pFriem’s New Milwaukie Pub is Impressive—And Homey

I have been proud to have pFriem Family Brewers sponsor this blog the past few years. Whenever I cover the brewery in the course of my regular reporting I will always mention this relationship.

Back in the depths of the Depression, the Public Works Administration helped the small town of Milwaukie (population 1,800) build a city hall building with its own firehouse. From 1938 until 2023, it served the town, which grew more than tenfold during that time. On April 7, it starts a new life as pFriem’s Portland-area home.

I don’t know if pFriem’s run will last another 85 years, but the impression when you walk in is a restaurant built for the long run. At a soft opening on Monday, the brewery test drove the new space, the menu, and the service and flow to prepare for the big unveiling on Monday, April 7th. pFriem was able to completely redesign the building’s interior, which had been a warren of cramped offices crouched under those dismal old drop ceilings, and it feels completely natural, like the building had been created to house a pub and restaurant.

Since its earliest days, pFriem has had a self-consciously European feel. This comes in part from co-founder Josh Pfriem’s affinity for German lagers and Belgian ales, and partly from co-founder Rudy Kellner’s Czech heritage. The new Milwaukie location draws on that connection, and echoes the ambiance of pubs in Bavaria and Bohemia. The blond wood tables and gray wainscoting are direct nods to those places, but there’s something in the gracious space itself that evokes those pubs’ feel as well. Germans have a word for this, Gemütlichkeit, which literally means cozy. But it also communicates a sense of comfort and ease. pFriem’s new place is big and impressive, but perhaps its more notable qualities involve how homey it feels.

pFriem did a lot to preserve and highlight the building’s original character—and in some ways they accentuated it. A two-story arch at the center of the building is the most distinctive feature of the moderne/Art Deco architecture. pFriem worked to carry the theme of the arch throughout the building. They also worked with local artists on projects throughout the building, and we get the first taste of it with the mural painted at the entryway. It’s a nice way to introduce these themes for visitors, who will recognize them throughout.

Once inside, my eye was drawn to the left, where there’s another “Bear’s Den,” looking much like the one in Hood River. This is a purpose-built space for package sales, and where people can grab a quick pint. It gives the brewery a second point of service for when things get busy. And hanging behind the bar is a piece of local art pFriem commissioned.

If you turn the other direction, you find a small seating area and beyond is the main dining room. This was the erstwhile parking bay for the fire truck, complete with a roll-up door for its entry. All of that translates perfectly into a pub. The ceiling rises high overhead, and a horseshoe bar—another arch—is the centerpiece of the room. On sunny days, servers can roll up the entrance and let patrons spill out into the beer garden beyond, into the expansive grounds in the front of the building.

A nearly identical seating area is immediately above the lower pub, accessible by a staircase that wraps around the bar. The upstairs pub, which pFriem can use for private parties or events like trivia night, has the same arch-shaped bar. Connecting the two stories is a subtle feature—a brass pole that runs from the ceiling in the second story down through both bars. It was the original pole firemen used to slide down, and on the main floor, you can see the (now covered) manhole-sized circle next to the pole above the bar. In the pubs, the pole has been repurposed into a tower for two Czech-style faucets.

Seating area and main dining room beyond.

Choosing Milwaukie

I confess I’ve been curious to see what they would do to appeal to local Milwaukie residents. For those who don’t live in the Portland Metro area, it’s worth knowing a bit about this small town. Downtown Portland and Milwaukie are separated by just six miles, and the latter is technically a suburb of the former, but that’s not how it feels. Milwaukie, particularly its downtown, has the feel of a rural center, far from a big city. The identity of a suburb is connected to the major city it’s near, but Milwaukie feels wholly separate, a place not defined by its larger neighbor.

A man named Lot Whitcomb founded Milwaukie, Oregon in 1849. You’d imagine he was a native Wisconsinite, but no—he was born in Vermont and lived in Michigan, Illinois, and Missouri. The reasons he chose the name Milwaukie remain obscure. Perhaps the town’s greatest claim to fame is the Bing cherry, bred here by horticulturist Seth Luelling and his Chinese foreman, Ah Bing.

That can be good and bad. Breweries have not fared well in Milwaukie—or Clackamas County, for that matter. Because it has that rural feel, there’s almost a sense of rejection of the big city and its trendy ways. That means it can be hard for new businesses to integrate into the community. But it also means locals are loyal. Nothing quite exemplifies this like the Pietro’s Pizza place three blocks away. A Milwaukie institution that once grew to 80 sites throughout the state, it has shrunk to just two locations now—the other, ironically, in Hood River. It seems like a lesson: capture the heart of a Milwaukian, and they will stay true to you.

pFriem has grown to become one of the most successful Oregon breweries, and Portlanders have long wondered if they would ever see a satellite taproom. Instead of landing in downtown (like Deschutes, Full Sail, and Rogue all did when they opened places in the big city), choosing Milwaukie was not an obvious move. I was curious to see how pFriem planned to develop their new place, and how much they would embrace their new little town. In the year they have been building it out, they have gone to lengths to make sure locals feel welcome. (On the soft opening, we got a surprise visit by the town’s mascot, a Sesame Street-like goose.)

Many Portlanders are going to make the short drive to the new place, but it feels like pFriem has chosen to focus on locals first. The old City Hall building is still the keystone feature in the downtown area, which means pFriem has made a bet on becoming its kitchen and rec room. At least based on anecdotal reports, locals have been buzzing about it. I have good friends who live in Milwaukie, and they confirmed that folks are excited pFriem chose their downtown.

Looking out from behind the archway bar.

The walls aren’t covered with decades of memorabilia, but pFriem has given them a start.

Food & Drink

Anyone familiar with pFriem’s Hood River restaurant will recognize the menu in Milwaukie. I’d characterize it as a gastropub, and it has several of the same menu items—pimento burger, clams and chorizo, fish and chips, and sausages. Oregonians have strong opinions about how far from pub fare they're willing to go, though, and pFriem stays well on the side of angels. Like their beer, pFriem’s food is well-conceived and well-prepared.

The beer lineup is also much like you find in Hood River, and for pFriem’s biggest fans, this is undoubtedly the highlight of the new place. Very few breweries are as committed to as many different kinds of beers as pFriem, yet none of them have ever been pro-forma. When they brew a beer, they are meticulous in honoring its traditional origins and production methods.

At this point, the brewery is probably known more for its lagers than anything else. On Monday I tried the Italian Pilsner, which illustrates why. Served on the Czech faucet, with a large, mousse-like head, it has tons of herbal and spicy German hopping—it’s much closer to the Italiano Tipopils that inspired the style than most American examples. Their Canadian and Japanese lagers, along with their flagship Pilsner and core helles (“Lager”) are all on hand for a session in the beer garden. pFriem is one of the leaders in modern IPAs, too, and they have a regular rotation of new and experimental hoppy ales as well.

Finally, they continue to support their wild and barrel-aged program, and in addition to some Belgian and farmhouse selections on tap, they have a number of bottled choices as well. Many breweries have let their wild programs dwindle as consumers move away from them, but not pFriem, who still makes an impressive range, and is definitely one of the country’s best. It’s fantastic that they have the bottles there—and they can make any visit a special occasion.

Finally, the brewery is keen to showcase their cocktail program, which they’ve worked hard to translate to their tap system. On a brief tour, Josh pFriem took me to the cold room behind the bar and we saw a line of small, cylindrical sixtel kegs on little pedestals. They turned out not to be pedestals, but stir plates, constantly keeping their cocktails blended inside the kegs. I’m not really qualified to discuss anything but margaritas, but theirs were excellent—blanco tequila in the nose, and a quenching, dry and bright with citrus. Other cocktails include Saturn (a tiki cocktail), a coffee-banana concoction, and two beer-inflected classics, Oude Kriek Negroni and Strong Dark Old Fashioned.

The draft margaritas are strong and herbal.

With their new Milwaukie location, pFriem has gone big, creating a space with several seating areas, three bars, a restaurant, and expansive drinks menu. It’s encouraging to see a brewery make a big splash in a second location. It’s an investment not just in a physical space, but the community, and the future. It’s taken pFriem thirteen years to expand from their original location on the banks of the Columbia River, and they clearly didn’t want to do this halfway. I expect the Portland metro area—and the happy residents of Milwaukie—will be pleased with the results. It’s impressive, but more than that, it’s a wonderfully comfortable space people will want to spend an hour or three.

Jeff AlworthApril 2, 20256 Comments