So, McMenamins does things in, shall I say, their own funky style. It's nothing I've seen anywhere across the county or across the world; it's in a word, unique. When you walk into a McMenamins establishment, no matter where you are, if it's a restaurant in a strip mall or in a farm house on large acreage in a rural part of town, it is like no place you've walked into before. Think, Jerry Garcia meets the '20s. And each of them is as alike the next and as independent from the rest as possible, all at the same time. Well Chris, how is that possible? That's a paradox. You see, they take old facilities, and repurpose them into something amazing.
Take our company lunch today, which took place at the McMenamins Grand Lodge in Forest Grove, OR which incidentally is the first one I discovered while reporting for duty one night at one of my casino gigs. The Grand Lodge is a 100-year-old building that was once a local Masonic and Eastern Star property, aka an old folks home. It is now an old timey hotel and spa with restaurants, bars, a pool and much more. Sounds ordinary, right? But it's not. It's McMenamins, were you not listening??? j/k
When you enter the Grand Lodge, there are marble stairs, then tiled floors, you know, the old timey extremely-small-tiles tiled floors, designed into artistic mosaics. You pass rooms that were once home to the convalescent, community bathrooms - this place is European style - and the walls are covered with artistic painted designs, interesting quotes, and weird art like amazing concert posters and paintings that make you stop and say 'hmmmmm....'
Painting at the McMenamins Grand Lodge
While leaving our lunch today, I see this extraordinarily odd painting (the one above). I didn't know whether I should laugh or study it. I mean, it's a woman sitting in a goat-towed-buggy. And if a woman sitting in a goat-towed-buggy was not enough, they are flying through a stormy sky. Which makes me wonder, if they can fly, why is she in a cart? These are the random thoughts of my mind. Welcome to my version of crazy. I digress. So after carefully contemplating this deep thought - a woman with a flying goat, it just struck me as hilarious and crazy and I laughed. A young woman who is an employee of the Grand Lodge who was a few feet away from me moving boxes, heard me laugh and commented that this was an actual woman who lived in the Grand Lodge, when it was an old folks home, and yes, she did indeed ride in a goat-drawn-buggy. HOW AWESOME!!! You wouldn't think to ask this because it's just to crazy to be true and too characteristic of the McMenamins style to seem out of place. But behold my peeps, this piece of art, which should have been done on velvet, actually pays homage to a former resident. Rad.
Yes, I said rad.
But it's SO McMenamins. It's the type of place, no matter which one your in, that after having one of their craft brews - oh, did I forget to mention they brew their own beer, and it's freakin' good? Yes, they immediately gain 10 cool points just from this simple fact - or having one of their amazingly delicious meals (think bar food made by a well trained chef), you become acclimated to the funky weird style, and strange oddities like a painting such as this just seem to fade into the background. Except, not for me. I can't get enough. Their style is intoxicating, more so than their brews and libations. Their work, which began in 1982, and involves purchasing old relic building dating back to the very roots of Portland, and turning them into amazingly eclectic gathering places, just speaks to me. It's Portland. And it speaks to me.
Somehow, McMenamins is like a living reflection of me, and the me I came to Portland to be. Take, for example, these two songs that both played during lunch today in the restaurant. Summertime, by Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald. If you don't know, stop reading, shut down your browser, and get out more. LOL This duo is one of the iconic jazz compositions of their era. One Love, by Bob Marley. How can you not be chill and in an absolutely jammin' mood (little Marley pun there) when this song is playing. Yes, both played in the same set of songs that was our McMenamins lunch serenade. What kind of place has a music station playing songs by both Marley and Sachmo? McMenamins bitches. And it's glorious.
Let's go back two weeks. A coworker, who apparently knows me better than I thought, forwarded an email to me about Science Pub. Two things that shouldn't go together, but do here in Portland, and harmoniously. You read that right, Science Pub, a collaboration between McMenamins and the Oregon Science and Museum of Industry, known illustriously as OMSI (Om-zee). It is basically a science presentation, given by a prominent semi-local scientist and expert in their respective field, giving a talk about whatever to a crowd of people who simultaneously love beer, good food, and science. How COOL is that??? The offering two weeks ago, was held at the McMenamins Mission Theater (with roots as a Swedish Evangelical Mission and Longshoremen's Union), presented a talk on Debris Flows, by Dr. Dick Iverson, a leading research scientist hailing from the Cascades Volcano Observatory. The theater, in typical McMenamins fashion, is small, has a balcony, with seats that were clearly original (but reupholstered), wooden bench style tables so you can take notes and eat food, and wooden floors that creaked when you walk. This is the setting for memories, ones that may be a bit fuzzy if you enjoy too many of their craft brews.
The restaurant at McMenamins Kennedy School
McMenamins Crystal Ballroom, downtown Portland
Some other examples of McMenamins charm and McBadAss style include: the Kennedy School, once an elementary school that is now a hotel where all the rooms are the old school rooms complete with blackboards; the Blue Moon, a restaurant downtown that features bar-style shuffle board, pool tables, large old-world-style wooden booths, and pot-belly stoves that are still cranking out the heat; and the Crystal Ballroom, a music venue (seen above) with a floating dance floor. Yes, this is the wizardry they call common place here in Portland. And I love it.
