Breakside Brewing opens Astoria taproom with raw seafood bar and lots of champagne
One of Oregon’s most successful breweries is making their first big expansion out of the Portland greater metro-area with the opening of Breakside Brewing Astoria in late May, 2023. Founded in 2010 in northeast Portland, Breakside Brewery has become one of the states most award-winning and popular breweries, and currently operates three breweries, and four taprooms between PDX and Lake Oswego.
Opening a new location in Astoria, Oregon is a big move for Breakside in more ways than one; it marks their first new location outside of the greater Portland metro-area and into an already beer famous coastal town, and it’s a change of concept that emphasizes raw seafood and champagne in addition to their beer. The move is largely inspired by Breakside owner Scott Lawrence’s desire to give each new location an individual flavor, and in this case the inspiration comes from the Oregon coast and a memorable trip he took to Alaska.
“There was a bar we went to in Juneau and it was called Oysters & Champagne, but it was a food cart in the only food truck pod, but it was an awesome experience and I loved it!" says Lawrence. That was top of mind when an opportunity presented itself to purchase the former location of the Astoria Co-Op which relocated to a larger building entering town.
“I get emails all the time with offers but most of them are strip malls or next to a Best Buy. I just don't want to be in a strip mall, it's not really my style,” continues Lawrence. “When the opportunity presented itself for Astoria, I went out for a couple days and I just really liked it out there. It's awesome to go out with your friends and have some drinks and oysters and it feels like a festive special occasion. It's just going to be a fun project, most of the stuff we are doing that's the primary focus "is this fun?’"
Dan Brownhill is Breakside’s director of restaurants and taprooms, overseeing all of their locations including Astoria. The concept dreamed up by he and Lawrence, falls on Brownhill’s shoulders to make it a reality. In preparation he has been spending a lot of time in Astoria, contemplating what new flavor Breakside can add to the small town which has found so much success with their own home grown breweries.
“We have talked a lot about the reason we are coming out there, and it's because we love this town,” says Brownhill. “We know there is already this amazing beer culture out here, and we have talked a lot about just wanting to join this culture they have created. We want to make sure we are coming out there with the proper respect and attitude, and make it clear that we know it's already awesome and we just want to add something to it."
As a sign of respect, Breakside Astoria will keep permanent draft handles for both Fort George Brewery and Buoy Beer, plus for the service industry they will serve $5 pints all day every day. "We want the people who live and work here to try the beer, come in and hang out, it's not just for out of towners,” adds Brownhill.
Due to it’s former life as a small grocery store, the new Breakside location at 1355 Exchange St. was not set up for cooking with high heat, flammable, oil and smoke that come with making most popular American pub food. Without a kitchen exhaust hood installed, Breakside Astoria won’t make any of the standard fare like burgers, fries, wings, tots, or even pizza.
“It pushed us to get creative with this menu,” says Brownhill. “But it goes with the concept of the space, it also makes sense for what we want to do. There is this incredible access to all this seafood, especially oysters. We are right between two of the best oyster beds, so we came up with this fresh seafood menu.”
Breakside Astoria’s new general manager Kyle Chriestenson is a McMinnville culinary veteran, who has spent the last year cooking for Fort George Brewery. Chriestenson will lean on rotating soups and the low and slow sous vide cooking method for hot food like a tenderloin roast beef sandwich with horseradish, mayo, and a cheddar gremolata. But most of the menu is cold items like a beef tartare with shallot, herbs, dijon, egg yolk, and crackers. Lighter fare like pimento dip, spiced nuts, marinated olives, and a prawn cocktail shooter, are balanced by an iceberg wedge salad, house salad, and in a roasted and raw marinated veggie plate and roll.
But the seafood takes center stage says Chriestenson, “I have a couple connections with local boats, so we will do rotating ceviche with albacore, and other fresh running fish and bi-catch products, it will also fit into the realm with specials, like say house cured sardines. We will work with local and seasonal seafood always.”
There is a Lobster Roll and a Dungeness Crab Roll both with lemon butter and chive mayo at market price. The seasonal ceviche of the day with serrano, red onion, lime, avocado, and chips runs $18. And oysters on the half shell with classic mignonette and lemon are $3 each. They are hoping to have an on-display raw bar, but are struggling to figure out how to fit it into the 3,200 sq. ft. space.
Chriestenson also promises lots of food specials finding inspiration from local farmers around the county. “I will take my kitchen staff to the market on Sundays before we open so we can wander around and find fun stuff. We will have regular hot food items on the specials with fun stuff like veggies and making our own house prepared charcuterie such as a rillete or a pate.”
And what goes great with fresh seafood? “Obviously a nice cold lager, but also champagne! Bubbles are so good with that,” says pubs manager Dan Brownhill with enthusiasm. “Especially on a nice sunny day in Astoria, sharing some champagne and raw oysters on the patio is going to be one of the best experiences you can have. We will have a more extensive champagne selection than our other locations.”
Champagne by the Bottle List (will evolve over time):
J S Cristalino Brut - Cava
Lunetta Prosecco DOC - Italy
Chemistry Rose Bubbles - Oregon
Sokol Blosser Bluebird Brut - Orgon
Kings Estate Willamette Valley Brut - Oregon
Gloria Ferrer Sonoma Brut - California
Gruet Brut Rose - New Mexico
Boschendal Brut - South Africa
Moet & Chandon - Champagne
Taittinger Brut - Champagne
Drappier Carte d' Or - Champagne
Nicolas Feuillatte Blue Label - Champagne
Dopff & Irion Cremant d'Alsace Brut - Alsace
But this is a Breakside Brewery after all, so of course their beer will still be the most important thing on the drinks menu. The horseshoe bar will be Breakside’s largest yet, seating 18 people in front of an elegant 16 tap brass tap tower that Brownhill has been developing with Nick Klein at NW Draft Tech. The woodwork on the bar is arguably the most lovingly crafted detail of the new location. The back bar and under bar wood were salvaged from the 14th Street Pier in Astoria when it underwent repairs. The woodworker pulled out 10 of the pier pilings that had been sunk into river mud for the last century plus, dried them for three years and planed them down. The wood was dated to 180 years old, and has a gorgeous gray-blue tone that comes naturally from the river water.
In addition to the beer and the extensive champagne list, there will be plenty of vintage and modern classic cocktails. The summery and party friendly list features traditional and refreshed drinks like Aperol Spritz, French 75, House Gin & Tonic, Negroni, Manhattan, a Mezcal Penicilin, Cranberry Mule, and a Strawberry Serrano Margarita all showing up to the party.
Erik Abel, the artist of Breakside’s Stay West IPA cans, who is also responsible for the upstairs mural at Breakside Dekum, has a large aesthetic contribution to the Astoria location. Abel has painted a 50' mural on one of the walls depicting the coastal range coming down into the pacific ocean with Saddleback mountain in the background.
Two large garage doors open up the Breakside Astoria pub on a nice day to a new concrete pad that will fit about 8 picnic tables. From the patio you have a direct view across the street to Reach Break Brewing’s beer garden and food carts and Bridge & Tunnel Bottle Shop beyond that. Breakside hopes the centrality of the location, also next to Blaylock’s Whiskey Bar and Pilot House Distilling, will encourage people to visit all of the establishments. They also want to draw an evening industry crowd who want a change of pace from the local dive bars. Starting off the Breakside Astoria taproom will be open 5-days a week Thursday - Monday from 12pm to 11pm. They hope to go to a full 7-days a week once they are fully staffed up.
“I've been living out here more than in Portland in the last month, and I have really gotten into the community out here. One thing out here that everybody says, the number one thing people say is 'is your beer good? whether it's brewed out here or not, they want high quality beer,“ adds Brownhill, and we all know Breakside can deliver on that promise.
Breakside Astoria
1355 Exchange St, Astoria, OR 97103
Open 7-days a week 12pm - 11pm
