Beer City Bottle Shop & Untapped Opening In North Portland

Beer City Bottle Shop is the latest bottleshop and beer bar to open in North Portland/Mississippi neighborhood, just a block and a half from Bridgetown Beerhouse. Just down the street, Untapped, another taproom and growler fill station, has opened with perhaps the most sizeable selection in North Portland.

We first reported on Untapped back in April, and after many regulatory hurdles it has finally opened. With 36 taps to rotate through, Untapped has the most substantial draft selection in North and Northeast Portland that I can think of. Located at 4320 N. Interstate, Untapped is a block away from Fire on The Mountain and only half a mile from Bridgetown Beerhouse on Mississippi.

Beer City Bottle Shop takes over half of what was the old Pastaworks space, about 1,400 sf. Beer City Bottle Shop won't simply be a bottle shop, though; it will have 8 draft beer taps, seating for up to 29 people, and 150-200 different bottles to start off with.

Beer City is owned by Pamela Adkins and Mary Kay, two women with history in back of the house purchasing and retail management. They are both fans of all things food and beer related, especially winter beers.

"Our model, though, is to focus on craft beers, hard ciders, and sodas from the west coast only. We want to bring in the beers from the new and upcoming breweries that you don't see in many restaurants and bars around town. We believe our focus on the west coast producers hammers home the "local" sustainability models that residents of Portland truly appreciate," said co-owner Pamela Adkins.

Beer City Bottle Shop will pursue the trendy NoPo crowd in the quickly growing Mississippi neighborhood with a bright, airy feel and minimal food from panini presses and other tabletop setups they can operate without a kitchen.

This is where Beer City Bottle Shop gets a bit controversial, going after a similar but slightly differentiated crowd from similar businesses like Tin Bucket and Bridgetown Beerhouse, which is only 1.5 blocks away. I asked co-owner Pam Adkins directly about why she would open a bottleshop so close to existing businesses, and I will leave it to her to explain what sets them apart:

"Tin Bucket, while only about a mile or so away, can be considered a "world" away in terms of neighborhood. I'm sure you've seen the growth that N. Williams Ave is experiencing right now. Tin Bucket will have more neighbors/customers than they can shake a stick at. Both Tin Bucket and Bridgetown have different business models and attract a slightly different target market than Beer City Bottle Shop aims to attract. We are working hard with the OLCC to allow minors in the shop, for at least some hours of the day. Neither Tin Bucket nor Bridgetown can offer that at this time. We feel that Bridgetown is a great beer bar, but that it is a bit of a "cave" – not in a bad way, but it certainly caters to a specific clientele. Beer City will be light, bright and airy. The space has two huge front windows that slide open to allow that indoor/outdoor feel that so many Portlanders love to hang out in on a nice day."

With permits now in hand, a 6-8 week build-out is expected before Beer City opens around late November at 4212 N. Mississippi.

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