On July 14th, Beer Bunker reopened after a refresh by its new owners, Rob Allred and Kimberley Hill. The brief closure allowed the new owners to secure their approval from the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission and refresh the tap room with an eye towards improvements that will keep the place looking clean for its loyal patrons. Guests returning to 7918 SE Stark Street will notice the polish but still feel at home, having seen one of the new owners behind the bar for the last five years. Things will change slowly over the coming years as the management invests sweat equity into this 13-year-old staple in Montavilla’s historic downtown.
Co-owner Rob Allred left a career in finance and soon learned of an opportunity to take over the taproom and bottle shop. His partner, Kimberley Hill, has worked at Beer Bunker for half a decade as the manager, helping to drive its success. When Beer Bunker’s founder, Kevin Overby, decided to exit the business, Hill and Allred took a leap together to purchase a place that was special to them. “I’ve met all my greatest friends here. The love of my life, I’ve met here. Yeah, it’s just a great community spot. It almost feels kind of like a clubhouse,” said Hill.
When transitioning ownership, Hill and Allred wanted to pause operations to address issues that would ultimately cause problems in the future and make it harder for the partners to run the shop on their own. The decades-old space required a thorough cleaning, along with the reorganization of inventory storage. Its bathroom needed an overhaul to address long-standing deficiencies that kept it hard to clean and maintain. The pair, with help from friends, also tackled the weathered outdoor picnic tables, sanding and staining the wood. They plan to significantly enhance the outdoor service area behind the shop with more weather coverage, a fire pit, and natural elements to soften the enclosed pea gravel yard, which is popular with the dogs accompanying their humans on a night out. “I want a lot of plants to make it lush and cozy out there,” explained Hill.
The new owners aim to retain much of what made Beer Bunker popular among regulars, while also welcoming new guests. For Hill and Allred, that requires slow updates with deliberate iterations that enhance what Overby built. They are pondering expanding the food options to include items not well represented on SE Stark Street, wanting to supplement the already well-developed menus offered by neighboring businesses. “We want to focus on salty snacks and nachos because there’s not that on the street. It would fill a niche that’s not represented through our partners in the area here,” said Allred.
Hill and Allred will reconfigure the seating to provide more guest space near the windows, presenting people with a pleasing view of Montavilla’s main street and also advertising to passersby that customers are inside enjoying themselves. Kimberley Hill has spent years developing a weekly live music offering at Beer Bunker and intends to keep it thriving with more purpose-built facilities for live performances. They will also collaborate with friends at Ground Kontrol Classic Arcade to feature at least five pinball machines in the tap room, allowing them to host weeknight pinball league tournaments. These old-school games will be in addition to the classic arcade cabinets already in the space.
In addition to amenities, the new owners have also focused their efforts on highlighting the beer selection by launching a new Beer Bunker website, bunkerpdx.com, which accurately displays the complete lineup of 24 beers on tap. They also refreshed the tap board, with new paint and increased lighting for better legibility. The reorganization of the west wall clears a path for people to explore Beer Bunker’s hidden feature: a row of glass-fronted coolers where patrons can purchase an extensive range of packaged beer to go. Allred explained that they want to expand the beer selection to build a reputation for having the harder-to-find brews that people will travel from places outside the neighborhood to find.
Both Allred and Hill are grateful for Kevin Overby’s “passing of the torch” to them, and they threw him a well-attended retirement party on the 13th anniversary of the tap room’s opening, just before closing for the past few weeks. Beer Bunker is now open from 3 to 11 p.m. daily. The new owners are familiar to most regulars, but they are looking to meet new customers so they can show off the cleaned-up space to those people and their dogs. Look for improvements over time and follow the company’s Instagram page for updates on an official grand opening celebration later this month.
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