Portland Brewing Will Shut Down Next Month

After 35 Years, Portland Brewing Will Shut Down in February 2021

Next month, Portland Brewing will lay off its 27 employees and stop brewing beer. The brewery, which opened in 1986, has been acquired by a number of different beer brands over the years, but the latest owner, Florida Ice & Farm Company, chose to shut down the business. FIFCO CEO Rich Andrews attributed the closure to “the brand footprint, competitive craft beer landscape, and capital investments needed to update the brewery,” but former owner Art Larrance had his own theories. “This is what happens when the no one that manages has a stake in the business…absentee owners with no connection to the city,” co-founder Larrance told the beer blog New School. “The brands were not marketed and got out shined by smaller breweries when canning became popular and small producers could get into the grocery stores.” Larrance also went on to attribute the closure to “lawlessness” within Portland, likely referring to the protests that have taken place in downtown Portland. “Companies will be fleeing Portland in masses as the rioters continue to damage the integrity and property of this once fair City,” he told New School. “Downtown businesses are leaving the filth by allowing for home offices which will clean out the offices downtown and thus customers.” [TNS]

Former Bluehour Chef Thomas Boyce Is Now Running a Lasagna Delivery Business

Last week, Portland Monthly recently gave a glowing review to an oxtail lasagna from Lasagna Project PDX, an Instagram-based lasagna business from a chef some Portlanders may recognize. Thomas Boyce, known for his work at Bluehour and Pok Pok LA, now hawks layered pasta for delivery three times each week via direct messages, a la Jerry’s Pizza. The lasagnas switch up every week, ranging from spicy pork sausage sugo to wild mushroom and fontina. [PoMo]

In Other News...

• Yamhill County will soon be home to a new wine facility, housing both another location for Montinore and the new Landlines wine label. [O]
• That Olive Garden pasta pass meme that circulated last week? A Portland designer came up with it. [WWeek]
• There’s a new quesabirria cart in Hillsboro: OG Birrieria. It’s serving some of the standards for similar carts — birria ramen, mulitas, consome — as well as a “pizza de birria,” which seems to have a quesadilla base. [EO]