Portland / Oregon / United States
McMenamins Pubs & Breweries is a company that was founded in 1983 with the opening of the Barley Mill Pub in Portland, Ore. It operates more than 50 neighborhood gathering spots in Oregon and Washington. The founders have gone to great lengths to expand the concept of a pub by establishing a variety of places where microbrews are created, food is served and the surroundings are fun and interesting. When Oregon law changed to allow breweries to sell beer on the same property where it was brewed, McMenamins opened its own microbrewery, Hillsdale Brewery & Public House, in southwest Portland in 1984. The company reinvented the pub theme by adding such new twists as historic preservation when it opened the Cornelius Pass Roadhouse, a property on the National Register of Historic Places. It offered a theater pub at The Mission Theater. McMenamins introduced wine-making, distilling, gardening, lodging and golf at Edgefield and began staging national music acts at the historic Crystal Ballroom.
