[NOTE: Enjoy the resurrection of this classic (kinda long, rambling, and minimally structured) HBTG episode from Season 1 , now with 100% less unlicensed Brenda Lee music!]

Do you like your old Portland bars OLD? Well, they don’t get older than this. Join us for a Very Special Episode of History By the Glass. We don our gay apparel to slurp cocktails at Jake’s Famous Crawfish (14:51), established 1892. Then we get even "history-ier" as we carve out time to talk turkey bars over at Huber’s (48:58), established 1879. Very old, indeed!

Bar visits and episode recording: Friday, December 27, 2019

HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers 

Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers

Thirteen bars entered. One bar left.

In the end, Milwaukie's Golden Nugget (11056 SE Main St.) -- nominated by The Oregonian's unofficial old bar beat writer Samantha Swindler -- held off 12 other nominees from across the metro area in the traditionally idiotic HBTG coin flip tournament bracket to claim the third annual Listeners' Choice Episode honors.

For Nathan, it was a chance for the prodigal son to return home to experience his hometown through the cocktail glasses of a rather incredible, completely hidden gem, Goodfellas, '70s chic, diner lounge, type place that was a vibe unto its own.

For Alfredo, it was a chance to eat liver & onions... Also, a vibe unto its own.

Hearty thanks and gratitude to all our listeners, Instagram followers, friends, and family near and far who have made this project so doggedly enjoyable year after year. You've made us rich in every way, except...you know...with money.

Producer Bill would like to dedicate this episode to the rollicking life of Bob Daley -- sportsman, bar man, family man, and friend.

Bar visit and episode recording: Friday, November 28, 2025

HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers

Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers

Bar visit and episode recording: Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025

HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers 

Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers

Folks, Prohibition sucked. And here in Oregon, we had it worse than most, cutting off our own booze supply in 1916 -- four years before the rest of the country.

When the 18th Amendment was finally repealed in all states in 1933, Oregonians had not legally been in a bar for EIGHTEEN GODFORSAKEN YEARS!

It was during that time (1923) that a neighborhood grocery store was built on the corner of N Catlin and Willamette that later became the delightfully punny Your Inn Tavern (7004 N Catlin Ave.).

So is this intimate, wooden, rollicking, survivor of a bar really 102 years old? Could it have been a 1923 speakeasy easily transformable into "the best damn grocery store in town" with the pull of a lever?

Well...no.

But that didn't stop the HBTG boys from joyously crossing the St. Johns Bridge to make their first visit and some new friends at this verifiably great and memorable old Portland bar.

Bar visit and episode recording: Thursday, August 28, 2025 

HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers 

Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers

This month's episode finds the boys -- now officially including Producer Bill -- back in town, contemplating semi-historic and overtly political bar decor...poking around Shanghai Tunnels...eating a by-god bar burger...ogling a PERFECT men's room...possibly having one round too many...and putting their age/surliness/cynicism aside to have life affirming jello shots at downtown Portland institution, Scooter McQuades aka Scooters (1321 SW Washington St.)!!

It's the classic Portland bar where every good night begins and/or ends accompanied by an equally classic, clinging to the rails HBTG episode...cheers!

Bar visit and episode recording: Wednesday, July 24, 2025 

HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers 

Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers

Thought you'd heard the last of History by the Glass? Think again! After a 6-month hiatus, Alfredo & Nate are back for their fourth season of vintage bar-going adventures.

As part of their annual curiosity-laden Bourdain Day observance, the boys squeezed into an 8-seat turboprop bound for the cowboy town of Pendleton — "The Real West" of Oregon — for their first official HBTG bar visit outside of the Portland metro.

There they found a lively, highly walkable/stumbleable drinking town anchored by the 130ish-year-old Rainbow Cafe, cheerfully maintaining its (recently "Swindler-ed") claim of being the oldest bar in Oregon. Facts are indeed stubborn things, but no amount of verifiable contradictory history has ever kept the fellas from a good time over a few rounds in a high-character old joint!

PLUS — a salute to the ultimate barstool everyman George Wendt, kudos to Esquire's favorite HBTG bar, and more!

Bar visit and segment recording: Wednesday, June 25, 2025 

Additional recording: Tuesday, July 1, 2025 

HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers 

Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers

Filled with immense thanks for all YOU who have traveled with the two of US for the past six years, we celebrated Thanksgiving weekend with our second annual HBTG Audience Choice Episode.

The ridiculously over-complicated Thunderdome selection process saw 12 audience-nominated old bars enter, one bar leave as chic NW Portland's beloved Rasputinesque anachronism Joe's Cellar (1332 NW 21st Ave., Est. 1941) outlasted nearby Yur's in the deciding round.

Both finalists were nominated by the fine folks at Slabtown Tours, North & NW Portland's preeminent walking tour guides and keepers of eclectic local history.

For Nathan and Alfredo it was an opportunity to reconnect with a pre-podcast HBTG bar (some 6 1/2 years after their initial visit) and marvel once more at its subterranean divey charm, dedicated bartenders, and jaunty ambiance. All of which improbably endures despite the structural death sentence it received during a highly publicized months-long closure in 2013.

At Joe's, it's always the end of the world as we know it and we feel fine!

Bar visit and episode recording: Friday, November 29, 2024
HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers
Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers

"There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive."

And that's just where the HBTG boys found themselves after an energy draining 2-month production delay -- rusty, slightly discombobulated, and, yes, probably a little drunker than advisable...but still slightly ALIVE and, in fact, overflowing with joy after a visit to one of their all time favorite IRL bars, SW Portland's The Old Barn (9656 SW Barbur Blvd., Est. 1981).

A conversation with longtime owners and former proprietors Johnny and Karri Malafouris, and the city's best Sunday NFL bartender / TV whisperer Gina Angerilli, sent the boys down memory lane with this classically unpretentious, ramshackle, mass transit adjacent neighborhood joint, where the drinks are honest and plentiful, the food distinct and filling, and the sports-centric atmosphere more comfortable than your living room couch on Thanksgiving day.

It's the kind of place modern Portland too often takes for granted and that veteran bar owners feel is slowly slipping from our consciousness. But as long as The Old Barn and other blue collar neighborhood spots like it remain slightly alive, then there's hope for us all.

Bar visit and episode recording: Thursday, October 24, 2024

HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers