Seen a Rogue on the loose? Get in touch with our Roguemeister: JOHN SCHRAG jschrag@wweek.com (503) 243-2122 FAX: (503) 243-1115 Pubgoers along Southeast Hawthorne Avenue are miffed about recent changes in the aesthetics of their beer-drinking experience. And with good reason. Thanks to some petty anonymous merchant near the Bagdad Theater and Pub, sidewalk-sitting patrons who slam down their empty pints no longer get the satisfying thud that comes when glass meets wood. That's because the McMenamin Brothers have traded their old timber picnic tables, complete with hefty lacquered benches, for faux-marble countertops and resin chairs. Some customers are so piqued by the redecorating that they've actually (oh, the horror!) gone indoors for their beer. Have the McMenamins uncovered a new love for plastic? No. Their embrace of petroleum-based products stems from a complaint by a neighboring business. The anonymous complainant alerted city officials that the beloved pizzeria-cum-cinema wasn't bringing its tables inside at night, as required by a little-enforced city code. It doesn't matter that scores of other eateries violate this city code, says Tom Biornstad, who handles sidewalk cafe permits for the city of Portland. Once the complaint reached his desk, he was forced to confront the Brothers M, who switched to lighter tables that could easily be brought in after business hours. Biornstad, who doesn't know why the complainant wanted the tables off the street at night, assured WW that he's not about to go out and begin looking for other illicit street furniture: "There is no sidewalk-cafe secret police." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Willamette Week | originally published August 11, 1999