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Bars where Pete has had a Drink (5,608 bars; 1,754 bars in Seattle) - Click titles below for Lists:


Bars where Pete has had a drink

Thursday, November 22, 2012

#1832 - Rock Garden Tavern, Oregon City, OR - 8/6/2011

Like the Echo Inn just across the Clackamas River, the Rock Garden Tavern is a historic old place established by the Mumpower family in the 1920s. Current owner Sheila was kind enough to share with us a scrapbook of historical notes and photos. The building was apparently situated here by Joseph Grant Mumpower in order to prevent Steven Carver from building his railroad through -- but the railroad just went up and over the place. In 1936, it was sold to Mumpower's daughter Genievieve and her friend Marie Mollet, whereupon the women converted it to a tavern, which it has remained ever since. (Genevieve's sister-in-law Echo founded the Echo Inn.)

Owner's photo book on the history of the Rock Garden Tavern
Today, the tavern looks very much as it did in the past (at least as far back as the 1940s photos), and the interior feels homey despite the video lottery machines lining the backroom walls. It's the kind of bar that makes me long to come back and visit when there's a foot of snow outside.


Sheila, owner of the Rock Garden Tavern, Oregon City, OR

Genevieve Mumpower Miller, left, at the Rock Garden Tavern

17930 S Clackamas River Dr, Oregon City, OR 97045
Bar Est. 1936 (Est. as restaurant 1928) - Building constructed: 1928

Reviews: yelp

#1831 - Echo Inn, Carver, OR - 8/6/2011

For background on Shelley's Echo Inn, I quote the April 20, 2010 issue of the Clackamas Review:

'You will have to wait until September for the crawfish races, but chicken poop bingo is coming up on April 24, at Shelly’s Echo Inn in Carver.... There has been an eatery of some kind on the spot since 1924, when a woman named Echo Mumpower began serving food to loggers. "It started as a roadside stand like you’d find at a carnival; it always served beer and wine. And before the trailer park [down below] was built, people would walk up [from the river bank] to buy burgers," Weseman said. A man named Mac then owned the place for 29 years, before selling to Weseman’s father, who in turn owned it for three and a half years. After trying to sell the restaurant to her brothers, Weseman’s father talked her into buying it when she was 27 and a single mom.'

'When she took over the Echo Inn, Hamm’s and Budweiser were the only beers on tap, and chili dogs and bar snacks made up the bulk of the menu. That has changed dramatically. Weseman had a kitchen built, her husband built a smokehouse and she brought in a gas barbecue. She smokes hams, half chickens, prime rib roasts, roasts and jerky and barbecues steaks and pork chops, among other things. She also serves Icelandic cod, steamers and chicken strips.'

(For another bar built by the Mumpowers in the 1920s, swing across the Clackamas river to the Rock Garden Tavern.)


16150 SE Hwy 224 Damascus, OR 97015 - (503) 658-5226          
Web site: shellysechoinn.com
Reviews: yelp

#1830 - Trader Vic's, Portland, OR - 8/5/2011

Update: The Portland Trader Vics closed in March 2016.

You will excuse, I hope, a little bitter envy from up north. Seattle may retain a little tiki vibe in HulaHula (and let us politely ignore the ghastly sham called  "Tiki Bob's"). But with the return of Trader Vic's in 2011, Portland has the trifecta: the fine, vintage tiki dive (The Alibi), the modern, classy tiki (Thatch/Hale Pele), and the old classic.

Trader Vic's, of course, started it all. Not just the tiki bar, but the tiki movement, resurgent now after a couple decades of decline.  Starting as "Hinky Dink's, across from his parents' Oakland grocery store, Victor Bergeron spread his vision of exotic, idealized Polynesian escape across the country and eventually the world. Of course many others contributed (and some contend Vic's claim on the invention of the Mai Tai), but Don the Beachcomber et. al. were never as expansive and iconic.

 In Seattle we had the very first franchised Trader Vic's (long called "The Outrigger"), from 1948 to 1991, in the Benjamin Franklin / Westin Hotel, then recently had a brief, abortive attempt across Lake Washington in Bellevue. The large thatch lamps from the old Seattle place hung for years in the Crocodile Cafe, before disappearing altogether with the recent change in ownership. I never made it to the old Portland TV's (in the Benson Hotel from 1959 to 1996). But the new one feels just as right and enduring as the Bellevue one felt out of place and fragile. It is large (250 seats) but feels intimate, it looks terrific, and has drinks good enough to make you almost forget all the horrific attempts at tiki drinks you get almost anyplace else.






1203 NW Glisan St (at NW 12th Ave), Portland, OR 97209 - (503) 467-2277
Est. July 28, 2011

Web site: tradervicspdx.com - facebook
Ranked Reviews: oregonlive - portlandmonthlymagcritiki - flickr - eater - tikicentral - portlandmonthlymag - oregonlive - rumconnection - barfly - urbanspoon

#1829 - Jantzen Beach Bar & Grill, Portland, OR - 8/4/2011

A fairly typical hotel lounge in a Red Lion, but with a very nice view of the Columbia River.

909 N Hayden Island Dr, Portland, OR - (503) 283-4466


Web site: redlionontheriver.com - facebook
Reviews: link - urbanspoon - yelp

#1828 - Bullseye Bar, Lakewood - 8/3/2012

The Lakewood, WA instance of the fairly large bars in the 28-restaurant Black Angus Steakhouse chain.



9905 Bridgeport Way SW, Lakewood, WA 98499 - (253) 582-6900
Web site: blackangus.com

#1827 #S1048 - China Gourmet, Seattle - 7/29/2012

Update: China Gourmet closed in Nov 2014


Counting this restaurant in north Seattle as a bar is somewhat dubious, but they do have a physical bar where they serve wine and beer. (If it does count as a bar, it is the northernmost bar in the Seattle city limits.) They also serve reasonably good Chinese (Taiwanese to Northern Chinese) food for very reasonable prices. And their Superpages entry reads charmingly "We have been here for three years to service the wonderfully neighborhoods of north Seattle ..."


14411 Greenwood Ave N, Seattle, WA - (206) 363-3866
Est. 2009 - Closed Nov 2014 - Building constructed: 1928
Previous bars in this location: Ha Roo Japanese Restaurant and Bar
Web site: chinagourmetwa.com
Reviews: yelp - tripadvisor

#1826 #S1047 - Gaspare, Seattle - 7/26/2012

Gaspare and Dianne Trani decided to retire for the full-time restaurant business just three months after this visit to their charming Italian place in a Greenwood bungalow. They operated here for eight years, previously running Gaspare's Ristorante Italiano in Maple Leaf for fourteen, and then Il Gambero in Belltown from 1999 to 2003. They now offer catering services.


Langostino from Gaspare, Seattle
6705 Greenwood Avenue North Seattle, WA 98103 - (206) 297-3600
Est. 2004 - Closed Oct 27, 2012 - Building constructed: 1924
Previous bars in this location: None known
Web site: gasparesrestaurant.com
Reviews: seattletimes - phinneywood - urbanspoon - thestranger - yelp