Double Mountain Brewery & Cidery of Hood River has opened its second Portland location, a pub in the Overlook neighborhood of North Portland that’s delivering Double Mountain’s popular beers, ciders and sodas along with its pizza- and sandwich-focused food menu.
Matt Swihart, who co-founded Double Mountain in Hood River in 2007, said the new location was designed similarly to Double Mountain’s other Portland location in Woodstock — as a neighborhood draw focused on local residents.
“That Overlook neighborhood is a nice, dense housing area,” Matt Swihart told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “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.”
The pub previously was the home of Roux, a once-hip restaurant that closed in 2009, and Lucky Labrador Brewing’s fourth location, which closed for good late last year. The Lab’s other three locations continue to operate and are doing well, said co-founder Gary Geist, who still owns the North Portland building.
Double Mountain Overlook, which opened Saturday, has roomy dining rooms, numerous picnic tables outside along the sidewalk, and a roomy bar area Swihart anticipates will offer “a real good vibe and place to hang out and have a beer.” Like the other two locations, live music acts will be a regular feature.
And it has a full wait staff, eschewing ordering through QR codes.
“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,” Swihart said.
General manager Brendon Martin, who came to Double Mountain in February and is overseeing operations at the two Portland locations, said 40 people have been hired so the Overlook location can deliver proper service.
One of those is Luis Vega, who came to Double Mountain from Vibrant Table Catering and is overseeing the Overlook and Woodstock kitchens. Martin says he and Vega have been focused on improving a food menu that was already popular.
“We realized we had been serving the same menu for eight years at Woodstock, so we upgraded,” Martin said. “We put the staff through the paces to really elevate what we serve, and the menu now is a fully realized Double Mountain product.
“Before it was already excellent. Now it’s excellent and polished.”
One of those improvements is a recently purchased $30,000 dough baller at Woodstock, which spits out 500 dough balls a day for the two locations. Finding a machine that could handle that volume and maintain the quality of Double Mountain’s high-moisture pizza dough recipe — one that took years to develop and is a closely held secret — was a challenge but worth the effort, Martin said.
In addition to sandwiches and pizza, the food menu has a selection of appetizers and salads plus a kids menu. And the kitchen offers par-baked pizzas and kits for home baking.
The bar is pouring 17 taps of Double Mountain’s beer and cider, along with wine, specialty cocktails and non-alcoholic offerings such as Double Mountain’s own ginger ale and root beer.
The beer taplist remains eclectic, loaded with longtime favorites such as Vaporizer Pale Ale, Hop Lion IPA, Kolsch, IRA India Red Ale and Devil’s Cuvee Kriek, alongside others styles such as Una Mas Mexican Style Lager and Turn the Haze Hazy IPA. Ciders being poured during opening week include Dry Cider, Rosé Dry Cider, Perry Pear Hard Cider and Estate Heirloom Cider.
Swihart co-founded Double Mountain in 2007 with business partner Charlie Devereaux, who left in 2013 to launch Wayfinder Beer then Via Beer. Swihart said 2019 was a strong year for Double Mountain, then the pandemic “pulled the rug out, but luckily we had the pizzeria, so takeout and having Woodstock saved us.”
Swihart said the new location was 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.”
Overlook residents appear to be excited, too.
“I’ve heard lots of thank yous, lots of excitement,” Martin said. “We’ve had guests warning us about what will be the busy days, so that’s been rad.”
Sean Scott lives just down the street and said he’s been waiting for Double Mountain to open since the news broke a few months ago. He sat outside Wednesday with family and friends and enjoyed the sunshine and beer.
“I’m thrilled that they are here now — I’ll be a regular lunch customer now,” he said. “There’s other bars in the neighborhood, but it’s really nice to have a brewpub here again.”
IF YOU GO
- What: Double Mountain in North Portland’s Overlook neighborhood
- Where: 1700 N. Killingsworth St.
- When: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday; 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday
- Contact: 503-206-4405; doublemountainbrewery.com
— Andre Meunier; sign up for my weekly newsletter Oregon Brews and News, and follow me on Instagram, where I’m @oregonianbeerguy.
