Brix Tavern

History

Brix Tavern first opened its doors on April 22, 2011, taking over the space that once housed the Italian-Mediterranean spot Olea. The restaurant group behind it, Urban Restaurants, Inc., had already filed for a liquor license by November 2010. As of 2017, the group’s other concepts included Bartini, Carlita’s, Swank and Swine, and Urban Fondue. In 2018, Brix appeared on the Food Network show Big Bargain Eats, in the season one episode “Winner Winner Free Dinner.”

A second location came to Tualatin, moving into the former Hayden’s Lakefront Grill, and the old staff there were invited to stay on. A third spot opened in Keizer in 2023, in a building that used to be Bargarten Bavarian Social Haus, but that location has since closed. The Hillsboro branch opened on June 26, 2026. Over the years, Brix has thrown and taken part in a number of special events.

Events

In 2016, it hosted a “Beer – Barbecue – Bourbon Buffet” with Ninkasi beers and Elijah Craig bourbon. The 2017 “Whiskey Wash” brought in local distilleries to pair their whiskeys with the restaurant’s sweet-bourbon rotisserie pork leg. For Thanksgiving 2017, Brix served a four-course dinner centered on roast turkey. The tavern has also joined Portland Mercury’s highball cocktails event, as well as Burger Week and Nacho Week.

During Burger Week in 2017 and 2019, Brix offered “The Norm” for five dollars: a burger with sirloin steak, smoked Tillamook cheddar fondue, shredded lettuce, tomatoes, caramelized onions, and sauce. For Nacho Week in 2019, the “Brix Chips” went for the same price, featuring braised roasted pork shoulder, Swiss cheese fondue, grilled tomato salsa, cilantro cream, and tortilla chips. At a Super Bowl viewing party in 2020, the menu included buffalo wings, barbecue pork ribs, mini corn dogs, lil smokies, mozzarella sticks, tater tots, and nachos made with both chips and tater tots.

Description

Brix Tavern is a small group of restaurants in the Portland metro area that serves American food. Its main location, which seats 150 people, is in northwest Portland’s Pearl District. Other spots are in Hillsboro’s Reeds Crossing neighborhood and in Tualatin Commons. The Hillsboro restaurant has a wrap-around patio and a private room for events.

The business used to run a shopping plaza called Keizer Station in Keizer. Portland Monthly calls Brix a New American restaurant and the Pearl District’s “game-time go-to,” noting it has 30 craft beers on tap, 20 TVs, a pool table, two dart boards, and a six-hour daily happy hour. Eater Portland’s Erin DeJesus describes it as a lounge and sports bar. As of 2015, snooker was free.

Menu

One guide says Brix Tavern is a “warm, contemporary” spot serving “a unique collection of enduring American comfort food and cocktails enhanced with only the freshest, locally sourced ingredients.” The menu centers on wood-fired pizzas and rotisserie meats, but has also offered whole chicken or grilled beef platters with four sauces (including béarnaise), prime rib, fried chicken, roasted halibut, sandwiches, soups, salads, and truffled mac and cheese.

Weekend brunch has a “slight Southern twist,” with chicken and waffles, biscuits and gravy with maple sausage, eggs Benedict, shrimp and grits, mimosas, and free cinnamon sugar doughnuts drizzled with chocolate and raspberry. Desserts have included a Heath bar brownie, crème brûlée, and blackberry buttermilk pie. As of 2019, the happy hour menu had calamari, Margherita pizza, and seared yellowfin tuna with avocado, corn, tomato, and wasabi mayo, plus the “kicky” Brix Mule made with bourbon or vodka.

Other happy hour drinks have included the Huckleberry Gimlet (huckleberry vodka and blackberry syrup), the Backyard Margarita (muddled Oregon berries), and the Red Neck Iced Tea (bourbon whiskey). In 2013, David Sarasohn of The Oregonian wrote, “Brix finds other ways to keep the happiness flowing outside designated hours, too. On Thursdays it offers a three-course meal plus cocktail for $30, and every night features a surprise $3 brown bag canned beer special.” As of 2016, the Portland location had half-priced bottles of wine on Thursdays.

Reception

In 2013, Oregonian critic David Sarasohn gave Brix Tavern a B-minus, calling it a near-constant party and a boisterous celebration driven by its perpetual happy hour. He noted that on a good night, the noise carries down the street and possibly across I-405. Sarasohn recommended the rotisserie chicken tacos, prime rib, and Heath bar brownie, and praised the shrimp on polenta for retaining its freshness and sweetness. However, he found the beef platter inconsistent and disliked the fried chicken and pizza, adding that the food is ample but uneven, with prices that are sometimes especially inviting.

In 2015, Willamette Week’s Matthew Korfhage declared Brix had the city’s weirdest drink specials. The tavern placed third in readers’ polls for Night Light Lounge in 2016 and Best Mimosa in 2017. A 2017 Portland Mercury review of brunch spots for families described the Pearl District spot as bustling with tourists at its street-side tables, and its spacious, exposed-brick dining room as ideal for stylish, slightly judgmental visiting aunts. In 2017 and 2019, Wm.

Steven Humphrey of the Mercury called Brix a great after-work pit stop, slightly rambunctious and sometimes featuring live jazz. He praised its lengthy happy hour menu for complementing the already lively, inviting atmosphere, and highlighted inventive, consistently fresh cocktails, recommending the seared tuna. In 2020, the same paper’s Jenni Moore recommended the shrimp and grits and mimosas.