“'To hell with the handkerchief,' said Walter Mitty scornfully. He took one last drag on his cigarette and snapped it away. Then, with that faint, fleeting smile playing about his lips, he faced the firing squad; erect and motionless, proud and disdainful, Walter Mitty the Undefeated, inscrutable to the last."

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

By James Thurber

1939

Born and raised in the tucked-away Mountain Park Plaza where Lake Oswego meets deep SW Portland (11830 Kerr Pkwy, 97035), Walter Mitty's Restaurant & Bar has provided a languid home for drinking day dreamers since 1982.

And much like the ineffectual protagonist of the classic short story (that very loosely inspired the original bar founders) -- a man who would rather be the hero of his own fantasy world than deal with an increasingly unsatisfying reality -- your three podcast heroes, Alfredo, Nathan, and Producer Bill, mounted their bar stools for another world-saving episode of History by the Glass.

Nominated three straight years for our Audience Choice Episode tourney by determined fan of the bar and pod (Robyn V), Walter Mitty's is what it is without trying too hard to be anything it's not. It's uncool. It's unironic. Despite the name, it's not an homage to much of anything. Which of course, makes it absolutely perfect in all its '80s oak and glass and green carpeted glory.

Bar visit and episode recording: Friday, January 24, 2026

HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers

Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers

[NOTE: Enjoy the resurrection of this classic (kinda long, rambling, and minimally structured) HBTG episode from Season 1 , now with 100% less unlicensed Brenda Lee music!]

Do you like your old Portland bars OLD? Well, they don’t get older than this. Join us for a Very Special Episode of History By the Glass. We don our gay apparel to slurp cocktails at Jake’s Famous Crawfish (14:51), established 1892. Then we get even "history-ier" as we carve out time to talk turkey bars over at Huber’s (48:58), established 1879. Very old, indeed!

Bar visits and episode recording: Friday, December 27, 2019

HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers

Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers

Thirteen bars entered. One bar left.

In the end, Milwaukie's Golden Nugget (11056 SE Main St.) -- nominated by The Oregonian's unofficial old bar beat writer Samantha Swindler -- held off 12 other nominees from across the metro area in the traditionally idiotic HBTG coin flip tournament bracket to claim the third annual Listeners' Choice Episode honors.

For Nathan, it was a chance for the prodigal son to return home to experience his hometown through the cocktail glasses of a rather incredible, completely hidden gem, Goodfellas, '70s chic, diner lounge, type place that was a vibe unto its own.

For Alfredo, it was a chance to eat liver & onions... Also, a vibe unto its own.

Hearty thanks and gratitude to all our listeners, Instagram followers, friends, and family near and far who have made this project so doggedly enjoyable year after year. You've made us rich in every way, except...you know...with money.

Producer Bill would like to dedicate this episode to the rollicking life of Bob Daley -- sportsman, bar man, family man, and friend.

Bar visit and episode recording: Friday, November 28, 2025

HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers

Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers

• “Once the kind of place where your estranged alcoholic father would buy you breakfast, the Trap now feels like that weird bar in the suburbs your friends from high school settle on for an annual evening of bad decisions the night before Thanksgiving. The Trap has grown up a bit, and so have you.”

  -Pete Cottell, Willamette Week, November 2017

  
  

  A classic Portland bus stop bar. A Foster-Powell area dive (emphasis on the lowercase d) and karaoke performance hall. Home of the BEST hash browns hashbrowns and bloody marys in town? Possibly. Home of one of the most open and honest, death-defying bartenders in the city? Absolutely.

  
  

  An inspiration to drop an inexhaustible amount of Admiral Ackbar Return of the Jedi -- "IT'S A TRAP!" -- puns over the course of an hour-long episode? You bet your sweet mon calamari asses!

  
  

• Bar visit and episode recording: Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025

  
  

  HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers

  Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers

  
  

Folks, Prohibition sucked. And here in Oregon, we had it worse than most, cutting off our own booze supply in 1916 -- four years before the rest of the country.

When the 18th Amendment was finally repealed in all states in 1933, Oregonians had not legally been in a bar for EIGHTEEN GODFORSAKEN YEARS!

It was during that time (1923) that a neighborhood grocery store was built on the corner of N Catlin and Willamette that later became the delightfully punny Your Inn Tavern (7004 N Catlin Ave.).

So is this intimate, wooden, rollicking, survivor of a bar really 102 years old? Could it have been a 1923 speakeasy easily transformable into "the best damn grocery store in town" with the pull of a lever?

Well...no.

But that didn't stop the HBTG boys from joyously crossing the St. Johns Bridge to make their first visit and some new friends at this verifiably great and memorable old Portland bar.

Bar visit and episode recording: Thursday, August 28, 2025

HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers

Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers

This month's episode finds the boys -- now officially including Producer Bill -- back in town, contemplating semi-historic and overtly political bar decor...poking around Shanghai Tunnels...eating a by-god bar burger...ogling a PERFECT men's room...possibly having one round too many...and putting their age/surliness/cynicism aside to have life affirming jello shots at downtown Portland institution, Scooter McQuades aka Scooters (1321 SW Washington St.)!!

It's the classic Portland bar where every good night begins and/or ends accompanied by an equally classic, clinging to the rails HBTG episode...cheers!

Bar visit and episode recording: Wednesday, July 24, 2025

HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers

Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers

Thought you'd heard the last of History by the Glass? Think again! After a 6-month hiatus, Alfredo & Nate are back for their fourth season of vintage bar-going adventures.

As part of their annual curiosity-laden Bourdain Day observance, the boys squeezed into an 8-seat turboprop bound for the cowboy town of Pendleton — "The Real West" of Oregon — for their first official HBTG bar visit outside of the Portland metro.

There they found a lively, highly walkable/stumbleable drinking town anchored by the 130ish-year-old Rainbow Cafe, cheerfully maintaining its (recently "Swindler-ed") claim of being the oldest bar in Oregon. Facts are indeed stubborn things, but no amount of verifiable contradictory history has ever kept the fellas from a good time over a few rounds in a high-character old joint!

PLUS — a salute to the ultimate barstool everyman George Wendt, kudos to Esquire's favorite HBTG bar, and more!

Bar visit and segment recording: Wednesday, June 25, 2025

Additional recording: Tuesday, July 1, 2025

HBTG theme song: "Frozen Egg" by Lame Drivers

Interlude music: "Right Track" by Lame Drivers