SteepleJack Brewing Pizza & Beer Tavern is coming to Hillsdale
[UPDATE: First look at SteepleJack Pizza & Beer - Now Open]
Less than a year-old SteepleJack Brewing will parlay the success of their NE Portland brewpub into a third location on the southwest side of town this Spring. SteepleJack Pizza & Beer will be a multi-level 200+ seat pizza tavern opening ahead of the previously announced production brewery and taproom coming to Hillsboro later this year.
SteepleJack Brewing was the New School’s Best New Brewery of 2021 as chosen by a group of industry experts, and is arguably the most successful Oregon brewery launch of the last 5 years. With their upcoming Pizzeria pub, the brewing company will tap into the outer southwest side of the city heading towards Beaverton to serve familiar and creative pies in an extensive space with multiple dining areas, a full bar, patio, and on-site parking.
Known for their unique and sacramental location inside the former Metropolitan Community Church in NE Portland’s Sullivan’s Gulch neighborhood, SteepleJack has already proven that they have more going for them than their beautiful setting with their accomplished beers, food and service. From the moment that they announced the hire of Oregon’s only all female lead brewing team to the hires of key industry players in important roles, SteepleJack has actually lived up to the sum of its parts. 2022 will test that initial single location success, and broaden their horizons to new audiences via new taprooms and packaged product. The upcoming SteepleJack Pizza & Beer pub has actually been in the works since before the brewery even opened their doors as part of a grander plan to serve not only the inner city but the broader Oregon market.
“We wanted to find the right location where we could be part of the neighborhood and serve our neighbors beer and pizza in an place that is consistent with our flagship location in Northeast Portland,” says managing partner Brody Day, who co-founded SteepleJack with longtime friend Dustin Harder. “We took a significant amount of time and toured a lot of properties to find the perfect location” says Day.
That location turned out to be the IBU Public House at 4439 SW Beaverton Hillsdale Hwy, Portland, OR 97221. IBU was originally founded as an off-shoot of MainBrew homebrewing shop’s family which still includes ABV Public House which will coincidentally be SteepleJack’s neighbors at the Hillsboro production facility. IBU was later sold to Jason Cruse who told us about plans to put a small brewery into the basement in 2017. That expansion never happened and IBU spent the better part of a year closed during the pandemic only re- opening in late 2021. The building, which dates back to the 1940’s when it was a mail depot, has transitioned through a 60 year history of restaurants that make it a familiar place for the residents of the Hillsdale area or anyone commuting between Portland and Beaverton.
To make it their own, SteepleJack has purchased the building and business assets and is now embarking on a full refresh of the space while keeping the bones intact much like they did with their Church set flagship location. Although it does not have the gorgeous stained glass window, or majestic steeple of the flagship brewpub, it still carries the weight of it’s multi-leveled footprint that feels like it would be at home on the grounds of a Trappist monastery. “The great thing about the space is it’s really large, it’s almost 9,000 sq. ft.” says Day, and that provides options for gatherings and more intimate experiences in it’s rich dark woody interior, outdoor patio seating, mezzanines, fireplaces and private dining spaces. “We are putting a lot more effort and energy into this space, just as far as rehabbing the space. Our design intent is to restore the building to highlight these attributes,” he says.
SteepleJack Pizza mezzanine level
When you walk in through the main entrance of the building you will notice the high ceilings with dormers and natural light streaming in to the cavernous space. A patio wraps along the building from the southside to the backside on a sloped hill that meets both the main level and second floor, lined with mature trees and greenery that make it feel isolated away from the busy Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway.
“Upstairs there are different dining areas,” says Day. “You walk in and there is a hall dining space that seats about 50-60, and then there is a lower level that seats about 70 or so. From there you can go out to a patio that seats another 40ish or so. Then you walk down to the bar level which seats another 25 or so, another 25 seats adjacent to the bar. And then we have the whole upstairs with a private dining room, a fireplace with lounge seating, maybe a foosball table.”
SteepleJack is rebuilding the small bar area with a new Micromatic draft system and perlick faucets installed by NW Draft Tech that will pour 14 beers on draft, plus 2 cask engines, and a full liquor and cocktail menu with a robust whiskey selection. They will focus on pouring their own beers with guest taps based on who they are collaborating with at the time, and cider, seltzer or kombucha selections to fill whatever the regulars are looking for.
Another aspect that runs through all aspects of SteepleJack’s current and future locations is a desire to cater towards each neighborhoods individual needs. With the pizza pub, they foresee an even more family friendly operation that will serve primarily an after work, happy hour and family dining crowd with opportunities to catch the game from a series of TV’s and a small stage where singer/songwriter’s and dinner friendly live music lends itself to the building’s natural energy.
Operations manager Billy Cook lived nearby the pizzeria when he first moved to town 15 years ago, and was struck by it’s potential when he first went inside. It’s much larger than it appears from the exterior, “Every little weird turn, every little nook and cranny has a purpose and a very unique aspect. I am very excited to get some people in there,” says Cook.
Alongside executive chef Lawrence Gable, they are building a menu that will consist of 12 - 14” inch smaller Tavern-style pub pizza’s with 5 classic styles, and 5 unique creations tapping local farms and purveyors for ingredients. Chef Lawrence is working on proprietary flour blends for the pizza dough that will be fired in a Pizza Master oven 900 series similar to the ones used by Apizza Scholls. The menu will also have a spotlight for salads, something that Lawrence is especially passionate about. They also now have more than enough space to expand the menu in the future with both a full service kitchen on the main floor, and a smaller lower level kitchen that was already set up for pizza making in the past. This will open the door to make more vegan and gluten-free options in the future, and possibly expand into calzones and sandwiches. They also may be able to use the production space in SW as a central hub commissary kitchen that could feed Hillsboro and NE Portland taprooms with more food options.
Pizza also feeds into a brand ethos that believes in complementing the neighborhood businesses rather than competing with them. On the SW Portland stretch of the Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway area there are bars, burger restaurants and family dining, but the pizza options are extremely limited and more in the realm of casual pick-ups or take and bake models. With the SteepleJack Pizza location they are targeting an after work, happy hour, and dinner crowd unlike the earlier hours of the flagship location with a more sit-down and slightly elevated pizza experience. This gives opportunities for spillover to other bars with later hours, or cafes that serve an earlier crowd. “I think we fit as a good puzzle piece into what they got going on out there” says Cook.
GM Billy Cook and owner Brody Day are both fathers who are relishing the opportunity to get pizza and SteepleJack beers into the hands of a new demographic that can be easily served on their commutes with the new locations convenient parking lot and grab and go cans and pies to take home. “It will be nice to have it as an outlet to get more beer into people’s hands who aren’t necessarily comfortable to cross the river and spend 30 minutes in their car to get here and then go back afterwards” says Cook, comparing it to the flagship NE brewpub which requires some maneuvering with spotty neighborhood street parking. “From a practicality standpoint it’s really easy” adds Day. “I am a dad, so if I am picking up a pizza it’s really easy to park and run in and grab a pizza at this location where it’s much more difficult at the main pub”
By summer 2022 SteepleJack Brewing plans to have their other westside location in Hillsboro to lean on production wise to expand brewing capacity for their rapidly growing congregation. They will need it if last summer was any indication when the current brewery could barely keep up with only the single flagship pub location to serve. IBU Public House is now closed and prepping to undergo a 2 month renovation and open as SteepleJack Pizza & Beer tavern by the end of May. The rapid expansion of SteepleJack is ambitious, but thoughtful in it’s approach to spread the publican gospel.
“We are doing everything the right way, and so that feels good. We want to bring what we do really well, great beer, really good food, but bring that same community aspect. It’s like, how do we create that here?” asks Day to his parishioners.
