Bar Guide 2014: The Oregon Public House

By Rebecca Jacobson

The Oregon Public House

700 NE Dekum St., 828-0884, oregonpublichouse.com. Noon-10 pm Tuesday-Thursday, noon-10 pm Friday-Saturday, noon-9 pm Sunday.

Woodlawn's Oregon Public House certainly has a catchy slogan: "Have a pint, save the world." The Public House, which claims to be the nation's first nonprofit pub, donates 100 percent of its proceeds (after overhead, of course) to charity—but servers do keep their tips. As bartenders tap at iPads docked in faux rustic wooden mounts, they ask which of eight nonprofits patrons would like to support. So ask yourself: aid for residents of city dumps in Nicaragua? Improved emotional expression for marginalized youth in Portland? All I know is that our bill (pints run around $5) went to assisting low-income Oregonians, that my Elysian Trip 16 Farmhouse Rye was deliciously funky, and that my drinking buddy thought the St. Nicholas mural on the exposed-brick wall was either Zeus or Jerry Garcia. I might not have changed the world, but at least I upped my blood-alcohol content. REBECCA JACOBSON.

Entertainment: Kids' play area.

WWeek 2015

Rebecca Jacobson

Rebecca Jacobson

Rebecca Jacobson is a writer from Portland (OK, she was born in Seattle but has been in Oregon since the day after she turned 10) who's also lived in Berlin, Malawi and Rhode Island. While on staff at Willamette Week, she covered theater, film, bikes, drug dealers-turned-barbers and little-known scraps of local history.

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office.

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