Even the briefest look at Whitney Burnside’s and Doug Adams’ résumés would suggest there’s no universe in which the husband-wife duo wouldn’t open a brewpub.
Burnside is a celebrated brewer with a culinary degree and years of experience at Upright, Elysian, and Pelican; most recently, she was brewmaster at 10 Barrel’s outpost in Portland’s Pearl District. Adams is equally respected as a chef, a finalist on Bravo’s Top Chef series, and a semifinalist for the James Beard Foundation’s Rising Star Chef award. A brewpub, on paper, seems destined.
Today, however, nothing in craft beer or hospitality is guaranteed. Opening a brewpub in Portland, Oregon, in 2022 meant confronting a slowing craft-beer market, a restaurant industry still in pandemic recovery mode, and a widely reported decline in the city’s population. At home, the couple was raising a three-year-old daughter without any nearby family.