According to a recent permit filing, Cold Ones will open its doors in the Kerns area, located at 310 NE 28th Avenue.
“We aim to be open by the end of January, but you never know. Permits and licenses have been submitted though! Our goal is to fill the gap in specialty beer in the neighborhood and bring in a lot of the dope brands that you won’t find at Plaid or the Minimart: Untitled Art, Drekker, Boss Rambler, Living Haus, Wolves & People, that sort of thing.”
“IPAs are always what sells, but we have a palate for just about everything so expect some less usual offerings,” owner and operator Alex McGillivray told What Now Portland.
“Bottle shop is kind of a misnomer as it will be nearly all cans (plus a few taps), the good ol’ build-your-own 4-pack model. I co-own Mikiko Mochi Donuts next door, so there will also be a quality selection of gluten-free beer and non-beer options, and since hot food isn’t a part of the bottle shop model we’ll be trying some after-hours things out next door to serve the bar: wings, pizza, poutine, until we see what sticks.”
“The bar will also have a small curated selection of packaged snacks, a cozy bodega you can drink at kind of vibe. The aesthetic is lots of rich greens and browns with accents of metal and glass, a reflection of the urban forest. Plush seating, a small library of card games and books, a free-play NBA Jam, and Blazers games. Oh, and we’ll be doing a subscription program where patrons receive a curated 4pack+snacks each month highlighting what’s new, we call it OnlyCans.”
“This project is a collab between two longtime best buds and local entrepreneurs: Alex McGillivray, chef/owner of Mikiko Mochi Donuts, and Adrian Anaya, host of Arrivals Radio on KMHD. We’ve long been fans of the bottle shop model and the sort of neighborhood pub/bodega role it has come to fill, and we feel the concept lends itself to experimentation.”
“The nature of the model allows it to continually evolve as we suss out what best suits the neighborhood’s needs. It’s an adaptable third space. There’s not currently much in the immediate area in the way of to-go specialty beer, so we hope to capitalize on existing 28th Ave bar traffic and broader demand for highly specific cans in the heart of the eastside,” Alex added.
According to an article from Oregon Live written just last year, “Two years ago, Alex McGillivray and Emily Mikiko Strocher were at work on a pair of parallel business plans, one focused on catering for corporate events, the other on bringing butter mochi doughnuts to Portland.”
“Mikiko Mochi Donuts, which launched as a pop-up in February 2020, pivoted to a doughnut delivery service then worked its way into local grocery stores, recently opened a new doughnut shop in Northeast Portland, becoming the first of several Portland mochi doughnut startups to make the brick-and-mortar leap.”
“They first looked at their corner space at the new Everett Street Lofts building, 300 N.E. 28th Ave., a full year ago. McGillivray, a Portland-born chef who worked at Ping and Lardo and briefly owned his own French fry food cart, has not yet been able to attend a mochitsuki celebration.”
“But a visit to Northern California with Strocher in 2019 — and a butter mochi doughnut bought from a nearby coffee shop — did help inspire Mikiko. Back in Portland, McGillivray “started playing around with butter mochi recipes and doughnut pans,” he said. “And here we are,” the article adds.
