pFriem Family Brewers has applied for a liquor license to open a taproom at 2216 S.E. 50th Ave., the address currently occupied by Hinterland Bar & Food Carts in Portland’s Mt. Tabor neighborhood. If approved, it would mark the Hood River brewery’s first standalone spot inside Portland city limits and its third location overall.
The application, first reported by New School Beer + Cider, describes a proposed taproom with seating for 30 people indoors and 92 outdoors, according to oregonlive.com. The filing also lists live, recorded and DJ music, karaoke and social gaming as possible offerings at the site, the outlet reports. As of now, KGW notes the brewery has not disclosed when or whether the taproom will actually open.
What Happens to Hinterland's Food Carts?
Hinterland opened in January 2022 as a cart pod and cocktail bar built into a former acupuncturist's office on the western edge of Mount Tabor, the same oregonlive.com report notes. The site already includes a full-service bar inside a permanent building, serving cocktails and wine and pouring beer from a dozen taps. It currently hosts five food carts — Matt's BBQ Tacos, Thai Panther, Pizza Machine, Hunker Down and Indian Spice Kart — per What Now Portland's account of the pod's lineup.
It's not yet known whether those carts will stick around if pFriem takes over the location. New School Beer + Cider reported there was no word yet on whether the food trucks will remain at the site if it becomes a pFriem satellite location, leaving vendors and regulars in limbo for now.
pFriem's Growing Footprint
pFriem opened its flagship Hood River brewery in 2012 and has built a reputation beyond Oregon's borders since then, according to the same oregonlive.com coverage. Last year, the company expanded to a second location inside the former Milwaukie City Hall building, pfriem's second spot outside Hood River. A Portland taproom at the Hinterland site would give the brewery its third address.
The move lands amid a mixed picture for Oregon's beer industry. Oregon counted 297 breweries in 2025, a 3% drop from the year before and the lowest total since 2018, oregonlive.com reported in its broader look at the sector. The state's breweries and brewpubs still employed 7,600 people as of this past June, according to the Oregon Employment Department, even as nationwide craft beer production fell 4% in 2025. Rogue Ales & Spirits abruptly closed its Newport brewery and Oregon pubs last fall after years of declining sales, and Anheuser-Busch sold off 10 Barrel Brewing and Widmer Brothers Brewing back in 2023.
Portland's Taproom Scene Keeps Expanding
Even with that industry-wide contraction, Portland's own beer scene keeps growing, the oregonlive.com report observed. Migration Brewing said last month it was planning an expansion into Northwest Portland, and Grand Fir Brewing announced a riverside pub in rural Damascus around the same time — both signs that brewers still see room to grow in and around the city even as the statewide brewery count shrinks.
For now, pFriem's Mt. Tabor plans remain pending, with the liquor license application the only concrete step taken so far. Whether the Hinterland carts stay, whether the proposed seating and entertainment plans survive to opening day, and when that opening day might even arrive are all questions the brewery has yet to answer publicly.
