Valley Public House Beer & Food Hall Concept Opens Today
Portland metro area beer hall Valley Public House opens today with 84 taps, and three levels of beer, food and cocktails with on-site parking, patios and fire pits.
Valley Public House
Ranch Pizza, Tamale Boy and Whiskey Barrel Lounge complete the beer hall and food court concept
Happy Valley, Oregon on the fringe of Portland’s outer southeast side is quickly filling up with craft beer and food options despite any pandemic related setbacks. Brian and Ami Shannon were among the first in the area to put in a beer bar when they opened Valley Growlers in 2013, for the last seven years it has remained a popular spot for beer and cider loving locals in the Happy Valley Town Center. But the Shannon’s have long held a vision an even larger ambitious destination for residents of this quiet residential and shopping suburb of the metro-area.
Valley Public House has been a five year long project that arrives just in time to be in the middle of the pandemic. Unable to host the large and small events, gatherings and private parties they would normally be featuring if not for COVID, the massive new three level concept space is still well situated for current conditions.
Big open floor plans, multiple food options available for to-go or local delivery, tons of outside seating, parking and spacing are all huge pandemic bonuses. The spacious buildout has room for more vendors, retailers and offices to join them in the 19K sq. ft. building, 8K of it taken up by the bar and food court areas which seat 120 even with COVID restrictions on distancing.
TAPROOM
The beer hall has a massive 84 draft lines, with 70 pouring at all times and the additional 14 reserved for special events like tap takeovers and meet-the-brewers. It’s not all beer on tap though, the draft list includes seven cocktails mixed in-house, 7 draft wines, plus non-alcoholic options like cold brew, kombucha and CBD seltzers, atleast 40 taps dedicated to beer. There are no packaged beer options, but Valley Public House can package up 16oz or 32oz crowlers to-go.
FOOD OPTIONS
Valley Public House has two main spaces with a mezzanine level separating them and a third standalone Whiskey Barrel Lounge restaurant and bar set to open in the lower basement level on Black Friday after Thanksgiving. The beer hall style taproom experience is adults only while behind the separating wall a family friendly dining and drinking area opens to Ranch pizza and Tamale Boy.
Ranch is slinging their cult favorite Detroit-style pizza’s with house ranch sauce on the side, but don’t sleep on their killer radicchio salads. Tamale Boy may be known for their tamales but shouldn’t be known exclusively for them, they also make great pozole, tacos, enchiladas and burritos. Both restaurants will serve limited brunch menus on Saturday and Sunday mornings from 9-2.
Digital Pour tap boards display the 60 strong draft list on either side of the space and food and drink can be shared between them. The mezzanine level is perfect for gatherings, or small groups that want to break away. Multiple meeting rooms, televisions and even more loungey nooks offer any number of seating options.
PATIO
Outside there will be over 268 parking spaces when construction is finished. The parking side of the building has all-ages friendly patio seating and along the west side of the building outside the beer hall is 21+ patio seating with fire pits and heaters, both options are very dog friendly. A separate lower level patio will eventually be added on to the basement cocktail bar. Food and drinks from any part of the public house can cross over between the spaces.
Whiskey Barrel Lounge is a separate concept with the same ownership as Valley Public House. Accessible via staircase, elevator or rear entrance, the dim, fireplace lit and leather seated lounge will serve a high end cocktail and food experience from industry pros. With it’s own sizable kitchen space and secluded patio, the Whiskey Barrel Lounge could draw it’s own separate crowd. WBL will be ran by local chef Russ Langstadt who caters for Cana’s Feast Winery and has taught at Le Cordon Blue. Langstadt is joined by Chef-de-Cuisine Michael Molitor, who helped open Ecliptic Brewing as their Executive Chef. WBL bar and restaurant are set to open on Friday, November 27th, and in 2021 they hope to open a secretive speakeasy lounge with it’s own intimate bar and have a wine cellar room for private parties and dinners. But part of the all encompassing nature of Valley Public House is the option to carry food or drink from any one of the concepts inside into the other spaces, grab a cocktail in the lounge and bring it up to the food hall for example.
Valley Public House opens on Wednesday, October 28th at 12960 S.E. 162nd Ave. from 11am-10pm Monday - Friday and opens early for Saturday and Sunday brunch from 9am-2pm. The Whiskey Barrel Lounge will be open 3pm-10pm when it opens in late November.
