White Eagle Saloon

As promised yesterday, here’s some info on another fine McMenamins establishment. This is the story of the White Eagle Saloon and Hotel at 836 N. Russell in Portland, OR. Now, I immediately go for the history of the place, and a wild history it is!. At its beginning back in 1905, the Eagle was nested in a working man’s neighborhood that included the docks, railroad shops, factories and mills. It doesn’t take a whole lot of imagination to picture the place! Lore has it that the Eagle even had its own trolly stop. When approaching it, conductors would call out, “Next stop, Bucket of Blood” because of all the fisticuffs that occurred there. Apparently, besides “pool, cigars, poker, liquor, beer” there were other recreational opportunities that included a brothel (upstairs) and an opium den (downstairs). By the 1970's, hippie long hairs and working men coexisted. The place has moved into the new century as a good place to “dance with a beer in hand.”

For those gastronomes (is that a word??) out there, the specials this week range from chicken (lemongrass, caesar wrap or Athens wrap) to stuffed burger (beef, jack cheese, green chilies, avocado mayonnaise). Soups (different one each day) include beer cheese potato and African peanut chicken. Cheap eats from 4-6 pm. My favorite title there was Scooby Snacks (mini-corn dogs with mustard and ketchup). Yum. I’m getting hungry. Too bad Portland is 3 ½ hours away from the Tri.