Back on line
Anyway, the answer to the question you all have been asking is close at hand. We have actually opened the Bistro side for coffee and pastries in the morning and lunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Our liquor license should be finalized this week. As soon as it is, we wil start serving beer from our five-keg cooler while we finish the 18-line draft system and get the rest of the electrical work done in the pub. We should have the pub side open by Oct. 5 at the latest — famous last word.
We filled the last seat on the Founders Club, thanks in part to a story in the Oregonian and the Mug Club is filing fast. If you are interested in joining the Mug Club, just send me an e-mail at pdxgreendragon@yahoo.com . Mug Club members get an 18-plus ounce numbered mug that is theirs to keep at the end of they year. As a Mug Club member, your first beer of the day is always just a buck. After that, beers are regular price, but you get the extra 2-plus ounces (so, every eighth beer is essentially free.) The annual dues for the Mug Club are just $60. If you average just a beer a week, you can save more than double that in a year. And, if you sign up soon, you will get a couple of extra months, since you won't have to renew until January of 2009.
Now that I have a computer, and our wi-fi is operational at the pub, I will be updating more regularly. If you want more frequent updates, you can join our e-mail list by sending an e-mail to the address above. I will be sending out an e-mail update as soon as we have definite word on our liquor license — including a list of the first five beers we'll have on tap. I also have the opening day lineup set for the pub side. But if I told you now, I'd have to kill you.
Why "Green Dragon"?
When people hear the name "Green Dragon," they always ask whether it is a) a reference to "Lord of the Rings, b) some kind of Chinese restaurant, or c) a thinly veiled reference to marijuana. The answer is d) none of the above.
We take our name from a historic coffeehouse and tavern in Boston. The original Green Dragon Inn was founded in 1697 in Boston's financial district. Back then, it was a coffeehouse — possibly the first commercial source of coffee in the new colonies. But it also sold ale and rum, as did most early coffeehouses.
The coffeehouse/tavern was in the basement of the building, with meeting rooms upstairs. There is also some evidence that the inn, as was the custom in those days, rented rooms for weary travelers.
In 1765, the sign on the door is reported to have to have read:
- No Thieves, Fakirs, Rogues, or Tinkers
- No Skulking Loafers or Flea-Bitten Tramps
- No Patting the Wenches
- No Banging Tankards on the Table
- No Dogs Allowed in the Kitchen
- No Cockfighting
- Flintlocks, Cudgels, Daggers and Swords to be handed to the Innkeeper for safe keeping
- Bed for the night, 1 shilling
- Stabling for horse, 1 pence
In 1764, the Masons of St. Andrews Lodge bought the inn, which drew its name from a sign above its door that featured a copper rendition of a dragon that had turned bright green from exposure to the elements. They kept the coffeehouse/tavern in the basement and used the upper rooms for meetings. Although they renamed the building the Freemason's Arms, locals still referred the the site as the Green Dragon. Among the members of that lodge were Paul Revere, John Hancock and Joseph Warren. Many other groups used the tavern and its meeting halls, particularly the "Long Room," to hold secret meetings to plan acts of sedition against the British government.
Perhaps the most famous act to be plotted over tankards of ale at the Green Dragon was the Boston Tea Party on Dec. 16, 1773. Revere, Warren, Hancock, Sam and John Adams and other members of groups such as the Sons of Liberty and the North End Caucus, met at the Green Dragon to discuss how to respond to the British Government's tax on tea delivered to the colonies by the East India Company.
After vowing the block the sale of any East India tea "with our lives and fortunes," the rebels stood guard, preventing tea from being offloaded from the ships. Then, after Massachusettes governor (a tea merchant) refused to order the ships back to England, a group of colonists, many dressed as members of the Mohawk tribe "offloaded" the tea into Boston Harbor. Although there are reports of a spirited meeting at the Green Dragon just prior to the Boston Tea Party, the official logbook of the lodge reads, "Lodge closed on account of few members present."
Revere's celebrated "Midnight Ride" also began at the Green Dragon. And in January of 1788, a meeting of artisans and mechanics at the Green Dragon called for adoption of a Federal Constitution.
Historian Daniel Webster called the Green Dragon "the headquarters of the American Revolution."
Now, we aren't saying that our Green Dragon will change the course of American history, but if we can provide a comfortable place for people to gather over a good meal and a few pints and discuss the issues that affect their daily lives, then we'll be happy.
When are you going to open?
The truth is, you never really know when a startup like the Green Dragon is going to open... that is, until you are about a week out. I have been involved in the beer biz more than 20 years and just this week celebrated the 15th anniversary of opening my first pub. And I can count on one hand the number of places that have opened by their first prejected opening date.
Why is that? How long do you have to listen to reasons? Permit delays, contractor delays, licensing delays. Hell, my first place, the Mountain Tap Tavern in Fort Collins, Colo. had a one-week rain delay. The supposed "new roof" the landlord had just finished leaved like a sieve during one of Colorado's infamous afternoon thunderstorms one day before I was scheduled to open.
So bear with us. Trust me, we want to be open even more than you want us to be open. I will soon start posting photos here of our progress and keep you up to date on projections. Right now, it is looking like mid-August