In the kitchen with Pelican Brewing chef Sabrina Chapman
The New School’s new ongoing series ‘The Brewers Kitchen’ investigates how breweries approach food, embracing creativity both in their offerings and in their business models. Today’s beer landscape sees everything from high-end gastropub-style brewpubs to food carts, pop-ups, and outsourcing the kitchen to third-party food vendors. Keeping the public as interested in the food is often as much of a draw as the beer itself, and is therefore an essential element of business for many breweries. This culinary world is often inhabited by chefs and brewers who are as passionate about their food as they are about the beer.
In The Brewers Kitchen, we highlight the people making some of the most delicious and creative food to pair with our brews.
30 years ago, Mary Jones and Jeff Schons decided to purchase a scrappy building that sat practically right on the beach in the sleepy Oregon coast town of Pacific City. There wasn’t much going on in the town other than the dory fishing that culminated in the annual Dory Days event that drew tourists to watch the action and take part in the fish fry and the parade. Yet, the imposing and majestic Chief Kiawanda Rock sat directly offshore in perfect view, with the Cape Kiwanda State Park and its iconic dunes just a short walk down the beach, making this a scenic place to catch a sunset while sipping a beer. Realizing that last part might be pretty damn important to thirsty visitors, they soon connected with brewmaster Darron Welch and Pelican Brewing was born.
Over three decades, no other brewery, besides maybe Fort George in Astoria, has reached the level of a destination that actually drives tourism up and down the coast while also expanding its distribution footprint. This is largely due to each location being within stumbling distance of the beach and Darron Welch’s beers - not to mention a lengthy list of talented alumni and later collaborators that includes Grand Fir’s Whitney Burnside and Gigantic’s Ben Love - that have garnered an almost comical amount of medals (over 450 to be more exact) in beer competitions around the world. But it is also because, in this land of fish and chips, bacon-loaded clam chowder, and rubbery fried razor clams, Pelican has long served some of the highest quality and most thoughtful food on the coast.
Much like the many brewers who have worked for Pelican over its 30-year existence, numerous chefs have come through the kitchen during their formative years before moving on to other successful ventures. These include Breakside executive chef and subject of our most recent Brewer’s Kitchen (and Pacific City native) Michael Blank-Delaney, and others.
Pelican chef Sabrina Chapman
Since 2018, Sabrina Chapman has been leading the food program across Pelican’s five locations and, soon, six with a casual spot opening this summer in Yachats. The menu at Pelican has always included, and likely will continue to include, coastal staples like the aforementioned chowder and fried fish. Truth be told, these dishes deserve much of the credit for the lines that snake out the door on busy summer evenings. In a given year, the Pelican team preps 10,000 gallons of chowder and sells 55,000 pounds of cod and 140,000 burgers. What Chapman brings to the team is a uniquely Oregon sensibility that, combined with her experience working her way up and time spent in high-end cuisine, allows her to craft dishes that feel truly elevated above standard brewpub or seafood shack fare and also capture her love for fresh, local ingredients.
“My roots are firmly planted in Oregon, particularly along the Oregon Coast. I spent my earliest years in Otis and have fond memories of fishing and trips to Newport and Silver Falls,” says Chapman, who found her way back to the coast after spending time in San Diego and Baja California before officially launching her culinary career in 2012. “That same year, I earned my career diploma in catering, which really started my culinary journey and fueled my excitement to get into professional kitchens and learn everything there is to know about being a chef.”
Much of her early experience came from her career in bustling environments at TC’s Pub at Tahoe’s Northstar Resort and at Bite Restaurant in Incline Village, where she worked her way up from prep cook to executive chef, managing a high-volume, scratch-made fine-dining program. Eventually, she was drawn back to Oregon after seeing an opportunity at Pelican.
“By 2018, I was ready for a new challenge and was immediately drawn to Pelican’s strong core values after seeing their posting for a new chef. After a working interview at the Pacific City location, I fell in love with the opportunity and moved out a month later. Even though it meant a step back at the time, I was drawn to Pelican Brewing’s reputation, high volume, and continuous expansion. Today, I’m proud to be part of the teams across Pacific City, Cannon Beach, Tillamook, Siletz Bay, Rockaway Beach, and soon Yachats — all while my fiancé and I raise our 18-month-old twin boys in the coastal community I’ve always loved.”
Over seven years in, Chapman has sharpened her ability to balance the pressures of running several kitchens - many of which reach bonkers-level busy in the summer - with the demand to flex her creative chef skills through fan favorite specials like smoked oyster bruschetta or schnitzel with Madeira mushroom gravy, and Pelican’s long-running brewers dinners that feature multi-course tasting menus paired with beers. For Chapman, there is as much value in pleasing beer nerds and foodies as there is in feeding a family just looking for some fried seafood after a day on the beach.
“For me, being a chef is about so much more than what’s on the plate — it’s about the human connection shared while enjoying a meal and the memories families make during their time with us. We have the incredible privilege of being a cornerstone of people's vacations, milestones, and celebrations. There is something truly special about pairing world-class beer and exceptional food with the breathtaking setting of the Oregon Coast, and accomplishing that with consistency, at the high volume that we do, is a challenge that I find deeply rewarding,” she says.
To achieve the status of a respectable restaurant that is more than just another brewpub, Chapman and her team work to make each location special while keeping Oregonians' love for ingredient-focused food front and center. Chapman has developed a process that feels almost clinical, or perhaps like something we might see on Top Chef, in its preciseness.
“Our menu development process begins with deep research — exploring new flavors, sourcing incredible ingredients, and asking, ‘What is our menu missing?’ For every single slot we look to fill, I develop 10 distinct ideas. I then narrow those down to the four best to present to our leadership team. We evaluate every dish on a ‘scorecard’ that balances brand fit, flavor and presentation. We’re making adjustments up until the last minute to make it perfect and considering whether the kitchen can execute the dish at high volume. Since we can’t keep adding new items indefinitely, choosing which well-loved options to remove is always the hardest part,” she says.
Part of this process also means ensuring each Pelican location has its own style or “personality” that captures the spirit of the local community and caters to the desires of tourists. While locations like Rockaway Beach and the new Yachats spot have more of a neighborhood pub-meets-fast-casual vibe, and Tillamook is basically a taproom that happens to serve food, other Pelican locations offer a more luxurious experience, at least by Oregon coast standards. Of course, plenty of people still flock to Pacific City (“The OG”) for its incredible ocean views accompanied by classics like the famous chowder and fish and chips, but Cannon Beach takes things a notch higher with fancy-ish dishes like Dungeness Crab Ravioli or 14-hour slow-smoked Tri-Tip. Perhaps the newest and most gussied-up Pelican is its Siletz Bay location, with its sprawling modern architecture serving as an ideal setting for seafood and Bavarian-inspired cuisine.
“This is our showstopper for seafood lovers. Inspired by Jeff and Mary’s vision, we do a full crab boil here that is exclusive to Siletz Bay. It’s messy, fresh, and perfect for the view,” says Chapman.
Balancing so many different menus and outposts is a challenge that Chapman happily accepts. This is partly because each location is led by an executive chef, an executive sous chef, and two additional sous chefs, providing Chapman with ample support and opportunities to collaborate on the menu.
“One of the most rewarding aspects of my role is the ability to stay connected to the heart of each kitchen. Although I am based in Pacific City, I make it a priority to visit every location a couple of times a month. These aren't just check-ins — they are moments of true collaboration where I get to spend quality time in the kitchen alongside our incredible chefs and teams,” she says.
With a perfectionist like Darron Welch leading the brewing, a big part of Chapman’s work as a chef is also ensuring her food is well paired with the beers. This often means getting super specific tasting notes on the beer, such as an acidic structure of a cider cutting through the rich, thick texture of a sauce or soup. This chemistry is best experienced at Pelican’s brewer dinners, where both Welch and Chapman - as well as collaborating chefs and brewers - get to walk through the flavors and pairing notes of each dish and its accompanying beer.
“Working with our brewery team is one of the most inspiring parts of my job. It’s a true partnership where the food and the beer elevate one another to create something magical. We’ve learned through experience that the best way to create a harmony of flavors is to lead with the food, then find the beer that matches. Our process is simple and fun: we sit down together and taste everything. We love looking for what we call ‘flavor hooks’ — those special moments where a dish and a beer harmonize. It might be finding a raspberry sweetness in a beer to balance the richness of our crab mac, or choosing a crisp, clean brew to cut through the heat of a spicy dish,” she says.
As part of Pelican’s 30th anniversary celebration, Chapman’s latest project has been to refresh the menu with a handful of special items. These include burrata and crispy prosciutto with roasted tomatoes and fresh basil served with focaccia, seared ahi aguachile crusted with Pasilla-coriander, and blackened mahi mahi served over couscous with roasted vegetables, cilantro sambal, and fresh mango pico de gallo, to name just a few. If that doesn’t sound like brewpub food, that is exactly the point.
“Our guiding light for this new chapter is a move toward a lighter, health-forward and "fresh-from-the-sea" feel. While our beloved pub staples will always have a home here, we are elevating them alongside sophisticated new additions. My goal is to ensure that our menu offers high-quality coastal cuisine that has something for everyone,” says Chapman.
All of these changes have allowed Chapman to lean more into her love of working with the seasons and sourcing the highest-quality ingredients. As she looks into her own future at Pelican, this is what she is most excited about.
“My absolute favorite part of being an Oregon Coast chef is the rhythm of the seasons. When Oregon pink shrimp season hits, we dive headfirst into the local harvest to create specials like our shrimp roll. It’s a chance to celebrate a specific moment in time on the coast. We’re so lucky in Oregon. Every restaurant I’ve been part of aims to source the best ingredients, but not everyone can so easily find those in their backyard. In Oregon, and especially here on the coast, we are surrounded by a literal bounty, and I make it a priority to source from our neighbors whenever possible.”
