Episode 3 - Part 1: Wanker's Corner Saloon vs. Corner Saloon (March 15, 2018)

This is part one of the story of the Wankers Corner Saloon...which originally started serving cold ones in 1933 in the Tualatin/Lake Oswego borderlands...before turning into a sorta cheesy-rowdy faux Australian Spuds MacKenzie '80s party bar...then moving lock, stock, and barrel to a generic Wilsonville commercial building in 1997...clearing the way for Corner Saloon (NOT faux Australian, but owned by a Brit and serves giant Fosters Oil Cans) to fill the void back in the original location...two establishments with a perplexingly intertwined history and no love lost for each other...we spent an afternoon in March trying to unravel it all.

Wanker's Corner Saloon | Wilsonville commercial district

Established: 1997 (after moving from the original location at the actual Wanker's Corner...the bar still claims to be founded in 1933, but we think you forfeit that when you move to a generic commercial building)

First Drinks: Bud Light (Fredo), Coors Banquet (Nate)

Interesting Food: Free peanuts that you chuck on the floor

Men's Room: 2/5 urinal pucks...the industrial hardware paneling on the shitter was kinda cool, but otherwise, meh.


Musings:
Okay, so this is the (in)famous Wanker's Corner we were first introduced to in the Old Testament of Paul Pintarich's History by the Glass book shortly before it moved to this benign location from its original 1933 foundation. It's theme can best be described as an Australian, right wing, '80s-'90s party bar. The Australian thing seems to have come out of thin air, since the original owner was not in any way connected to Australia...but the Down Under fad of the mid-late '80s was a force to be reckoned with. 


Who knows when the hyper-stereotypical right wing "decor" (spread throughout behind the bar) became a star attraction...I'm gonna guess right around the time we elected our first non-white president. Oddly enough, the bar does have an odd section near the door with photos of JFK...so "fair and balanced" I guess. Oh and it also has a Roy Rogers memorabilia section to for boot because whether leftist or righty, who doesn't love the King of the Cowboys?

All that aside, if nothing else, you've gotta love WCS as an homage to the neo-classic late '80s Spuds MacKenzie party bar - a dyin' breed in these more self-aware times. The walls are filled with hand-cut photo collages of bar staff and regulars in party mode (always a good sign at an old school watering hole), plus signed memorabilia from celebrities from the era. (The entire cast of Head of the Class in Moscow?!) Pair that with the peanut shells on the floor, handful of (kinda ratty) bras hanging from the rafters, and Australophelia decor and it makes sense. Close your eyes and you can just hear the wailing saxophone solo and tasty guitar licks that make your frosty Bud Light or Bartles & Jaymes go down oh so smooth. 


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