Upright Brewing Beer Station now open with Chaat Wallah Indian dive bar food concept
Chaat Wallah, an Indian dive bar-style food truck has opened at Upright Brewing’s new Beer Station location. Founded in 2009, Upright Brewing opened the Upright Beer Station in February 2023 partnering with Junior’s Roasted Coffee, and now the much buzzed about new food truck from chef/restaurateur Deepak Saxena has joined the growing lot at 7151 NE Prescott in Portland.
Upright has come a long way since their days as a basement farmhouse brewery specializing in saisons and barrel fermented wild ales. The original lineup at Upright consisting of a wheat farmhouse table beer called “Four”, a hoppy farmhouse called “Five”, a dark rye farmhouse ale called “Six”, and a strong golden saison called “Seven” are long gone. However, founder Alex Ganum and company are still making drinkable underappreciated ales and lagers their specialty with some of their earlier favorites making infrequent returns. These days they specialize more in British-style cask beer, quaffable German ales and lagers, even IPA’s get thrown into the mix, and always a few crisp lagers as well.
The road to opening the Upright Beer Station was long, after purchasing an old abandoned gas station and lot at the corner of NE 72nd and Prescott in 2020 it still took 3 years to open up. It’s now been a few years since Upright moved their original tasting room out of the basement of the Leftbank Project and onto the main floor cafe space for a stylish, open layout with major late day sun rays casting long shadows from the west facing wall of windows. It’s a far cry from the almost windowless dank and dark basement. It’s also been awhile since owner Alex Ganum sold his gastropub Grain & Gristle, and closed and sold restaurant Old Salt Marketplace. So why get into the satellite open and airy space like a gas station now?
“I just wanted another outlet for our beers,” says Ganum. “With rising operating costs it's been more and more difficult to make things pencil out, which is kind of the rough side of running such a small volume brewery. Having a neighborhood spot like the Beer Station is also a nice change for us, since the brewery taproom is so dependent on what's happening at the Moda Center and tourism.”
The Beer Station is a fairly intimate space indoors, roughly the same amount of seating as the original Upright basement taproom (for those that remember it pre-pandemic) before they moved to the lobby of the Leftbank Project Building. But it is much more colorful than Upright’s locations have been in the past, with warm water blue, cherry red, and white ivory tones as opposed to the heavy brick and dark woody notes previously associated with the brand. Even moreso than his other projects, Ganum is focused on creating a more minimalist, straightforward and comfortable atmosphere.
“In every venture I've always strived for an authentic experience, which means focusing on the product and creating a straightforward and comfortable atmosphere, one where you're less inclined to pull out a phone to take photos and more likely to just relax and be in the moment. That's definitely true of the Beer Station. And despite being well lit, it even has a bit of the intimate old basement tasting room vibe inside because of its small interior and engagement with the bartenders,” says Ganum.
Long, tall, standing height beer hall-style tables fill the center of the room and a few more intimate low 2-4 top tables are against the west wall against curtain draped windows and five different elegant prints of famous jazz musicians.
The photography prints of musicians Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Dave Brubeck, Oscar Peterson, and Dizzy Gillespie were all taken in Portland in the early 50’s by the late Carl Henniger. Henniger’s son Michael found the amazing collection while searching for a family photo in 2016 and years later reached out to Upright’s Alex Ganum about displaying them. There were over 300 photos, each with a great story behind them.
“It was a joy to see all those shots and hear about the history surrounding them, and I can't thank Michael enough for sharing his father's work with us. My favorite is the one of Dizzy and the Count playing chess backstage. What a photo!” says Ganum.
The Beer Station has 11 total beers on tap pushed into a sunken blue tile sink of lines below a wall of bright summer red colored plates with the name of each beer. The concrete bar seats half a dozen, has an rich dark color that pulls you into the stool. There is a handful of chrome accents contrasting with an all brass draft setup remarks Ganum, “You never really see brass anymore, and that was something I was set on from the get go.”
7 of the beers on tap are full C02 draft, one of them is a side-pull lager faucet which is a first for Upright, and another three are from beer engines.
To showcase the tighter and more foamy pour and dense bubbles achieved with the specialty Lukr lager faucet, Upright has designed a brand new beer called Spellbinder Pils that is specific to the Beer Station location.
“We've been working on that beer [Spellbinder Pils] for a while now and feel like it's pretty well dialed,” says Ganum. “It's open fermented and hopped with a split of contessa and whole leaf Mt. Hood. Really digging that blend and the Spellbinder in general, and I think the side pull pour into these rad little .4 L mugs we sourced will be super enjoyable.”
Upright is also really leaning into the real cask beer that they began brewing in the past few years, with no other brewery in Portland we can think of having 3 hand pull beers available except for Beer Station. “We love producing those, and hope that they continue to grow in popularity here in Portland,” says Ganum optimistic about the future market and beervana’s advanced beer fans.
Where the Beer Station really differs is in the unique and creative partnerships that breweries are beginning to learn to embrace if they want to survive in the more advanced and competitive industry these days. For example; by day the Beer Station doubles as a new location for Junior’s Roasted Coffee Cafe from 7am till 2pm serving coffee, tea, and pastries.
Another of the major draws to this new location is the spacious outdoor area. Roll-up doors to the bar open into a large parking lot that has mostly been renovated into an open-air beer garden during good weather. The lot was set up to have easy hook-ups for two different food trucks, the first of which is Chaat Walla that just opened in May.
“I live 12 blocks from the Upright Beer Station so I was super excited about the possibility of having something in my neighborhood,” says Chaat Wallah owner Deepak Saxena about when he first heard about the project.
Deepak a new noteworthy name in Portland’s culinary scene based on his acclaimed food truck at Prost! called Desi PDX, and Chaat Wallah’s brief stint at the 503 Distilling tasting room. He recently opened a unique Indian brunch location called Masala Lab on NE MLK Blvd.
Deepak’s first commercial cooking business was a short lived small catering company on the back of a bike trailer. Next he opened DesiPDX, the Indian food truck’s menu focuses on rice bowls and plates, and is probably nothing like what you would expect based on the usual dishes found at most Indian restaurants.
“My goal is to re-imagine what Indian food is in a modern interconnected world where cultures are always mixing,” says Deepak. “We intentionally do not serve dishes you find at most Indian restaurants such as butter chicken, tikka masala, korma, etc and instead take Indian spices, sauces, etc and present them in new formats.”
With each new business Deepak opens he tries to give it a distinct identity, his second shop Masala Lab is a slightly more upscale Indian brunch spot. While Chaat Wallah is basically bar food/fast food with an Indian twist.
Examples:
Lamb Khadi Smashburger is the ultimate drunk food or hair of the dog and it pulls off the trick of confusing a basic American such as I with every bite. Appearing pretty straightforward with an imposing size and mouthwatering presentation, the first bite doesn’t have the greasy crisp edges you want in a smashburger but does have the layer upon layer of juicy meat patty and goopy creamy sauce and cheese you expect in a double/triple decker burger with all the toppings. But then your tongue gets an unexpected twist with a spiced lamb patty rather than ground beef, which reminded me of a gyro. The buttermilk curry cream sauce did an excellent job fusing the layers of pickled eggplant puree, garlic-chili crisp, and arugula with a combination quality reminiscent of aioli, nacho cheese, ranch, and yellow coconut curry.
Bhel Frito Chaat from the Chaat Wallah food truck
Bhel Frito Chaat is a gluten-free and vegan take on a classic Indian street snack only infused with crushed fritos. I expect something more like an Indian spice version of the Midwest favorite frito pies from a bag that this recalls, but it’s actually something wholly different. It’s almost like a healthy bar snack, with crunchy frito and puffy rice crisps tossed with peanuts, tomato, cilantro, mint, shallots, chutney’s and a tangy chaat masala. You almost want to eat it with your fingers, but ultimately you will want a fork.
The Masala Pulled Pork Sandwich
Masala Pulled Pork sandwich is the menu item I tried that feels closest to the American equivalent. Like a BBQ pulled pork sandwich, only the slow cooking spices are tamarind-ginger, the coleslaw is tropical mango achaar mayo, and the sauce is a spicy green chutney.
Nacho Chaat is what I most want to try (it has been sold-out on my two recent visits.) Juanitas chips with sharp cheddar, smoked paneer crumbles, garam masala & toasted cumin salsa, lentil dhal, tamarind-date chutney, spicy cilantro chutney, smokey tandoori yogurt. Served with choice of green lentil dhal (veg) or malala pulled pork. Dhal ($12) pork ($15) combo ($17.)
Saag Paneer (Vegetarian) Sandwich also sounds like a keeper for less meat inclined patrons: Smoked paneer, spinach saag, mango pickle mayo, pickled onion, garlic-chili crisp, side of saag for dipping ($13.)
“I think it pairs super well,” says Deepak of Upright Brewing’s beers and Chaat Wallah’s food. “Their beers are all complex in flavor and can stand up to the complexities of Indian spices. My favorite items on our menu are the Lamb Khadi Smashburger and the Bhel Frito Chaat. My goto beer at the Station is the Dark Mild and I'm loving the Two Tone Summer Ale.”
Masala Pulled Pork sandwich from Chaat Wallah at the Upright Beer Station
Upright Brewing and Deepak are collaborating again on a new beer, and a food pairing for the 2023 Portland Beer Week.
Inspired by their love of traditional and deceivingly light Guinness Stout, Upright has made a “Summer Stout” as a real ale served from the hand pumped beer engine.
Chaat Wallah is using the Summer Stout to make a Chopped Brisket Sandwich available as a Portland Beer Week special that will be available from Sunday, June 18 - Tuesday, June 21st (or until sell out.) Using the stout as a braising liquid, Deepak and his team slow cook the brisket with chickpea miso and garam masala. The sandwich will be served up with a fennel-carrot slaw, garam masala mustard and a spicy green chutney, on a Dos Hermanos bun, with potato chips on the side.
“Overall it still feels like a former service station, with the garage doors, canopy, etc, and in this town where so much feels brand new, I think it's nice to maintain some older structures, even if they're as unremarkable as a gas station,” added Alex Ganum. The Beer Station has already proved a hit with the neighborhood and is bringing in an entire new fanbase for their beers and Chaat Wallah’s unique and fun food.
Upright Brewing Beer Station, 7151 NE Prescott St, Portland, OR