For a long time, Lents simply wasn't getting much love—especially when it came to food and drink. But with a baseball stadium on the way, things are likely to get a lot livelier in one of Portland's easternmost neighborhoods, and Pints Brewing Company's brewmaster Alan Taylor is gearing up for it with Zoiglhaus, a new 200-seat brewpub located at 5716 SE 92nd Ave.
Open today for the first time, Zoiglhaus features 10 Taylor-brewed drafts. Heading the kitchen, chef Marcus Zellmer, perviously of Pints, Milo's City Cafe, Laurelwood, and Hopworks, serves bar snacks and entrees like bacon-wrapped brussels sprouts, Fressen pretzels, jägerschnitzel, goulash, and sausages served all kinds of ways.
The name Zoiglhaus shares an interesting story. As explained by Gwen Bartonek, Zoiglhaus' project manager, zoigl is German for sign, specifically this one: ✡ (in this context, it's not Israeli but rather, represents beer's simple recipe: water, fire, and air + yeast, barley, and hops).
Traditionally, the sign is hung outside the homes of brewers in small-town Bavaria, where it's typical to have one brewery supported by several homebrewers. The brewery produces the wort, and the homebrewers retrieve it and ferment the suds at home, each using a different recipe. When the beer's ready, the brewers stamp their homes with an ✡ and turn their living rooms into pop-up pubs until the beers either go bad or get drunk. (They never goes bad, in case you were wondering).
So that's the idea: community and beer.
If you live in Lents, you already know about Zoiglhaus—Taylor and his team have been selling beer at the your farmers' market since July. To the rest of you: Now you can taste what Lents has already long known.
Zoiglhaus Brewing Company: 5716 SE 92nd Ave., 971.339.2374; Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Wednesday, and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Thursday through Sunday
