McMenamins

Our beloved red table wine is celebrating its 16th birthday this Wednesday, May 18 – and we're throwing a company-wide party, to which you're cordially invited!

But first, a little background.

This is pretty magical.

Back in the day (as in, 50 years ago), three talented men anchored the hoppin' downtown jazz scene, whose epicenter happened to be clubs that stood where the Crystal Hotel is today: Charlie Gabriel, Mel Brown and Carl Smith.

Each man eventually left Portland to make his way in the music world. All three went on to great success in the New Orleans and Motown scenes; all three left an enduring mark on Stumptown's musical history.

And now, each man is returning to their old stomping grounds -what is now the Crystal Hotel & Ballroom.

Our McMenamins artists having been painting new historically based panels for the Crystal Hotel (opening in May 2011) for months now. Below, artist Lyle Hehn gives a slightly mysterious explanation of one of his latest pieces...

Tucked away in a corner of SW Portland, the Hillsdale Brewery & Public House is the birthplace of a VIP - er, make that a VIB. A Very Important Beer that goes by the name... HAMMERHEAD. Join us on Tuesday, January 25, at the Hillsdale and McMenamins' pubs across the land to celebrate this stalwart ale and the folks who love it. We'll have birthday pricing, food specials, Facebook giveaways and more.

It's no big secret that some of our joints are thought to be haunted. The White Eagle Saloon & Rock ‘n' Roll Hotel, for example, has long been included on lists of Portland's most haunted spots, while Edgefield in Troutdale, Ore., even made it onto a national list of "Top Ten Most Haunted Hotels"!

This painting is intended for the Zeus Cafe, which will be on the ground floor of the building made triangular by the intersections of Stark and Burnside Streets and Twelfth Avenue in Portland, Oregon.

In 2006 McMenamins moved their corporate headquarters to a former wedding chapel and mortuary in North Portland. Finally, in May of 2010, a new "McMenamins" sign has replaced the words "THE LITTLE CHAPEL OF THE CHIMES" above the door to the offices.

I was closing in on the grand finale of the Blue Cheer painting and having a lot of fun with the panel when we got a message from the management at Old St. Francis School hotel in Bend, Ore., that a painting in the lobby of the theater had been keyed, or vandalized.

In the early 1970s, the reunion at Centralia of two talented friends fueled a wellspring of creative energy that resulted in intimate, unapologetic portrayals of two infamous Centralia subjects steeped in secrecy and intrigue-- the 1919 Armistice Day Tragedy and the Olympic Club.

Room 301 honors Joseph E. Penney, an iconic figure of early-day Portland, whose lifetime of peaks and valleys was the stuff of legend – so much so, Edgefield Distillery named a fine American Dry Gin after him.....

Welcome to the cyber catacombs of McMenamins history. It's a wondrous, multi-layered and lyrical realm brimming with life, from the day-to-day to the extraordinary.