Assembly Brewing reopens Detroit-style Pizza Brewpub
Assembly Brewing, one of the premiere pizza joints in Portland is reopening their taproom and restaurant for the first time since March of 2020 when they were forced to close just one day before their one year anniversary.
George Johnson opened Assembly Brewing to much buzz in March of 2019 for his authentic signature Detroit-style Pizzas served out of an impressive pub built as an ode to the Motor City. A Detroit native himself, Johnson became the first African American to own and operate a brewery in Oregon. After moving away from his hometown, Johnson fell in love with homebrewing and went on to attend the Intensive Brewing Science and Engineering courses through the American Brewers Guild. He later returned to Detroit and was trained by one of the most celebrated Detroit pizza chefs, the late Shawn Randazzo. Relocating to Portland, Johnson brewed at Hopworks Urban Brewery before founding Assembly.
Johnson’s beers have been un-apologetically old school, a fan of classic ales like Ambers, Stouts and Pales, the Assembly lineup has remained true to the brewpub experience of the pre-craft brewing boom of 2010’s. In February, Assembly Brewing began packaging their beer in cans for self-distribution at select Portland stores.
With his signature dough and exacting attention to Detroit-style Pizza authenticity, Johnson made Assembly Brewing a popular neighborhood spot and pizza lovers destination in the up and coming Foster-Powell neighborhood. Since closing the pub in early 2019 Johnson has remained committed to only being open for take-out and has not served on-premise throughout the entirety of the pandemic, telling the New School in February, “With our overhead, we figured we could do more sales with the curbside than we can with a limited dining room.”
That will change this week as Assembly Brewing quietly reopened Monday with 7 tables indoors and another 3 outside before they scale up capacity as they bring on more staff and restrictions ease. The current beer list includes 7 house made beers and as the brewing operation cranks up it will become almost an entirely new lineup of recipes. The pub will also remain 21+, a rare adults-only brewpub that will now be open for sitdown 7-days a week from 4-9pm.
George Johnson of Assembly Brewing
ASSEMBLY BREWING 6112 SE Foster Road Portland, OR 97206