History by the Glass

You know how in the '80s they used to have those infamous "Very Special Episodes" of your favorite sitcom (Webster, Family Ties, or, the grandest of 'em all, the Diff'rent Strokes VSE)? Well, that's a bit what this podcast is. In this, the third of our four-part anniversary rewind (that's taken us almost an additional year to produce), we reflected on our therapeutic visit to SE Portland's Steinhaus roughly 12 hours after we awoke to learn our muse and experiential mentor, Anthony Bourdain , had died. Alas, the Steinhaus (or Stein Haus, depending on your branding preference) was not meant to last much longer either. Less than a year after our unforgettable visit -- the only night we've ever stayed at one bar -- it was shuttered . Nate and I were each able to visit once more in 2019 and we'll always be grateful for the Steinhaus for being there for us when we needed it most. This pod was recorded in two sessions that featured drastic...

After a very brief* delay in production due to competing life priorities, we are BACK with the second of our four-part anniversary series reflecting on the first 16(!!) bars we visited in the olden days before our podcast launched. Joe's Cellar After changing up our recording set up for the first part of our anniversary recording -- a rollicking and rambling recap with our friend Bill Clifford -- we, of course, found ourselves completely unable to re-calibrate when we sat down to revisit our trips to Wanker's Corner, Corner Saloon, Crackerjack's Pub & Eatery, and Joe's Cellar way back on Feb. 15. Wanker's Corner The result was a 90-minute technical difficulty delay that left both our on-air talent (Nate) and our studio engineer (Nate) seething. Thankfully it was nothing a few Flamin' Hot Cheetos and a Foster's Oil Can couldn't improve though and we were eventually off and rolling. So join us as we do a Serial  style unraveling of the ...

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), get...

For the first History by the Glass bar visits of 2019, we returned to our mindbogglingly stupid  arbitrary selection process  which saw Central Eastside Industrial gastropub  Produce Row Cafe defeat four other venerable contenders to "win" our unique brand of public affection. Ordinarily, after determining the first bar we would simply look for whatever old joint (featured in Paul Pintarich's " History by the Glass " books, of course) was nearest and make it our second stop of the night. On this night, however, with the smug confidence that comes with having TWO well received podcasts under our belts, we decided to think outside the box and consider a different narrative. Instead of simple geography, we thought about some more nuanced threads that might connect Produce Row with another of the historic bars on our list. When the fog cleared,  The Ship Tavern  in Southwest Portland's Multnomah Village, once one of the city's preeminent dive bars, e...

The Tortoise and the Bull(pen)...two downtown Portland staples frequented by many, though likely still not properly appreciated. Now linked by their common Cheerful parent, these two establishments possess vast and district histories all their own, including sizable chapters featuring our own Nathan P. Gale. It was a dark depressing downpour classic winter evening in Portland when we boarded a Max and brought History by the Glass downtown for the first time for a double-header at Portland State's oldest surviving and best known college bar and an underrated pillar of Providence Park's (née Civic Stadium) sporting legacy. Four to five hours later we returned to our humble podcast studio for an admirably researched, yet beer-soaked ramble into the recent and distant pasts of the Cheerful Tortoise and Cheerful Bullpen. For brief stretches, we almost seem to know what we're talking about. There's a sliver of a glimmer of professionalism or even competence. But then...

For many of you, it was just the Sunday after Thanksgiving. But for your intrepid History by the Glass duo, Nov. 25, 2018 is the night that changed everything. It was the dawn of the pod -- the first audio recording to capture the inane blather (and slivers of brilliance) that defines the two men behind this nebulous boozy creative project. Yes, it’s an hour of your life that you’ll never get back. And YES it often goes careening wildly around corners of conversation (alcohol is a helluva drug). But if you make it to the end (and you gotta want it), our hope is that you’ll actually find yourself being okay with that lost time. And just maybe you’ll find yourself looking forward to the next one. Either way, we'll keep stumbling onward in this noble journey into Portland's elbow-bending past. Our ninth episode took us to Southwest Portland for our 17th and 18th historic bar visits, Caro Amico and Buffalo Gap , which were both featured in the first edition of History by th...