An Array of new Bottle Shops open in Portland
Three new Portland beer stores to put on your radar: Array Bottle Shop, Black Rose Market, and Bottles & Cans.
Scott Jester offers a pint at the new Array Bottle Shop in SE Portland’s Brooklyn neighborhood
Before 2010 most local craft beer was primarily served on draft with only the biggest of the brands with their own bottling lines. With the explosion of craft breweries in 2011 and the advent of mobile bottling companies it became a far more viable business model to dedicate a swath of a grocery store, or an entire business, around selling beer for home. In the past 12 years craft beer has moved steadily into packaged product with crowlers replacing growlers, one-off small batch releases dropping weekly, and the self isolation of the pandemic has only sped things up.
While most of us make it to a corporate owned chain grocery store once a week or-so, they don’t need our money or support the small up and coming brands the way a beer/cider/wine bottleshop does. The following three new beer stores are bringing that small business aptitude to compete in the local marketplace, and each of them has unique ambitions that make them stand apart.
Black Rose Market
The craft beer industry is notoriously white male centric, which makes the proudly black owned and operated Black Rose Market a unique stand out in the crowded marketplace. The community oriented convenience store in the Woodlawn neighborhood is a family affair from Kirin and Keith Jones who opened the store in November 2020 to be "Home of the best friends you didn't know you had."
Black Rose prides itself on being very clean and welcoming with a diverse selection, the goal is to develop relationships that go beyond popping in to purchase a snack and a drink (though they welcome that too.) Part of that outreach is striving to bring in as many BIPOC and women-owned products as possible, craft beer, wine, champagne, food, snacks and products from local artisans like soaps, candles, and wearables.
Though it’s not just a beer store, Black Rose goes out of their way to showcase a broad selection of over 500 beers in bottles and cans, and that goes from hard to get hype beers to obscure offerings from small brewers of the pacific northwest. One thing area that the market has become especially known for is their singles selection. Out of over 150 offerings, customers can mix and match beers without committing to a case, 6-pack or 4-pack. Also because their most direct competition is big stores like Fred Meyer’s and New Seasons, the flexibility of the small convenience store is bringing in one-off drops and fresh product that doesn’t have to work it’s way up the corporate buyer chain of approval.
That special one-on-one relationship with breweries sans wholesaler is leading to collaborations. Black Rose Lager from SteepleJack Brewing will kickoff a series of local collaborations with the market. The first release is being called a “tropical pilsner” and it will be canned on March 11th and released the same day at Black Rose Market with brewers Anna Buxton and Anne Aviles in attendance. Be sure to seek out a can at the market, or on tap at their neighbors the Retro Game Bar starting 3/18.
Black Rose Market, 6732 NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Portland, OR 97211, follow @blackrosemarket_woodlawn
Bottles and Cans
There is a hard to google, but easy to love new packaged beer store in N. Portland’s Overlook/Arbor Lodge neighborhood. Business and romantic partners Evan Ross and Moriah Hilden were walking their dog one day and stumbled upon a sugar-cube looking building with a ‘For Lease’ sign. The building was 300’ ft small, but had a slightly more spacious outdoor area that would make for a great neighborhood food cart pod. But first they decided to fulfill their love of beverages with a beer store called Bottles and Cans.
Evan Ross owned and operated a bicycle tour/rental company called Cycle Portland before selling it in 2020. Moriah Hilden worked for an exporting firm, and has been an active admin for the Women Who Whiskey PDX Club. Together they are exploring their entrepreneurial spirit in the form of a community food and drink hub called Bottles and Cans that will soon spinoff into a beer truck called ‘Fool Me Twice’ in their own ‘Arbor Look Food Cart Pod’ located adjacent to the bottle shop.
Bottles and Cans for now is to-go only for now with 180 different beers, 60 wines, 35 ciders, 30 seltzers, and 30 non-alcoholic products, including over 25 gluten free option. In the future, you will be able to enjoy the packaged product in the food truck pod. On their instagram they highlight the weekly drops of their favorite products, and in the evenings are building out the beer garden/pod for a late Spring 2022 opening.
“Living in the immediate neighborhood we kept the needs and wants of our community at the forefront. We wanted to be able to provide an outdoor space with additional food options for families and people of all ages to safely gather. And the bottle shop, or as many have worded it, “adult candy store” is staying and will compliment the food cart pod nicely,” says Moriah Hilden.
Bottles and Cans, 5916 N Greeley Ave, Portland, OR 97217, follow @bottlesandcanspdx
Array Bottle Shop & Taproom
You may recognize Scott Jester from one of your favorite local watering holes, his long curly red locks and friendly scruffy face have been behind the bar at Bailey’s Taproom, NWIPA, Proper Pint, and most recently Valley Public House to name a few. After a brief hiatus, he is back to pour us all a beer at his own bottleshop and taproom partnered up with Unlimited IPA (formerly NWIPA) owner Dan Huish and veteran homebrewer and beer connoisseur Dan Kimbrow.
After about 9 years at Bailey’s and a few more around town, Jester caught up with the Dan’s about opening up a new space that would cater to music and art as well as beer. Like the other new Portland bottle shops, Array was looking to appeal to a neighborhood community rather than an entire city. “I want to have a space where I didn't have to ask for permission to put up and play what I wanted,” says Jester, who you can find behind the bar nearly every day at Array.
Similar to NWIPA, the Array bottle shop and taproom is part of an old but up and coming part of SE Portland’s Brooklyn neighborhood. Instead of trying to be all things to all people, they prescribe to the theory that a smaller taplist allows fresher, more quality beers, with a mix of approachable and eccentric offerings. “When dealing with a larger tap list you often have to fill in holes for the sack of just having something on. With a smaller one you can pick and choose,” says Jester. And with the Unlimited IPA partnership and buying power, Array has their pick of the best.
Array partner Dan Kimbrow had been looking to get into the beer biz for sometime, and his tastes aligned with Jester. “I love the neighborhood beer bar concept. Craft beer lovers might drive across town for these beers, but anyone will enjoy them and I love opening people's palates and minds to great new beers. I've frequented many beer bars and stores in Portland and beyond and have come to appreciate the ones that are tightly curated and feature a constantly rotating selection -- and that's what we're aiming for at Array.”
Array is an open, freshly constructed storefront at the base of a new complex off the corner of Milwaukie Ave. and Cora St. just up the road from Ruse Brewing and a ways down from the Aladdin Theater. The entire bottle and can selection is refrigerated, which is a big plus, with over 100 beverages covering beer, wine, cider, seltzer, CBD and craft soda. Also making it love or hate for some is that they are steadfastly 21+ with no food service, but the brand new pizzeria hotspot Meta Pizza is within walking distance and the hyped Jerry’s Pizza is not that much further north.
Array Bottle Shop, 4270 SE Milwaukie Ave, Portland, OR 97202, follow @arraybottleshop