Happy May Day! For years, a tradition for Portland-area schools was to celebrate the arrival of spring with a Maypole dance. The first held at Kennedy Elementary School (now McMenamins Kennedy School) was in the spring of 1916, as part of the dedication ceremony for Kennedy’s new permanent school building. McMenamins revived the Maypole tradition…
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When Bart Hance started working at McMenamins, it was not unusual to call up your boss to say you wouldn’t be coming in that day because the Grateful Dead was in Eugene (chances are, your boss was going too). 32 years later, it’s less likely to call in “Dead,” but a convivial air of friendship…
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“They were cultivating us to be the kind of women that they wanted us to be, not just as women but as community leaders, community organizers, as people who would carry on the torch.” – Crystal Wright, Red Rose Cotillion debutante of 1975 The Unique Social and Community Club was founded in 1963 by a…
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Winter at the Black Rabbit Bar & Restaurant at Edgefield is everything you dream of – cozy, warm, full of creative cocktails, delicious comfort food and extravagant-yet-homey desserts. We sat down with Executive Chef Jaime Shultz and Executive Pastry Chef Chuck Dugo to taste and talk. Black Rabbit Executive Chef Jaime Shultz After a stint…
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An Interview with Chuck Dugo, Pastry Chef Black Rabbit Bakery at Edgefield Strangely, it was Christmas that inspired Edgefield bakers to construct a creepy, crumbling Halloween version of Edgefield manor. In order to have enough time to make the thousand or so sugar & egg white bricks that make up the traditional pastried holiday structure,…
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Stephanie and Merrick McGinnis have ridden their bikes from Key West to Nova Scotia, Boston to Seattle and up and down the West Coast. Now these two-time Cosmic Tripsters are taking McMenamins by bike on a quest to fill their third Passports in a ride that may not be their longest (Boston-Seattle gets that honor…
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“We used to be very busy at the Corvallis Pub in those days, as well. I’ll never forget telling people it was going to be an hour-and-a-half wait for a table and another hour wait for food, and they say, ‘Great! throw me on the list.’ You know you have a good thing going at…
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1985. Ronald Reagan is president, The Goonies is popular in theaters, the Unabomber is at large in the U.S., Nintendo releases Super Mario Bros. and McMenamins’ first beer is born. In 1985 McMenamins was two years old and, after the recent passage of the Brewpub Bill, just dipping our toes into the proverbial mash of…
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While few can likely relate to the turbulent ups and downs of the famous Brando family, every one of us understands the desire for a friendly place where we can escape from real life, even if just for a short while. Incredibly, for legendary actor Marlon Brando and eldest son Christian Brando, that place was…
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George Putnam Riley was a brilliant activist, orator and lifetime barber lived an extraordinary existence during a pivotal time in American history, during the second half of the nineteenth century. His formative years were shaped by his East Coast upbringing, but his true character came from his life experiences on the Pacific Coast. The African-American…
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