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  • 43 — Scooter McQuades

    43 — Scooter McQuades
    2025/08/01

    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
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    1 時間
  • 42 — The Rainbow Cafe (Pendleton, OR)

    42 — The Rainbow Cafe (Pendleton, OR)
    2025/07/07

    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
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    1 時間 30 分
  • Another Round With...Samantha Swindler (The Oregonian/OregonLive)

    Another Round With...Samantha Swindler (The Oregonian/OregonLive)
    2025/01/13
    In one of their most professional efforts ever (even with Alfredo's audio sounding like a Jack in the Box drive-thru speaker) the HBTG boys visited with Samantha Swindler -- features reporter, videographer, chronicler of all things weird, intriguing, and off-the-beaten path for The Oregonian/OregonLive -- to learn more about her recent efforts to determine the oldest continuously operating bar location in Oregon. It was a search that ultimately came down to the Rainbow Cafe in downtown Pendleton and a place called Pioneer Saloon in the tiny ranching community of Paisley in South-Central Oregon. Both claimed 1883 and, as we revealed in the interview, neither turned out to be correct. But one eventually stood alone as the undisputed oldest bar in Oregon. Interview recorded: Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024 HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers
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    38 分
  • 41 — Ming Lounge at the Republic Cafe

    41 — Ming Lounge at the Republic Cafe
    2024/12/31
    Season 3 of History by the Glass reaches its culmination with a trip into the heart of Portland's historic Chinatown district to visit the century-ish old Republic Cafe (222 NW 4th Ave.) — the oldest Chinese-American restaurant in the city — and its random and remarkable Ming Lounge. Still stuffed with Christmas ham and eggnog, Alfredo and Nathan shackled themselves to longtime friend of the pod Bill Clifford and headed into the red-tinted unkown to seek the treasure of character-centric historic bar experiences. And thanks to bar host Heather Nissa Ragonese (and perhaps the epicurean spirits of all the Chinese, Japanese, and/or American customers of years past) they found it in droves on an unforgettable night in old Portland. First, however, they summarized the HBTG year that was and previewed a forthcoming interview with Oregonian/Here is Oregon reporter Samantha Swindler — curator of the state's most distinct human interest stories and newfound historic bar researcher —in another overflowing episode of History by the Glass! Bar visit and episode recording: Friday, Dec. 27, 2024 HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers
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    1 時間 13 分
  • 40 — Joe's Cellar

    40 — Joe's Cellar
    2024/12/02

    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
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    1 時間 3 分
  • 39 — The Old Barn

    39 — The Old Barn
    2024/10/29

    "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
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    1 時間 14 分
  • 38 — Marathon Taverna

    38 — Marathon Taverna
    2024/08/05

    "Faster, Higher, Stronger...Drunker?"

    To commemorate these Games of the XXXIII Olympiad in Paris, the HBTG boys set their sights on the Marathon Taverna (SW 18th & Burnside), arriving just past opening at 7 a.m. alongside several of Portland's world-class early morning drinkers (including one bourbon-loving fly) to take advantage of the economical breakfast special, jaunty bar conversation, and live Olympic coverage.

    A corner drinking spot by several different names since the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, the Marathon was established in 1974 by Greek immigrant Harlambos “Bobby” Polizos who, along with his wife Diane, also ran the legendary Acropolis Steakhouse (strip club) in deep SE Portland. Both continue to be family owned and operated today.

    It's the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, and all the rise and chug magic you love in this gold medal caliber episode of History by the Glass!


    Bar visit and episode recording: Friday, August 2, 2024


    HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers

    Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers
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    51 分
  • 37 — Sextant Bar & Galley. etc.

    37 — Sextant Bar & Galley. etc.
    2024/07/05
    *DRUMS PLEASE* Here it is, the pod, slightly transformed, just a bit of a break from the norm, just a little somethin' to break the monotony... Yes indeed, it is SUMMERTIME in the city and on the eve of America's birthday, the HBTG boys put their sunglasses on, oiled each other up like a pair of Navy fighter pilots prepping for a sand volleyball game, and headed north to the mighty Columbia River to seek, no, not the Northwest Passage, but the oldest bar in Portland's sector of this legendary waterway -- the Sextant Bar & Galley (4035 NE Marine Drive)! Built in 1973 by longtime owner/proprietor Dean Burch, this venerable, unpretentious local spot continues to be run by the same family today. It's a classic neighborhood bar & grill, featuring back patio river views interspersed with aircraft fly-overs -- a perfectly satisfying place to have a cold one. But with the sun in your face, a Corona or two coursing through your veins, and the endless possibility of summer on your mind, satisfaction is sometimes only as good as the next bar down river... ...So think of the summers of the past, adjust the bass and let the Apline blast, play this episode and let 'em run a rhyme and put yourself on cruise and lay back 'cause this is summertime... Bar visit and episode recording: Wednesday, July 3, 2024 HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers
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    49 分