The Red Shed Tapes Podcast, Episode 1 Transcript
Long, Strange Trip

SPEAKERS

Mike McMenamin, Shannon McMenamin, Thursday Jane, Brian McMenamin, Patrick McNurney

Shannon McMenamin  00:00

Hi, I’m Shannon McMenamin, host of The Red Shed Tapes and part of the leadership team running our family owned company.

Growing up, my dad always drove a van; my brothers and I spent a lot of time rolling around in the back of those vans. In the center between the bucket seats, my dad always had a cassette holder full of bootlegs of Grateful Dead shows. They were the soundtrack to our early lives.

I’ve long been intrigued by these tapes, in the spirit of that bootleg music and how it kind of travels from person to person – this interconnectedness and retelling of stories through music and passing it on by word of mouth. The handing off of a cassette tape is a time-honored tradition. And it seems that now this tradition has kind of morphed into something else entirely through playlists, blogs, podcasts. This podcast, The Red Shed Tapes, is keeping that traditional alive. It’s just like our first small bar, The Red Shed: a place to swap stories, build community, share our love of beer, art and music – just like passing along a bootleg tape.

When you spend 40 years building bars and restaurants and places for people to stay, you make a lot of friends, a lot of history and a lot of stories. There’s my dad, my uncle, my brothers, cousins and a whole host of people that make McMenamins what it is. That includes our guests; they’re part of our family too. This podcast is for them, the communities where we operate and all the people who have worked with us over four decades to build something special.

When people listen to The Red Shed Tapes, I want them to consider it their window into the world of McMenamins. All the challenges and all the fun. In each episode, we’ll share our history, the incredible stories that have shaped our company and hear from the people who helped us along the way. This podcast is a reflection on how our company continues to take shape – not just where we’ve been, but where we’re going. In this first episode of The Red Shed tapes, you’ll get to meet my dad and Uncle Brian and learn more about how they started McMenamins. And I’ll introduce you to a McMenamins institution, Thursday Jane. Then we’ll take a trip to our first small bar and podcast namesake, The Red Shed. Grab a pint and settle in.

The story of McMenamins as we know it today starts in the 1980s with my dad Mike and my Uncle Brian; these two shy away from attention and resist taking credit. They prefer the one-on-one conversation and bristle at being interviewed.

Brian McMenamin  02:44

I feel like I’m chained to this chair!

Shannon McMenamin  02:48

Mike and Brian are known to most people as the McMenamin brothers. My Uncle Brian is six years younger than my dad.

Brian McMenamin  02:55

I was the one who was trying to follow the rules, and he was the one who was breaking every single one of them, which was fun.

Mike McMenamin  03:00

It’s a balance.

Shannon McMenamin  03:01

Yeah.

Brian McMenamin  03:03

He’d sneak downstairs to get some sodas out of the fridge, which we weren’t supposed to have, and then we’d stay up all night and watch science fiction movies.

Mike McMenamin  03:10

We both had some common interests.

Brian McMenamin  03:12

Yes, we did.

Shannon McMenamin  03:14

Today, my dad is distinguishable by his long white beard. You usually can find him at our pubs inspecting the light fixtures and light bulbs. My Uncle Brian, he’s more of a mustache kind of guy. And he’s fond of sampling the new ales on tap. Over 40 years, they’ve created the most visually recognizable group of brewpubs, restaurants and hotels in the Pacific Northwest. My dad says their start was anything but illustrious. It came after a decade of trial and error and opening bars, delis, wine shops and a particularly troublesome distribution business.

Mike McMenamin  03:46

I was looking for something to do after a total failure at distributing. Although I learned so much about what we’re doing now at that time that really got us into brewing and winemaking. So after the distributorship closed, I had to figure out something to do. I knew I had to get back into a pub of some sort some sort of service thing – because that was fun – and the pub allows you a lot of freedom.

Shannon McMenamin  04:09

My dad found freedom and fun when he opened the Barley Mill Pub in what was once a corner tavern at Southeast 17th on Hawthorne Boulevard in Portland, Oregon.

Mike McMenamin  04:19

The Fat Little Rooster – that was the previous name of The Barley Mill. They had live music and it was a dive bar, and they didn’t have a lot of rules and so it was exciting to go there. And so it closed down because it was too exciting for the neighborhood.

Shannon McMenamin  04:38

That was in 1983. The neighborhood at the time was in dire straits. Hawthorne Boulevard was dubbed Heroin Boulevard. And the bars with their dark windows and loud crowds were fun to hang out in but not to live nearby.

Mike McMenamin  04:52

They were shut down by the neighborhood and city council and so had to go through that neighborhood association and the city council to get back open – so that was a real an eye opener.

Brian McMenamin  05:02

When you applied for a license, they’d send out letters to the neighborhood, and especially schools that are close by or churches or whatever. And so we had to go to a lot of those meetings, which could be very contentious, you know. There’s people going, “Why are you putting a tavern next to our church or school,” you know, because that was evil. And we would explain we’re trying to be a community gathering spot like a school or a church or whatever. And you know, a lot of people weren’t buying into that – it took a while.

Mike McMenamin  05:35

You want the neighborhood to come in; you don’t want to keep them out, you know, so you have to work with them. You have to provide something that they need and respect. .

The Barley Mill has a vast history, going back to the ‘30s. The Scuttlebutt Tavern, you know, where all the sailors used to hang out.And Fat Little Rooster, you know, where all the ingrates used to hang out, like us.

Shannon McMenamin  06:01

I mean, don’t you think people looking at it now have no idea kind of what it was like, back then, here.

Mike McMenamin  06:08

Probably not. You should have seen the regulars when they came into The Barley Mill after we took the mylar off the windows and opened it up – covering their eyes going, “What’s changed, what’s changed in this place?” (laughs).

Brian McMenamin  06:23

It was the same thing at Tavern and Pool, all those places. Yeah, all the early ones.

Mike McMenamin  06:28

Some of those people didn’t last, you know, but a lot of them did and really enjoyed it. It was a learning process for us to learn about how to operate a place and how to operate a place successfully.

Shannon McMenamin  06:47

At this point in the story, I should step back a minute, because you’re probably asking yourself how did two self-proclaimed ingrates decide they want to run family friendly pubs? I’ll let Uncle Brian explain.

Brian McMenamin  06:59

You know, Mike and I both traveled over to Europe at different times and really saw what it what it was like: the whole family sitting around a table having a beer, dogs under the table, kids running around, and it was everyday life. And you go, “God, that’s just the way it should be.”

Mike McMenamin  07:15

Something you’d do every day. That was always attractive, I think, to us, to have your sandwich or to have your glass of beer after work or whatever. Or meet your friends.

Brian McMenamin  07:24

Meet your friends or meet your neighbors or whoever, yeah.

Shannon McMenamin  07:28

Meeting over a glass of beer was also a tradition with our extended family. As a little kid in Portland, I remember huge parties and family celebrations.

So Grandpa Bob, he was a beer drinker. What did he think about what you guys were up to? Do you remember anything that he would say about it? Or, you know, you kind of mentioned that he just kind of “oh, you know, this is nice.”

Brian McMenamin  07:49

Actually, he loved it.

Mike McMenamin  07:50

He was supportive.

Brian McMenamin  07:52

He was very supportive right from the beginning, which was great.

Mike McMenamin  07:55

We kind of learned the whole thing from Dad. I mean, there was nothing better than sitting around the table chewing the fat and having beers. There’s just nothing better than that. You know, that’s basically what we’re doing. Still.

Shannon McMenamin  08:07

Some of those parties took place in my grandpa Charlie’s basement bar, a spot that inspired the amber lighting, whiskey and knotty pine that decorate our bars and restaurants.

Mike McMenamin  08:10

It had the black and red tiles, you know, and it just had a classic sort of feel and smell. He did all kinds of carpentry and whatnot so there was always a wood smell and a basement smell and a…

Brian McMenamin  08:32

Cigar smell

Mike McMenamin  08:32

…Cigar smell. You know when you’re a kid that’s just like, wow. We’ve tried to get to that level ever since. Yeah, as great a bar as he had in his basement.

Shannon McMenamin  08:47

The attraction to actually brewing beer came from a different place: friend and brewmaster Charles, or Chuck Coury, of Oregon’s first craft brewery, Cartwright Brewing Company. Can you tell me a little bit more about him and, and what he inspired in you?

Mike McMenamin  09:04

He was really a smart guy. He was one of the first winery people in Oregon. He was the first brewery person in Oregon. I mean, he just had this thing that he never completely fully realized, maybe. But the high adventure and the romanticism and the explosiveness. But it was exciting because he was a little older and he was electric. He really got me pumped up to do stuff.

Shannon McMenamin  09:39

For all you beer nerds out there, a little trivia. The mill in the Barley Mill Pub was inspired by Cartwright Brewing. You can find the original mill from Cartwright in the pub today. It’s not completely retired. We fire it up once a year for a special anniversary brew. More on that in another episode.

Shortly after opening The Barley Mill and two other pubs, my dad and Uncle Brian were ready to start brewing their own beer. But there was a problem. In the mid ‘80s in Oregon, it wasn’t legal to serve beer where it was made. Wineries faced a similar issue a few years earlier. They were able to get a law passed that allowed tasting rooms on site. So my dad and uncle and a now famous group of Oregon’s early beer and wine scene tried to do something similar.

Brian McMenamin  10:32

We were the restaurant trying to brew beer and those guys were all breweries that wanted to have a restaurant.

Shannon McMenamin  10:39

My uncle and dad worked with Kurt and Rob Widmer, Dick and Nancy Ponzi, Art Lawrence and Fred Bowman to convince legislators to change the law.

Mike McMenamin  10:48

Dick Ponzi was a central figure in that because he was part of the whole winery scene that involved in getting that legislation passed. And so he was involved with us and the Widmers.

Brian McMenamin  10:58

It was a big help.

Mike McMenamin  11:00

So there was already a path, and Dick already knew some people down there. We all did our due diligence and discussed matters in depth.

Shannon McMenamin  11:08

Well, what did that look like, going and getting it done?

Brian McMenamin  11:10

Running around the hallways looking for people, (laughs), tracking them down…

Shannon McMenamin  11:14

You mean in Salem [at the state capitol]?

Brian McMenamin  11:14

In Salem.

Mike McMenamin  11:15

Not looking, because they don’t want to be caught.

Shannon McMenamin  11:17

Trying to avoid you.

Mike McMenamin  11:18

Yeah, I mean, there’s lobbyists, and there’s everybody trailing everyone that comes out of their office.

Shannon McMenamin  11:23

How long did it take?

Brian McMenamin  11:24

I think we got it through right at the end of the session.

Mike McMenamin  11:27

We had our lobbyist talk to their lobbyist.

 

Shannon McMenamin  11:29

Oh there you go (laughs).

The 1985 Brewpub Law changed Oregon dining and beer culture forever. It’s hard to imagine a time in Oregon when you couldn’t order a pint when you went to see a movie or bring your kids along to eat dinner together at a brewpub – that’s all thanks to the brewpub law. Right after the law passed, we were the first to take advantage of it, brewing and serving beer at the Hillsdale Brewery and Public House in Southwest Portland. The way my dad and Brian tell it, brewing was not an immediate success.

Brian McMenamin  12:06

We were really good at making really bad beer.

Mike McMenamin  12:08

We were bumbling idiots, you know.

Brian McMenamin  12:09

But we got better.

Mike McMenamin  12:11

We brought other people in! We got better.

Brian McMenamin  12:11

We hired someone who was better than we were.

Shannon McMenamin  12:17

You did a lot of experimenting in the early days. And really, we still do as a company. But what stands out to you from the beginning?

Brian McMenamin  12:26

I remember picking, was it, blackberries off the bushes out back at Hillsdale. Yeah. And throwing those in a beer, fruit beer – go figure.

Shannon McMenamin  12:39

But even after they hired brewers – and really, they were home brewers back in those days – they still had to convince customers to drink our beers.

Brian McMenamin  12:46

I always remember the first time we put beer out at Hillsdale on the bar, and the guys, our regulars, are all lined up there to try it. And they go, “Nobody’s going to drink this stuff, you can’t even see through it,” because they’re used to drinking, you know, Budweiser or whatever. And, yeah, you look at it now and you take it for granted that, of course you’re not going to be able to see through all the beers, because you got all these different types. It wasn’t even thought of then.

Shannon McMenamin  13:18

After opening their third neighborhood pub, my dad and Brian started experimenting beyond beer. They opened up the business to include artists, musicians, gardeners and historians. The goal was to create artwork that told the story of each pub location and the people who designed it.

Mike McMenamin  13:36

Well, we were lucky enough to have a couple of pubs that were reasonably successful, so then you can have time to work with an artist, or a neighbor or whatever that I could see might be able to offer something in our general thought of what we’d like to do that could really make it happen. Then you start adding those elements, whether it’s art, or it’s a little bit of history, or it’s music, or you know, some of those things that started entering the company, at that point, to have some variety and give it some more gravitas.

Shannon McMenamin  14:07

It’s not just the art and the music and the history. It’s also all of the people who are in the places, you know, or who have helped us to get to where we are now.

Brian McMenamin  14:17

That’s a part that really hasn’t been talked about is all the people that we’ve all worked with all these years, and they’re still here. People get into this business thinking, “I’ll just do it until I figure out what I’m gonna do,” and then poof, forty years later, there you are.

Mike McMenamin  14:32

We have third generation people working. Luckily, in our business, those types of creative people seem to gravitate toward this business. You know, you’re full of screenwriters, and authors, and painters, and poets and all kinds of fabulous folks. So then you just have to be able to have the time to connect with them and have some sort of avenue or venue for them to do it. You can do all the fun things and still make it work somehow; it still baffles us, I think, because it’s not like you’re working – it’s like you’re delving into all the things that you love the most. And it can actually be a business. But it’s not a business; it’s a love affair with people, more or less, you know, that’s kind of what it is.

Thursday Jane  15:18

If somebody would have told me, with real certainty, that in 40 years I would still be around – of course, not knowing that there would be so many other things besides just working, you know, at a pub – I don’t think I would have been able to even understand it.

Shannon McMenamin  15:48

I don’t remember the first time I met Thursday Jane. She’s just always been there. I had the chance to sit down with Thursday out at Edgefield, our first large hotel property in Troutdale, Oregon. I wanted to know about when she met my dad and my Uncle Brian, and about her 40 years at McMenamins. Everything about Thursday is special, including how she got hired.

Thursday Jane  16:11

My friend, Michelle said, “Oh, you should complete an application into this new bar.” And she said it’s where the Fat Little Rooster used to be. And I said,“Well, I’ve gone there a lot, I know right where that is.” That had been a pretty happening night club. The Paul Delay band played there, and Robert Cray and, you know, all the people that were popular then. But yeah, I walked in and of course, it was so completely different because it had been this dank, smoky nightclub for so long. And it was just this beautiful place, and there were just what seemed like hundreds of plants everywhere.

Shannon McMenamin  16:50

That place was and is The Barley Mill, where we still serve beer and food in Southeast Portland. In the neighborhood today, you’ll see local stores, restaurants, apartments and the occasional hippie.

Thursday Jane  17:02

And your dad happened to be there while I was filling out my application. And I didn’t know who he was; he didn’t introduce himself as the owner of the place.

Shannon McMenamin  17:14

Did you just think he was like, a regular at the bar? Who was just hanging out?

Thursday Jane  17:18

Yeah, he came in, and he ordered a Budweiser, and he said, “Who’s got that great VW bus out front?” And I said, “Oh, that’s me.” And then we sat there and talked about old buses and the Grateful Dead.

Shannon McMenamin  17:34

I have to stop here for a second because, like I told you at the beginning of the podcast, the Grateful Dead is very important to our story. My dad’s probably seen more than 100 Grateful Dead shows. There’s Dead references all through our properties, including product names, a bar dedicated to Jerry Garcia and even Grateful Dead song notes hidden in plain sight as part of stained glass windows. Okay, back to Thursday.

Thursday Jane  18:00

And I told him about all the shows I went to in San Francisco. And he said, “Well, how do you even know about those shows?” And I said, “Well, do you have something to write with? I can give you the phone number.” You know, and it was this hotline that you called in San Francisco that would tell you all the upcoming shows.

Shannon McMenamin  18:18

So it was kind of an instant connection.

Thursday Jane  18:20

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And of course, you know, I had no idea who he was. Clearly, he was smart, and he was funny and he just seemed like this really kind nice man. But once I realized that he was the owner, I thought, “Okay, this is probably going to work out.”

It just had a family feeling to it. I felt like I was part of something that was going to be so cool and so incredible.

Shannon McMenamin  18:59

After her time tending bar at The Barley Mill, Thursday went on to work at our first brewpub. Actually, the first brewpub in Oregon, the Hillsdale Pub and Brewery. She was there before and after the Brewpub Law passed and helped introduce people to McMenamins microbrews, some of which are still just as popular today.

Thursday Jane  19:18

Brewpubs were so new and making your own beer was so new that I felt like I was this ambassador. I was like “Okay, you guys all know about this beer from Europe that we’ve had on tap, but now there’s this beer that we’re making. You know, this beer is fresh. It’s made right back here.”

Shannon McMenamin  19:39

Hammerhead, Ruby, Terminator – we still have all of those on tap today.

Thursday Jane  19:43

Oh, the Ruby – when that was on tap, suddenly people who had never had anything more than a Budweiser were drinking Ruby. Ruby was really a lighter beer. But because it was a brewpub beer, you know there was just a little more heft to it. And this just beautiful very light fruit flavor running through it.

Shannon McMenamin  20:14

Few people know Thursday Jane has been more than an ambassador when it comes to Ruby Ale; she has also been a muse. McMenamins most prominent artist Lyle Hehn immortalized Thursday in several paintings at our pubs. Her face brightens the Ruby on the wall at our Tavern and Pool Pub in Northwest Portland.

Thursday Jane  20:33

Before Lyle painted it he said, “I’m doing a big painting for Tavern and Pool and Ruby’s going to be in the painting.” And if you look at the Rubys through the year, they’re all a little bit different. He said, “I’d really like to base this one just a little bit on you. Is that okay?” I was like, “Okay?! Oh, I might have to sit down here for a minute.” I was so flattered. I was so excited.

Shannon McMenamin  20:59

Some of those Rubys are definitely you. I see you. I’m like, “That’s a Thursday Ruby.” I don’t have enough fingers to count all the different jobs and locations where Thursday has worked. She started at the Barley Mill, was at Hillsdale, the Greenway Pub. These days, you can find Thursday giving history and art tours at Edgefield.

Thursday Jane  21:21

So when you’re walking through the hallways here, you’re seeing real stories being told there’s real people in the artwork. My favorite person is in this painting…

Shannon McMenamin  21:32

Feels like having you in that position where you’re able to be this like really welcoming presence that you’ve always been in our company.

Thursday Jane  21:41

I think Edgefield just really embodies all the amazing art, and the music and, you know, all the different interesting things that are always happening. People who come out here, I think, when they leave they have such a fuller understanding of what this company is about. You start realizing what it is that these two brothers stand for – what’s important to them. Even though this, to me, is just one big giant pub!

Shannon McMenamin  22:23

As I think about it, it makes sense that Thursday is out here leading tours. She’s a tour guide of our history because she lived it. And she’s special to me because in the early days of McMenamins, I was either too young or, I’ll be honest, too into my friends to take it all in.

Thursday Jane  22:41

I don’t know how old you were when they bought [Edgefield], but it was, oh, it was so horrible.

Shannon McMenamin  22:47

I mean, I remember walking through the property when it was vacant. And there was nothing going on. And my mom like wanting to keep us kids like really close to her because she was afraid of boards breaking or, you know, like what we could possibly hurt ourselves on in this dark abandoned building. And I was absolutely fascinated by it. Absolutely fascinated.

Thursday Jane  23:09

Boy, I was one of the early doubters, Shannon. I thought, “Oh my God, what have these guys done?”

Shannon McMenamin  23:15

I don’t think you were alone.

Thursday Jane  23:18

Not only did Mike and Brian have this incredible vision for what this property could be; there’s not a single thing out here right now, not one that they weren’t talking about in 1990 – ideas for what this place could look like what it would be for people who came out here. And to have watched it all happen, well, it has been the most satisfying thing.

Shannon McMenamin  23:48

Why do you keep sticking around why — (laughs) — that sounds bad!

Thursday Jane  23:56

“Are you ever going to retire?”

Shannon McMenamin  23:59

We’re not trying to get rid of you, Thursday; we love you. What speaks to you about McMenamins about this company and this life that you’ve been living with us?

Thursday Jane  24:11

I honestly think that Mike and Brian, their appreciation for the people who work for them. And my gosh, at this point, not everybody gets to know those two like I did. But that feeling that was there in the beginning is still rippling through the company. Prior to working for McMenamins, I’d always waited tables, but I was just somebody who was on the schedule. I didn’t feel like I was doing anything that extraordinary. And your dad and your uncle always made me feel, whatever job I had in the company, they made me feel like I was doing really important work. Having all these different locations and being successful at what they set out to do. I never once have thought, “Well, they’re still nice guys, but it’s not like it was in the beginning,” not ever. And I’ve been there from the beginning and it’s always, always been the same. It’s just a couple guys.

Shannon McMenamin  25:31

You can still find Thursday out at Edgefield giving tours. She told me she plans to be with us a long time.

Thursday Jane  25:40

I often joke about giving my tours while I’m driving around one of those little Rascals.

Shannon McMenamin  25:46

Love it – tour guide to the end!

Thursday Jane  25:47

Yes, exactly!

Shannon McMenamin  26:02

If you take our company and all the things that it is, all the things that it could be, and you distill it down to its very essence, you’ll have The Red Shed. The Red Shed is a small bar of ours. It lives out at our Edgefield property out in Troutdale, Oregon, and it’s right along the Columbia River Gorge. Edgefield used to be the old Multnomah County Poor Farm. It sat vacant for many years and was destined for demolition before we got our hands on it.

Patrick McNurney, who was the head gardener out at Edgefield when we started doing that project in the 90s – I believe he was probably one of the ones who originally found that shed too – and he still works for McMenamins today.

Patrick McNurney  26:41

It was three-quarters covered in blackberries. The walls in the front were stucco and painted red. And the back of the building was wood with a large brick chimney. I do remember walking around with Mike. We were both interested in what that little thing was for. That was the incinerator for the property; that’s what I was told. We talked about what are we going to do with these little small spaces. And he was very excited about the idea of having a small bar were just a few people could gather. And it would be charming. Completely different.

Shannon McMenamin  27:30

Do you remember naming The Red Shed?

Patrick McNurney  27:34

I started calling it the “little red shed” kind of right off the bat. Just the “little red shed.”

Shannon McMenamin  27:39

And it stuck.

Patrick McNurney  27:40

Yeah. There’s room for a small bar, three or four tables, little tables in the front and a bench in the back room.

Shannon McMenamin  27:51

At McMenamins we love preserving old buildings, churches, schools and funeral homes, you name it. We turn them into brewpubs and bars. And small spaces, such as broom closets, principal’s offices and farm sheds? We turn those into bars too. I’m sure that somebody was really excited about that storage – it’s like that’s a perfect place to keep your buckets. And it’s like – no, no, no, no, we’re gonna put customers in there, and we’re gonna have drinks in there, and we’re gonna have to find somewhere else to put the buckets and the mops and the shovels. So yeah, typically, we’re short on storage and heavy on bars (laughs).

I had no idea why my dad and uncle thought this little shed would be a great bar, but they couldn’t pass it up. It’s probably their fascination with small spaces as places to connect with people. There’s no way to not meet your neighbors when you’re in places like The Red Shed. It’s too small; you’re going to be bumping into them anyway, you got to get to know people! And I think that that’s also kind of the special quality of those places and those spaces is that you get that, and you never know what somebody’s story is. And you’re going to probably hear it whether you want to or not because of the proximity, you know, it’s just a tiny space. And it’s a casual thing; it’s super family friendly. You’re just under the trees and you get that, you know, you’re on the Gorge, so you get the wind blowing. And it’s just really relaxing. It’s an opportunity. You know, like all these little things that present themselves, especially on a property like Edgefield, where it’s buried over time by blackberries and neglect. We find stuff that people have left behind or built over time and, and it’s good.

Edgefield is a big property – eighty-four acres. You know, when you get a chance to kind of sit out there and it feels so away from, from everything else, so it’s kind of a break from reality in a lot of ways. There’s this tiny little hidden spot out in the middle of a lawn area with trees and a pond and I mean you could walk right by it and not even notice but once you find it, you’re in!

Every memory I have in The Red Shed is a great memory.

I’m Shannon McMenamin. Thanks for joining me for The Red Shed Tapes. I’ll leave you today with this line from the artist Joe Cotter and friends: “Here’s to it. And here’s from it. And here’s to it again. If you ever get to it, and don’t do it, you may never get to it to do it again.”

Cheers! We’ll see you at the pub.

The Red Shed Tapes podcast is lovingly produced by McMenamins and their production partner Maxwell, an independent creative agency.

This episode was expertly recorded and edited by Gretchen Kilby. Special thanks to the production team at Maxwell – particularly, guest wrangler and storyteller Jess Lyness. A shout out to McMenamins Renee Rank Ignacio, for having the dream and maintaining the flame; Shannon McMenamin, for hosting; and McMenamins longtime storyteller and videographer extraordinaire Kat Nyberg, for years of chronicling our people, places and happenings, setting the standard for authenticity and charting the course for what this podcast could be.

The podcast theme music was written by our friends at Wonderly. Thanks also to all of our listeners and supporters.

This episode of The Red Shed tapes is dedicated to Lyle Hehn, a longtime McMenamins artist and visionary who left us too soon.

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