McMenamins

I had the fortune of meeting one of the McMenamin brothers about thirteen years ago at an event at Edgefield. One of my first comments to him was "Dude, love your restaurants, but why is the service so slow in ALL of them?" He laughed but never really answered my question. I just think its McMenamins style, they are slow. So knowing that my husband and I don't go to one when we're in a hurry.
We stopped here on our way back to Portland from Medford. It was fairly easy to get to from Hwy 5. I thought the service was fine and the food hit the spot. No surprises either way for us. We make this journey a lot so we will surely go back.
Great beers, scratch soups and dressings, varied and tasty pub food, fresh salads.

No tax in Oregon which made tipping such a difficult task!  My iPhone wiped out a few weeks ago thus that is why I do not have that tip calculator.  I wanted to treat his mom out since she was so nice to drive 3 hours + (6 hours picking us up due to traffic), opened up her home to my monster and I, and basically showered me w/ love and food (haha).  

We stopped by here after a quick visit to Colliding Rivers and a brief hike.  We have hella leftovers in the fridge from Thanksgiving but somehow we made the decision to eat out - which was fine by me so we got in and was immediately greeted by a very intimate setting.  

The menu is not extensive.. but the typical soups, salads, burgers, and fried goodness for appetizers... I find the place rather inexpensive yet expensive at the same time.  Our order of "voodoo" wings was a joke and for $10.95, I was expecting awesomeness.  It was not spicy, not one bit!  Nevertheless I cleaned it up w/o a problem.  

His mom ordered the salad and soup combination which seemed to be a hit.  The soup available was either clam chowder or a chipotle something, something.. he and I shared a Portland Dip - turkey w/ grilled mushrooms, Swiss cheese, and secret sauce on a French roll and garlic jus.  The tater tots (choice between fries, green salad, and soup) is what you would expect out of a bag from the frozen food section.  The sandwich itself was bland and dry despite the melted cheese.  There wasn't enough cheese (to me) and the jus was extremely salty.  I started to dip my half of the sandwich in bleu cheese (it came w/ the wings) and ranch (came w/ the tater tots).  I also ordered fries for the monster.

Our server was young and did his best.. friendly and I appreciate his effort to refill our beverages.  I love it when servers do that because it's a pain for me to ask for refills.  Hmmm, we in America are so spoiled, haha.

After our ever-so-fattening meal here (I had 99% of the tots, 99% of the fries, half of my sandwich and I think part of his, too and 90% of the wings) - I enjoyed my very first pumpkin (I don't do pumpkins ever) cheesecake and I must say.. I missed out for over 30 freaken' years!

Really looked forward to having lunch here and even called ahead to find out  when they opened. Only had to wait 10 minutes until the doors were unlocked and went inside. There was a group already sitting in the bar-like area. No greetings, no wait staff around at all and we seated ourselves.  No menus and that's because no one was around to at least spend time looking at our dinning choices. Perhaps they need a little bell above the door.
  Mr. Picky and I have set a time limit when it comes to arriving and sitting at a table. It's ten minutes. If NO ONE comes to give us a menu, we leave. That's all there is to it. We've learned our lesson's in the past by waiting just to see how long it takes to be 'noticed.'
  So, after ten minutes, we left and went to Mark 5 where we were immediately greeted with smiles, seated and handed menus and told about the specials. That's how you run a successful restaurant.
   This was our second time to give McMenamins a try and we are not giving them a third.