One Year of History...by the Glass (part 1 of 4)

On Feb. 7, 2018, guided by an obscure book written by a former alcoholic and newspaper man more than a decade earlier, two co-workers and drinking buddies walked through the door of Bill's Steak House & Lounge on a sleepy Wednesday night, officially launching a quixotic journey into the heart of Portland's classic bar culture.

From the onset, it was a scattershot plan made up almost entirely on the fly with no clear idea of what "success" looked like. It took nearly two months before the recap of the first night was posted and for most of the early trips out, it was simply an easy excuse to get together and knock back a few cold ones in new (to us) surroundings.

One year later, not all that much has changed.

Believe it or not, the same is sometimes said of this very project! 

However, inspired by the continued bemusement (or at least, non hatred) of our friends and family, we've slowly expanded our outreach, refining the blog (somewhat), getting the podcast up and running, and establishing a social media foothold. And over the course of 22 different historic bars explored, this much we do know -- these places and the people that run and drink at them matter.

We may not actually enjoy each one we visit and some are certainly more economically or culturally viable than others, BUT we believe each and every one of these Old Portland gems are worth experiencing and discussing. So for the past year we've done just that in some shape or form and in varying states of intoxication.

Lutz Tavern: A damn good old bar. 

Throughout the next month, we'll be reflecting on our first eight "episodes" (aka drinkin' nights) that were blogged, but never podded. (That's a verb right?)

It's a lot to cover with two nights out per pod. We'll have moments of brilliance and a dazzling number of slurry, rambling missteps along the way, but if you're part of our dedicated core audience, that's now just par for the course.

In the first of four special anniversary pods, we look back at our first two nights out, reflecting on the hazy memories of five bars.

We also abandoned our usual (shockingly decent) audio setup to accommodate our first guest commentator -- Nike fork and spoon operator and drinking enthusiast Bill Clifford -- shifting to a Band Aid-type arrangement that highlighted Alfredo's winter cold robo-monotone voice, Nathan's on-air cookie eating, and the overall lack of acoustics at HBTG studios. They don't call us the most professional podcast in the business for nothing!

So without further ado, join us as we travel back and get nostalgic about our nostalgia (9:25), recap episodes 1 & 2 (26:02), The White Eagle (40:12), Lutz Tavern (53:35), Kay's Bar (1:18:54) and Yukon Tavern (1:29:49). It's bathrooms, burgers, and more in this jam-packed first of our four-part anniversary special!