, brothers who grew up in northeast Portland. As of 2022, they own the company, with Mike serving as president and Brian as vice-president.
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