| Bike Happy Hour – All are Welcome! — Every Wednesday 3-6 pm — Rainbow Road – SE Ankeny & 28th — Gorges Beer / Crema Coffee / Ankeny Tap & Table — $2 off drinks (coffee & non-alcoholic too!) |
The inaugural Bike Happy Hour was really fun and you should definitely swing by next week.
We helped get this event off the ground because the owner of Gorges Beer Co. and Ankeny Tap & Table — which are on either side of the Rainbow Road promenade on SE Ankeny and 28th — wanted to plant a flag as a bike-friendly business and wants to make this carfree plaza a more welcoming destination. We also wanted to do our part to create a vibrant and healthy bike scene in Portland.
Judging from the great turnout last night, we are well on the way to doing that!
So many smiling faces showed up (scroll down for pics!). A few folks brought their little kiddos, and everyone was in a fun and social mood. The conversations flowed as easily as our $2-off drinks (some folks walked over to Crema Coffee & Bakery to use their discount on hot drinks) and we hung out on Gorges’ nice raised patio. After the doom and gloom “bike decline” headlines it was reassuring to be around bike-minded people and to watch all the riders roll by on Ankeny.
Post-pandemic and with so many people working from home, there’s a strong need to socialize and connect in real life. And for several people I talked to last night, they miss their daily bike commute and are hungry for a reason to ride. Check out more pics below the jump…
I saw a bunch of old friends, met several BikePortland readers for the first time, and was able to put a few commenter names to faces (thanks to Ted B for having everyone wear name tags!). I’m also thrilled because our wonderful server Una said it was the busiest Wednesday they’ve ever had. Bikes mean business, baby!
I want folks to realize this is not a BikePortland event! Yes we are organizing and promoting it, but it’s really for everyone. We just want the entire community to know that every Wednesday, from 3-6 pm you can stop into Gorges (or Ankeny Tap or Crema) and get cheap(er) drinks and bump into other riders. You can order from a full menu of great food too, and they’ll bring it right out to the patio (I recommend the Reuben and cole slaw, Taylor recommends the Smoldering Embers bloody mary beer).
I talked to one person who plans to invite their cycling team in the future and folks are already talking about using this as a meet-up spot for their Pedalpalooza rides this summer! Another cool thing about the space: There’s a small parking lot right next to the patio, and I realized last night it’s a natural spot to have a bike show-off area. Folks milled around the parked bikes and did test rides of each other’s bikes. As this event solidifies, we also have the option of using the upper floor event space at Ankeny Tap & Table for speakers, presentations, panels, live interviews, and so on. We’ll also move to that spot if the weather is bad and we need to get warm.
And if you were one of the many people who biked by and wondered what was going on, sorry it wasn’t more obvious. We will add more visual cues and signage in the future.
Hope to see you there next week. Or the week after that. Or the week after that. Every Wednesday, 3-6 pm on the Rainbow Road promenade. Tell your friends (or foes, because it’s healthy to talk to people who see things differently).
Thanks to everyone who came out!
Thanks for reading.
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That’s really awesome and I’m glad it was a success. I work during those hours but will definitely swing by another time to support those businesses. Hopefully the bike friendly vibe can continue all the way down Ankeny. It’s a great bike way until about 14th, when it’s dominated by inattentive drivers looking for parking. Let’s activate that street space and make it safer and more pleasant to ride through!
Sounds good dw. Hope to see you there. And just FYI, one person showed up with their work laptop and used the brewery’s wifi to finish up before hanging out with us!
About a year ago I was riding down Ankeny near 17th—it was rush hour-ish, late afternoon, so more cyclists than usual—when a dude backed his car out of a small parking lot, between other parked cars, directly into my path. (The parking lot was nearly empty, so he easily could have turned around in the lot to exit nose-first, which would have been much safer.)
When I gave him an exasperated “what the hell” gesture, he accused me of bringing bad energy (his words) to the encounter. No joke.
I was interested in this but there were no climate-friendly diet options on the Gorges menu.
“Climate-friendly” seems like a sliding scale vs. a binary decision. Cole slaw seems climate friendly to me, but I’m not sure ANY food is truly climate friendly when we have nearly 9 billion people on the planet.
Is Rainbow Road the reincarnation of VeloCult?
This was great, good vibes, really good beer (Hazy IPA), and a fun variety of bikes to look over. Definitely adding this happy hour to a mid-week destination.
Sorry I missed it, and I’ll try to make it next Wednesday. In the meantime, I’m dying to know what Taylor recommends…
ha! Thanks for catching that Mark. I just added what I meant to add initially… It’s the Gorges “Smoldering Embers” bloody mary beer. A very unique beer that’s meant for breakfast.
Nice gathering! Thanks to The Gorges for hosting and providing name tag material. I look forward to attending more.
A welcoming bicycling culture is a key part of what has made great bicycling cities in the past, and social gatherings like this are what we need more of to bring back the positive bike vibes needed to get more people riding again.
Ted Buehler
I intended to be there, but by the time I reached Ankeny on my commute down 16th I was tired and grumpy and disinclined to try something not guaranteed to change my mood. Next Wednesday might be dry enough to sit outside, so this is something to look forward to.