TPK Brewing rolls the dice; Game changing brewery opens in Portland this week
The most talked about new Oregon brewery opening of 2023 quietly creaks open their tavern doors to gamers and beer fans alike this Saturday, October 28th in southeast Portland. TPK Brewing is the world’s first fully immersed tabletop roleplaying game brewery, with the tagline “An Ale For Every Tale.” But even if you are not a gamer, there is a lot to love about TPK as arguably the most culturally diverse brewery in town, featuring two women behind the three person team made up of CEO Elliot Kaplan, Mexican-American brewer and brewing diversity scholarship winner Jess Hardie, and queer/transgender story developer, gamesmaster, and podcaster Dana Ebert. TPK has also teamed with Mauricio Prado, owner/chef of En Vida PDX, who will take over the kitchen.
As first reported by the New School in August, 2022, TPK Brewing has a fun and intriguing story that weaves together each of the three founders individual storylines into a cohesive narrative of their own. I won’t rehash their story here, but direct you to our prior article to learn more. The brewery’s mission? Exist to help break down those barriers and welcome everyone into the hobby by providing an accessible space to learn, adventure, and explore without judgment.
The tabletop roleplaying game aspect of the TPK business plan is what will most set them apart for the average customer. While others before them have used similar themes and homages, as far as we know TPK is the first fully immersed TTRPG brewery. Their name “TPK” is an acronym for “Total Party Kill” a TTRPG term for when all the characters in an adventuring party are killed. Not only will the beers be inspired by characters and storylines, but they have created their own fully fleshed out published game inside of Dungeons & Dragons called The Leyfarer’s Chronicle, complete with extensive reading material, details on the people, cultures, history, and including maps, artwork, etc. from the in-house world of Val'Ruvina. However, guests don’t have to play in their world and are welcome to bring their own favorites, or not game at all and just come in for the beer and food in the cozy atmosphere.
But TPK is going to make it as easy as possible to join in on their gaming fun. Not only is the downstairs taproom fully open for small or large games, but they have an upstairs with it’s own bar, an overlook down onto the brewery production area, and a library of gaming books and figures. The top floor is 16+, and has fun custom features like a map of the fictional Val'Ruvina. The brewery employs full-time Game Masters trained to run games across a variety of different rule sets. They accommodate all experience levels, groups of different sizes, and anything from single sessions up to multiyear campaigns. And it’s easy to book a table, or attend introductory classes that you can book from their website. They even have a vending machine to service your gaming needs, managed by local company the Knave of Cups; it carries a bespoke selection of independent tabletop roleplaying accessories like zines, dice, playing cards, tarot cards, and TTRPGs.
When we first covered TPK Brewing the food program and kitchen partners were a big part of the initial plan. Hapa Barkada was an exciting new concept between chef/owners Kiaha Kurek of NW Portland Hawaiian food truck Hapa Howie’s, and Melvin Trinidad of Filipino pop-up that would fuse their food styles into something new and creative for TPK customers. However, they may have not anticipated how much interest there was in the brewery and gaming in particular, and for whatever reason decided to pull out only about a month before the brewpub was set to open, leaving them in the lurch with a kitchen equipment that was chosen for a prior concept. This started a scramble to find a new suitable partner, someone who would represent pub friendly food but not the standard American fare.
“Having great food available in our space is an absolute must, and it needs to be suitable for gaming, able to incorporate our beautiful wood burning oven, and something that's not already available on our stretch of Hawthorne.,” says Elliot Kaplan.
Outside of retrofitting the building to hold a 7 bbl brewhouse and host small and large games, the main element of the building that needed to remain intact was the three-door open hearth brick oven which remains a centerpiece in the building. This massive feature in the center of the pub was custom built, so when Tabor Bread moved out of the building they wouldn’t be able to take it with them. Its a great evocative feature to TPK, but the challenge is getting it lit and keeping it warm. The oven had run continuously for 7 years before the wood fires went dark during the first Portland heat dome in 2020. To get it back up to temp is a gradual process of feeding it wood, slightly elevating the temperatures so as not to crack the brick structure with the sudden surge of intense heat. Once lit, it pretty much needs to stay lit.
Through TPK’s connections with Oregon City Brewing, (Jess brewed there before leaving to work full-time on starting TPK), they connected with Mauricio Prado of En Vida PDX. The NE Portland restaurant has served at Oregon City Brewing, and collaborated with them on beers and cocktails and it felt like a natural fit. En Vida’s South American cuisine with Cuban, Colombian, and Brazilian dishes offers just the authenticity for the multi-cultural hub that TPK wants their brewpub to be.
Prado says he will start off bringing En Vida’s signature sandwiches, burgers, arepas and small plates to TPK, then build out from there. Starting small, he will get to know the space and initially use the wood-fired hearth oven to fire up his arepas con queso and chicken hearts.
“We are planning on other items to be cooked in the oven and will be adding those as we go,” says Prado. “We are making this new location the “En Vida DLC”, tying it a little bit with the gaming concept of TPK. We also made some slight modifications to our logo to make it a more cohesive integration and keep it fun. It’s so rad!”
The oven has its own service counter in the center of the taproom, this will essentially function as a chefs kitchen counter bar just for the hearth. This is suitably evocative of some of the tales that the TPK storyline will weave, the building a former Tabor Bread bakery that has elements of an English-style cottage or public house with pitches and peaks, warm red brick, newly restored moldings, and arch supported oak beams overhead with skylights dropping in natural light. The bones of the building were already there when TPK CEO Elliot Kaplan purchased the building, but a lot of work still had to be done to set it up to install a brewery and kitchen including rebuilding the frame, tearing out part of the roof, and rewiring it to meet their electricity needs. All that substantial work put them about 6 months behind schedule, but paid off in all of the uncompromising elements that make it feel like a cohesive vision even to the non-gamer.
Brewer Jess Hardie was the inaugural recipient of the Oregon Brewers Guild’s Mashing Barriers internship program designed to bring more under-represented minorities in the beer industry into the fold. After completing her internship with Von Ebert Brewing, she moved on to Oregon City Brewing, and has been invited to brew and collaborate for prestigious beer fests and award-winning breweries such as Varietal Beer. Her beer styles are generally approachable, more classic brewpub ales, sometimes with farmhouse or innovative twists that add character and adventurous flavors.
Hardie has already brewed 3 beers on the TPK system, but none of them are completed yet (the first, a Red Ale, will possibly be ready in time for opening.) In anticipation of the momentous day, they will have collaborations beers brewed with Threshold Brewing, Montavilla Brew Works, Leikam Brewing, and Oregon City Brewing Company on tap. The bar also has plenty of non-alcoholic options, seltzer, soda, cider, etc. along with spirits and cocktails.
The year-round TPK beers will look a little something like this:
Improvised Weapon | American Wheat - 5% ABV 19 IBU
It doesn't have to be designed to be a weapon to be effective as one.Labyrinth Lager | Mexican Lager - 4.7% ABV 28 IBU
Can your party conquer the maize?Bard's Tale | Pale Ale - 4.7% ABV 40 IBU
Come, gather 'round, I've a tale to tell. One of tragedy, heartbreak, and woe. Of the world that ended before Leyfarers mended. When the Nine Kingdoms ruled long agoFog of War | Hazy IPA - 6.1% ABV 79 IBU
You make your way through new, undiscovered terrain. Beware the smiling Game Master. Roll initiative.TPK | IPA - 6.2% ABV 90 IBU
Definition to·tal par·ty kill: a TPK or Wipe is the colloquial term for when, in an encounter during the course of a role-playing game adventure, the entire party of player characters are eliminated.The Ashbringer | Stout - 5.8% ABV 44 IBU
She was radiant as the dawn, and banished the night just as quickly. But we knew. Only a truly black heart could absorb so much light.
TPK Brewing is soft opening on Saturday, October 28th at 5051 SE Hawthorne Blvd. in Portland, Oregon. However kitchen partners En Vida DLC will not be open until mid-November, which is also about when you can expect to find a full lineup of Jess Hardie’s inhouse beers on draft. However they are hosting games, pouring their first beers and those of their friends right now. Accompanied minors are allowed at all hours, but their upstairs seating area is 16+. TPK is open 11am - 11pm every day except for Tuesdays when they are closed.
