That Was the Reason we Came Here

Before I tell you about our hotel stay, I wanted to highlight The Wall of Sinks at a restaurant called McMenamins on Monroe. This restaurant is across the street from the Oregon State University (OSU) campus, so I visited it a few times years ago when I would drive down to see Kellen while they were a student at the University, and needed a convenient place to take them to lunch. McMenamins decor is always curious, and this wall of sinks is unmatched.

A fun piece of trivia from the Monroe Street location is that once upon a time, Mike McMenamin was also a student at OSU, and took a job at a sandwich shop in this very location. Pretty neat that years later he bought the old place and made it his own restaurant.

But let’s get on with the stay at the other McMenamin’s…

The latest McMenamin’s hotel we stayed at is in McMinnville, at the Oregon Hotel. I had been planning this one for a long time and looked forward to it. One of the more remarkable things about this hotel is the rooftop bar, which has a 360 degree view while you eat your burger and sip your beer. While many of our McMenamin’s stays are during the winter, to brighten up the dark and cold days, the Oregon Hotel had to be a summertime stay, so that the rooftop would be open.

I had seen it already, during Mother’s Day weekend, when Kellen and I spent a few hours in town to explore, after my Hippie Chick race. I looked forward to showing it to Pedro during an overnight stay, and really relaxing and spending time there.

We checked in and were sent to Room 303, named Leona. We wondered who Leona was until we spent some time in our room, reading the walls. For anyone who does not know McMenamin’s rooms, reading the walls will usually answer your questions about the significance of the name of the room.

And then we spotted her.

After depositing our luggage, we went outside to explore the town and find lunch.

Pedro and I found a beer truck that we had read about in the paper only a couple days earlier. The name is Xicha, a brewery catering to the local Latino community, that was set up in the street in front of Pura Vida Cocina, serving Latin American foods. A Mexican band was setting up, so the timing was great. The food and beer were delicious, but the band may have been playing for the first time ever. They didn’t seem to know each other well, and played only cover songs, with the singer reading the words to every song from his cell phone screen. But we were happy to be a part of the audience and clapped enthusiastically each time they finished a song. It was fun to see Pedro’s smile when he recognized tunes from his youth.

Then we returned to explore our lodging.

Then we headed upward, climbing stairs to reach the rooftop bar at long last. We climbed and climbed and climbed. In my Mother’s Day post from May, I took photos of all the staircases, with little painted signs at the base of each with an arrow and pointing to “Rooftop bar.” When Pedro and I were finally at the top, there was only a closed door. I tried it, and it was locked. Curious and frustrated, we tromped back down four flights of stairs to the front desk.

We were told the rooftop bar was closed. When no more information was forthcoming, I couldn’t help myself and asked was it long term, or just for tonight, or if they were short staffed? With a blank disinterested face, she said, “For the heat; it’s for the safety of the staff.” Which seemed fishy to me, because the staff on the roof remains mainly inside the bar. Customers must go inside to order their own food and drinks, and carry their drinks to their table. The food is cooked below in the main kitchen, and the staff only appear to deliver food and to clean tables once a party has left, without visiting tables while you eat, not even to refill coffee. The customers do sit out in the heat the whole time though. I suspected it was something else.

My disappointment came too quickly for me to censor my mouth, though, and I blurted out, “But that was the reason we came here! We are only staying here in the summer for the rooftop bar.” The woman just looked at me.

Actually, I had noticed a particular grumpiness touching all of the employees at this location, and it reminded me how morale can be a characteristic of an entire workforce, not just an individual. The person who checked us in was grumpy then, and she was also the one who told us it was too hot to have the rooftop open. The other people we had interacted with to ask questions, to find ice cream, to solve our riddles and get my passport stamps, were all slightly unwelcoming. I wondered if the staff had recently received unpleasant news or were dealing with some kind of workplace tension.

We were hungry again, though, so we decided to eat at the restaurant that Kellen and I had been to in May. We walked only two blocks to 1882 Grille. We were met at the front door by a smiling woman who apologized and said their ground floor restaurant was closed, and the only option was the rooftop bar! How perfect!! We went upstairs and had a simply excellent meal with fabulous staff who were happy to be there, provided full service on the warm night, and made us feel cared for. We glanced over the tops of buildings and spotted the McMenamin’s rooftop bar, dark and empty, except for a string of lights.

After dinner, we ran around our hotel intending to collect stamps for my passport and only managed to get one more, as one spot was closed for the night and no one was at the front desk when we checked. The stamp we did get was in the Cellar Bar, which was wonderful and a new place I had never seen!

The bartender had a cool demeanor at first, but as other couples arrived, we slowly got her talking, and she warmed right up and was quite enjoyable to hang out with while we tried a couple of McMenamins beers on tap. This added to my theory that the staff may have been dealing with unpleasant news while we were there.

The next morning, we collected our remaining McMenamins passport stamps. During the pandemic, to reduce the time that people spent indoors mingling, they waived the riddles and scavenger hunts and just gave people stamps for the asking. But the policy was rescinded over the summer and we have to work for it again. I got a little frustrated and complained when our first try failed, but then we hit the hallways and tried again. It was so much fun to solve the riddle and win the stamp in the end. I admit I do prefer the method where we have to work for it. Anyone who wants to see my McMenamins passport and what the stamps look like can check out my post called A Different Kind of 4th.

A new person was at the front desk, who was bubbly and happy and eager to talk with us about our stay. She noticed that I was gazing at a framed news paper article on the wall and began telling me with great excitement about the unidentified flying object (UFO) history in the community. She pointed to an information handout that I could take. Then she made sure we did not leave without noting the camera. THE camera. It’s pretty cool.

Have you noticed the alien and spaceship images that have popped up in this blog post? UFOs are a very big deal here, and there is an annual UFO festival when people come dressed as aliens and gather with other believers and talk about Area 51 and Roswell and all that. It’s absolutely the kind of thing that makes me happy. The photos were taken just outside of McMinnville and are known as the “Trent Sighting,” some of the most credible photos from this time period. They are the reason for the festival every May. Here is the story as interpreted by McMenamins:

“What’s up with all the UFOs? Around 7:30 at night on Thursday, May 11, 1950, Evelyn Trent went out to feed her chickens and rabbits behind the farmhouse where she and her husband Paul lived. The animals, as she tells it, gave no indication of any sort of disturbance. While attending her chores, Evelyn was astonished to see a large, metallic-looking, disc-shaped object hovering silently in the sky a little to the northeast of their farm. She ran towards the house to fetch her husband Paul, while yelling for him to grab the camera. For a short time the two scrambled around looking for their trusty folding Kodak Roamer, then they both ran back outside The disc, still visible in the sky, was moving slowly to the west. Paul clicked off a snapshot and advanced the film as fast as he could. The object began to gather speed and turned toward the northwest, forcing Paul to move rapidly to his right to get a second picgture. The whole event happened very quickly, and both photos were taken within 30 seconds. The photos have never been debunked!”

The delightful woman at the desk said that she was brand new there and just learning about McMenamins, but her favourite part of the job was connecting to guests. (In my mind I hoped that she doesn’t get cranky like the others) It was a fun and quirky end to our stay that added a shine to an overnight stay that had previously had a shadow.