Smooth Sailing Ahead

[October 10th, 2007] Nestled just blocks away from the Sellwood Bridge, the newish Muddy Rudder Public House (8105 SE 7th Ave. 233-4410) still feels like a secret. Former New England carpenter Jim Sheehan transformed a cramped old house on the busy Southeast Tacoma Street thoroughfare into a larger, cheerful, two-room pub—with an apartment up top for himself. The bar’s walls are packed with maps and charts of the Bering Sea, a nod to Sheehan’s time as a commercial fisherman in Alaska, but the menu is closer to home: tall sandwiches, scratch-made soups and hefty, juicy burgers. But c’mon, you’re really here for a pint. And whether it’s sitting at the long bar sipping an Ashland Amber from Caldera Brewing or lounging in one of the captain’s chairs (a few steps down on the larger lower level) taste-testing a H.U.B. IPA from Portland’s new Hopworks Urban Brewing, this is your place. Sheehan chooses his beers in a democratic fashion: The more regulars who request it, the better chance it’ll be featured on one of his 10 taps in the future. You might have to shout your preference over the lively sounds of acoustic folk from local stalwarts like Bob Shoemaker or Greg Clarke, but hell, a little sing-along never hurt anybody.