Industry Bar Shift Drinks Launches Private Event and Dinner Space

On May 18, Shift Drinks—the bartenders' bar on SW 12th and Morrison—celebrates its one-year anniversary with what will most certainly be a plush bash, and it will also reclaim Makeshift Room: Its upstairs private dining and event space that has played home to the popular Nomad.PDX restaurant for the past 11 months. Nomad.PDX is relocating, and Shift Drinks is just getting warmed up.

Shift Drinks is run by sommelier Anthony Garcia and bartender Alise Moffatt, and Anthony's wife Annie Garcia will oversee the food program at the Makeshift Room. "At the moment, Alise, Annie, and I are weighing everything," Anthony tells Eater, "to make sure we have the right fit and to allow us to have the flexibility to do our own private dinners, as well."

Certainly, Makeshift Room will host private events, from business dinners to industry celebrations, furnishing onsite food and drink, and it'll likely play home to some of the city's hottest chef-run dinner series and pop-ups, too. No names have been dropped, but with allegedly below-market pricing, the space made popular by James Beard Award-nominated Nomad.PDX could very well attract some of the city's most popular dinner series.

Working closely with the local pop-up scene, Shift Drinks is also launching wine and menu consulting this month to connect its clients with specialty wines and other beverages and help them plan pairings. This goes for everyone from pop-ups to barbershops—any business that serves drinks as part of its business model.

With all this in the works after just one year, Shift Drinks continues to fill out its role as one of the pillars of Portland bartending. To see just what happens at Makeshift Room, stay glued to Shift Drinks' website and Instagram.