- The Flatiron Building (1917), AKA McMenamin's Ringlers Annex and Espresso Bar is a historic two-story building. It's "a tiny window on the world of bustling West Burnside, complete with a fishbowl-like main floor and a mezzanine tailor-made to observe the city in motion". This small building has a triangular footprint on a triangular block. When opened, it was said to be the "smallest commercial building on the West Coast". The McMenamin's specialize in reclaiming interesting historic buildings. As with numerous other wedge-shaped buildings, notably the famous skyscraper in NYC, the name "Flatiron" derives from its resemblance to a cast-iron clothes iron.
- Jake's Famous Crawfish is a seafood restaurant founded in 1892 by Jacob "Jake" Lewis Freiman & is the 2nd oldest restaurant in town, after Huber's. The restaurant has a "turn-of-the-last-century ambiance, with its maze of booths snug against brick walls, its antique oil paintings, deep wood paneling, beautiful bar and crisp white linen". In 1972, Bill McCormick purchased Jake's Famous Crawfish and hired Doug Schmick as his manager. Several years later, the pair formed a partnership chain of McCormick & Schmick's.
- Another McMenamin's building is the Crystal Ballroom (14th & Burnside), built in 1914 as a ballroom; and dance revivals were held there through the Great Depression. In the early 1960s, new acts were brought in, such as gypsy brass bands and R&B performers, such as James Brown, Marvin Gaye, and Ike & Tina Turner.
In 1967, largely psychedelic acts such as the Grateful Dead, Blue Cheer, and The Electric Prunes performed in the ballroom. This was cut short in 1968, due to concerns about what such music was doing to the youth of Portland. Now it features a bar/restaurant on the first floor, a brewery and a new dance floor on the second floor, and the restored main ballroom on the third floor. The main ballroom features a mechanical "floating" dance floor, thought to be the only one on the West Coast, and is the only one still in existence in the United States.
This area is historically known as an industrial part of town; with loading docks, warehouses, cobblestone streets and loggers known as 'River Pigs' whom if you disrespected you'd better be prepared to take a punch in the mouth; hints at the Pearl's past.
Recently transformed, it is now known as Portland's very own Soho; with sleek artists' lofts & condos overlooking tree-lined streets, art galleries, boutiques, sidewalk cafes, hip wine bars, micro breweries and restaurants in the newly gentrified Pearl District... The area's history is an example of inner-city regeneration and gentrification.
This area was once home to the Henry Weinhard's Brewery Blocks (historic Italianate style). They built and operated a beer empire here for more than 130 years (from 1864-1999) and was known as the West's oldest continuously operated brewery. They made so much beer (100,000 barrels/year) that at one point, they offered to just go ahead and pump it into Skidmore Fountain, so everyone could enjoy it! During prohibition, they made near beer and root beer! But nothing lasts forever. In 1979, what was by then Blitz-Weinhard was sold to Pabst, and Pabst sold it to Shroh's in 1996. 3 years later Stroh's sold it to Miller and that was the end of Weinhard's Brewery Blocks. But it's stilll made today by Olympia Brewing in Tumwater.
Recently transformed, it is now known as Portland's very own Soho; with sleek artists' lofts & condos overlooking tree-lined streets, art galleries, boutiques, sidewalk cafes, hip wine bars, micro breweries and restaurants in the newly gentrified Pearl District... The area's history is an example of inner-city regeneration and gentrification.
This area was once home to the Henry Weinhard's Brewery Blocks (historic Italianate style). They built and operated a beer empire here for more than 130 years (from 1864-1999) and was known as the West's oldest continuously operated brewery. They made so much beer (100,000 barrels/year) that at one point, they offered to just go ahead and pump it into Skidmore Fountain, so everyone could enjoy it! During prohibition, they made near beer and root beer! But nothing lasts forever. In 1979, what was by then Blitz-Weinhard was sold to Pabst, and Pabst sold it to Shroh's in 1996. 3 years later Stroh's sold it to Miller and that was the end of Weinhard's Brewery Blocks. But it's stilll made today by Olympia Brewing in Tumwater.
