The New Old Lompoc: a place cut from a finer cloth
The Oregonian, May 5, 2000
by John Foyston
Everything old shall be new again, at least in the case of the Old Lompoc, which is now the New Old Lompoc after Don Younger and Jerry Fechter bought and remodeled the Northwest Portland brewpub.
Portland restauranteurs Goforth and Rice opened the Old Lompoc in the mid-'90s to replicate Peter Goforth's favorite college bar, the New Old Lompoc House, which was razed three decades ago to make way for the Forecourt Fountain. It in turn was inspired by the Old Lompoc House, of the 1941 W.C. Fields film, "The Bank Dick." The choice of Lompoc, Calf., as the location for a movie starring a shiftless, hard-drinking cardsharp was Fields' ironic nod to the town's incorporation in 1888 as a temperance colony. Which is enough skittering back and forth through the ages to serve as a plot for "Back to the Future V" -- or at least enough to make an ol' boy thirsty.
Thirst not: The beer will flow again at 11 a.m. Saturday and -- in the best tradition of Younger's Horse Brass Pub and the Rose & Raindrop -- the taps will be many ang good, and none will be pouring Hamm's as they did at the first New Old Lompoc House. History may be a fine reason for the odd W.C. Field's portrait on the walls, but it's a scant excuse for industrial lager.
The big difference between the new New Old Lompoc and Younger's other places is that half-dozen of the taps will pour beer brewed on-premises: Younger's first brewpub, in other words. But not for partner Jerry Fechter, who ran the small brewery (how small? small enough that the fermenters roll around on wheeled carts...) in back, right off the spacious beer garden. In the Goforth and Rice days, Fechter brewed beers for the seven restaurants in the group, but not he'll concentrate on keeping the taps running with beers such as the upcoming John Outhouse Special Bitter, a beer named in honor of Portland's first public school teacher, who in December 1851 advertised for his first class in The Oregonian.
The OSB won't be ready for Saturday, but Fechter will have an India pale ale, a brown ale, a pale ale and his new Munich Lager. New names for all the beers are in the works, but things have been busy since Younger and Fechter decided to do a 50/50 partnership last fall. Fechter made Pete Goforth an offer for the business last summer and then set about to raise money. Younger was the ultimate choice because he's Portland's most famous publican, except for Bud Clark, who's a good friend and will be on hand to throw out the first beer.
Not that Younger was ready for a brewpub. He'd just bought Lovejoy's in Florence after months of planning. Yeah, right: As Younger tells it, he stopped in for a beer and left as the tavern's new owner. The truth is likely a bit more complex, but it serves the Younger myth well, and that'll be his job at the Lompoc: frontman while Fechter takes care of the day-to-day operations.
Fechter aims to make food a much bigger part of the operation, and Don Leonard had been hired to manage the expanded and rebuilt kitchen. The menu will specialize in American pub food -- salads, burgers and the like -- and aim for the middle ground between McMenamins and Besaw's.
To go with the new grape-arbored beer garden out back (which will seat about 40 people), the interior also has been redone. The bar has been repaneled in red oak and crowned with a tile mosaic of hop vines, and all surfaces have been repained or recarpeted. "We kind of got carried away," Younger says. "We're way over budget and behind in schedule. There's not a square inch of the place that we didn't do something to."
The New Old Lompoc, 1616 N.W. 23rd Ave., is open seven days a wekk, 11 a.m.-1 a.m.; 503-225-1855.