A Queer Wine Festival Is Coming to the Willamette Valley

Wine Country Pride (WCP), a volunteer-run nonprofit that was founded in 2020 by a group of friends and business owners, aims to celebrate and support the LGBTQIA+ community in rural Willamette Valley wine growing regions with its month of fundraisers and events. One of those events is the world’s first Queer Wine Fest — celebrating 16 queer-owned, -made, and -grown wineries from Oregon, Washington, and California. Remy Wines, owned by McMinnville’s interim mayor and WCP president Remy Drabkin, will host the event. Drabkin was appointed to the position in late April, making her the first woman and queer-identified person to hold the office. Other participating wineries include Roco Winery, Sis and Mae Wine, and Hip Chicks Do Wine. The event will be held June 24, with tickets ranging between $125 and $145; those interested who cannot afford to attend can contact gretchen@remywines.com.

Other Wine Country Pride events include a street fair in McMinnville, which is billed as the first-ever large-scale Pride event in rural Oregon; a month-long “Rainbow Quest,” with Yamhill County businesses serving Pride-inspired beverages and food to raise scholarship and grant money for LGBTQIA+ high school seniors; the third annual Newberg PFLAG Family Car Parade + Picnic; Dragstravaganza 2022, and more. To date, WCP has raised over $30,000.

Cassidy’s Restaurant Reopens After a Nearly Year-Long Hiatus

The 43-year-old westside fixture was forced to temporarily close last summer when it sustained smoke and water damage from a fire in its building, Willamette Week reports. The fire occurred at the Taft Home, an assisted living facility that shares the same building as Cassidy’s and Scooter McQuade’s, in June 2021.

Oregon Wins Big at Portland International Cider Cup

The 2022 awards were presented by the Northwest Cider Association (NWCA) at Northeast Portland’s Swift Cider last Thursday, according to New School Beer. Oregon cideries took home two of the five biggest awards, with Bauman’s Cider Co declared Medium Cidery of the Year and RAW Cider Company snagging the title of Best New Cidery. Additionally, ciders brewed by Oregon companies won gold, silver, and bronze medals in a variety of categories, including Peak Light Cider’s Orchard Reserve Quince, which took gold for the second year in a row in the specialty category and also placed Best in Show Runner Up. The PICC received a record number of entries this year—approximately 50 cideries from Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia put forth 241 unique entries. Read the full story here.