McMenamins crafts a unique restaurant empire in the Pacific Northwest

It’s never “business as usual” at McMenamins Pubs & Breweries, the Portland-Ore.-based restaurant group that has built an eclectic collection of hospitality venues over the past four decades.

What started as a desire to re-create the family-friendly, community feel of a traditional Irish pub has grown into a network of dozens of hotels, restaurants, pubs, and bars across Oregon and Washington.

Brothers Mike and Brian McMenamin launched their diverse enterprise in 1983 by finding some good deals on existing spaces in the Portland area that could be made into pub-style gathering places. At the heart of their vision for the company was the desire to be able to brew their own beer, which they were soon able to do thanks to the 1985 passage of what is known as the Oregon Brewpub Bill.

“The idea of making your own stuff has always been really important to us,” said Dan McMenamin, general manager and the son of cofounder Mike McMenamin.

That ethos has only become stronger as the company, still owned by the McMenamin family, has grown over the years. In addition to its dozen hotels and 64 restaurants, pubs, and bars, McMenamins’ operations include breweries, distilleries, a winery, an artisanal coffee roaster, bakeries, and produce and flower gardens.

McMenamins’ penchant for food and beverage craftsmanship is only part of its story, however. The company has also become known for its ability to transform existing spaces — historic theaters, schools, abandoned churches — into customer-pleasing hospitality venues.

Dan McMenamin said the company’s transformation during the 1990s of Edgefield, which had once been a “poor farm” where indigent people could live and learn trades, was a key point in McMenamins’ history. The 74-acre property in Troutdale, Ore., had been abandoned during the 1980s, damaged by fire and and overgrown with wild blackberries, but McMenamins over the course of several years conducted a complete overhaul, creating a hotel, several restaurants and bars, performance spaces, multiple gardens, a soaking pool, and a golf course.

“That sort of changed the notion of what we could do,” McMenamin said. “At that point, I think outside of my dad and maybe a couple others, there weren't many people who thought that was ever going to work.”

Although its pace of expansion has slowed, McMenamins continues to apply the learnings from each of its new revitalization efforts, discovering new ways to make creative use of the spaces its acquires, McMenamin said.

“Each property affords new lessons,” he said.

The Edgefield redevelopment also helped launch the company’s deep appreciation for art and history, which remain essential elements of its operations. McMenamins’ properties are known for their numerous colorful, often whimsical murals that reflect the history of the spaces and the local areas.

Music is another essential element of the McMenamin experience, as many of its venues feature live music, and even its murals and menu items reflect the impact that music had on the founders. The Grateful Dead and The Beatles are among the music groups depicted in McMenamins’ artwork, and the Communication Breakdown burger — named after a Led Zeppelin song — is a staple at many of the company’s pubs. Another musical reference can be found in the East 19th Nervous Breakdown pizza, named after a Rolling Stones song.

While many of McMenamins venues feature such pub fare, crafted with an emphasis on locally sourced and high-quality ingredients, some locations also have more upscale menus. The dinner menu at the Black Rabbit Restaurant & Bar at Edgefield, for example, includes a Grilled Ribeye with parmesan fingerling potatoes, broccolini, mushroom, red wine reduction, and a Pan-Seared Salmon Filet with the company’s own Edgefield Pinot Gris beurre blanc, wild rice pilaf, and roasted asparagus.

McMenamin said the company looks for efficiencies where it can in terms of menu items and ingredients that can be used across multiple locations, but operating distinct, highly differentiated business has become a core strength of the company. With kitchens of varying shapes and sizes and a wide variety of customers to please, McMenamin’s has always sought to approach each location with an appreciation for its unique characteristics.

“We’ve picked a hard road, for better or for worse, because it’s fun, for lack of a better word,” McMenamin said. “It’s not the most efficient, it’s probably not the most profitable, but it is maybe the most fun because there are always new challenges.”