Double Mountain Brewery & Cidery announced Thursday that it will open its third location overall and second in Portland: a pizza-focused pub in the recently closed location of Lucky Labrador Tap Room in North Portland’s Overlook neighborhood.
Matt Swihart, who co-founded the operation in Hood River in 2007, said the new location will be similar to Double Mountain’s other Portland location in Woodstock, a neighborhood hub focused on pizza and beer.
“That Overlook neighborhood is a nice, dense housing area,” Swihart told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Thursday. “When I’m there I see families and kids — it’s got a great vibe to it. It reminds me of what we saw in Woodstock when we opened there 10 years ago. I’ve got a good feel for the new location.”
Lucky Lab closed the spot at 1700 N. Killingsworth St. in late 2021 as sales slumped there, its fourth location. The other three locations continue to operate and are doing well, said Lucky Lab owner Gary Geist, who still owns the North Portland building.
“Coming out of COVID, we opened back up there in North Portland, but people were still hunkering down, and business never came back,” Geist said in an interview. “I got to the point where I thought we should close down and refocus on the other three and lease out North Portland.
“I have a feeling that Matt will do a heck of a lot better there than we ever did, so that’s a win/win,” Geist said.
Swihart and Geist said mutual acquaintance Jerry Fechter, owner and founder of several Portland institutions that include the former Lompoc Brewing, knew of their mutual business interests and connected them.
“I ran into Jerry and told him, ‘Hey man I’m thinking about opening another location, I know you used to have a bunch of spots and maybe we should get a beer and you should talk me out of it,’ " Swihart joked.
“He didn’t do that, but he gave me a bunch of leads, one of which was this spot.”
Swihart said that Double Mountain will start with a menu similar to the Woodstock location’s, with pizza, sandwiches, salads and appetizers, but that a new menu is being developed to elevate the offerings. The location has space for additional ovens, so he is looking into Double Mountain baking its own bread.
He anticipated pouring 15 to 18 Double Mountain taps, with 75% being beer and the rest cider.
The location has three serving rooms, and he plans to include a bar that will be “a real good vibe and place to hang out and have a beer.” He also said it will be a full-service restaurant without QR code phone ordering, which he said he “can’t stand.”
“As much as we can return to a friendly face and, ‘How can i help you, and here’s a menu,’ that’s what we want to be,” he said.
He anticipates opening by midsummer at the earliest, after Double Mountain can redo the space.
“Just walking in there, it’s got good bones to it,” he said. “It needs some love. And I had so much fun redoing Woodstock, I’m anxious to get in there and put our signature on the space.”
Swihart co-founded Double Mountain in 2007 with business partner Charlie Devereaux, who left in 2013 to launch Wayfinder Beer, then eventually Via Beer, leaving Swihart as Double Mountain’s majority owner.
He said 2019 was a strong year for the operation. Then the pandemic “pulled the rug out, but luckily we had the pizzeria, so takeout and having Woodstock saved us.”
“Now I’m seeing a return to draft and people going out to dinner and being more comfortable,” he said. “We’re pretty close to hitting our pub numbers from 2019, and our draft business is almost double from what it was last year, so that’s coming back, too.”
Swihart said the brewery’s use of bottles has also contributed to its popularity.
“Our reusable glass containers are appealing to our customers,” he said. “And during COVID we didn’t have any can issues like the rest of the industry, so that was a benefit, too. We own all that glass so there’s no cost increases either.”
Swihart said the new location is the next step forward for the destination Oregon brewery.
“I see Portland coming back, and we wouldn’t be investing in a new location if we didn’t see that,” he said. “We’re excited to be in that neighborhood and be part of another cool neighborhood.”
-- Andre Meunier; ameunier@oregonian.com; sign up for my weekly newsletter Oregon Brews and News, and follow me on Instagram, where I’m @oregonianbeerguy
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