John's Marketplace - Multnomah Blvd

 

 

 

I can't believe I haven't been here in my trips to Portland. Stopped by tonight and was blown away by the vast selection. I have never been overwhelmed in a beer shop, but I was tonight. Sooooo many beers from so many countries. I didn't have as much time as I would have liked, but one could easily spend an hour looking through the bottles. Don't pass this place when you are in Portland.

 

 

There’s a ton of aisles with lots to choose from. Skip your way on to the back of the store and the goods are piled up. Lots of local distro and quality at that. Def one to hit when making your rounds in the area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

huge selection.

Vacation trip leads me to Oregon! Where do I go, well, when in Portland, I went here.
Yeah, sure its got a convenience store vibe, but once one looks past an unsanitary looking dusty store, the selection is out of his world! The quality seemed mediocre, yeah, I had to hunt a bit for bottles that didn't have dust on them or expired. The service seemed alright, but then again, I usually know what I'm looking for and don't ask as many questions as I probably should. No one who worked there, actually asked me any questions. Eh, might be back, nothing spectacular.

 

 

Great bottle shop, very helpful staff.

Huge selection, I walked out with 8 stouts (7x22oz and 1x22oz) including a midnight sun berserker and a boulevard smokestack imperial for a shade under $75, I was a happy camper. Very large selection, staff was friendly and asked if I needed help without being pushy as I sure a lot of their clientele are just there to browse (I know I was).

 

 

Vibe: The first thing I notice is that it has a convenience store vibe. Chips, soda, ect are what you see at the front of the store. Next is bright uncovered florescent lights conveniently ruining the beer. Next I notice is the dust on the bottles and the entire building looks like it couldn't pass a health inspection. Closer inspection shows IPA's with drink dates 1 1/2 years past! But hey, a place can have a trashy vibe as long the ale is good quality and to go right?

Quality: The storage conditions are room temperature - hot in the summer, cold in the winter, under bright florescent lights, past expiration dates. I made the mistake of buying an ipa and it tasted like skunked sweet malts with the hops faded.

Service: I walked up to the register to ask about if an ale was in stock. The guy at the register pretends to be on the phone for several minutes but he's just chatting with someone at the other end. I ask if they have a specif beer in stock. His answer is he doesn't know and he gives me a why the hell should he know anything about beer look. I ask if there's anyone working who knows or can check. He pages the manager. Several more minutes go by. I ask him to page again. Finally he says, “he must be on a smoke break”. I walk out. Next try, I ask the manager about some specialty stouts. He claims he's “holding them back” ie not selling to me now them so he can charge more later. He names a few well known ones he's "cellaring" (like he knows what that means) and says “and a lot of other shit”. Very professional right? The staff in general know little to nothing about craft beer beer, had no concern for customer service and were overall trashy people.

Selection: On first look John's appears to have a very respectable collection. 1500 different beers is impressive even by Portland standards. Unfortunately it is hasn't been stored correctly and much of it is well past its drink by date - in some cases years past. The fresh stuff should be ok and the rest will be hit and miss at best. The large selection means turnover is slow and they don't bother to destroy expired products. Much of the ale is from out of country or out of state – I'd avoid all of this as its likely gone bad. Some of the Oregon ales should be fresh. Most of these you can get many other places. Also there's very little rhyme or reason to where a particular beer is stocked.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Several years ago this was the premier bottle shop in the PDX area, however in the more recent years there have been many new bottle shops popping up that are just better. Starting off wit the good about Johns marketplace: probably the biggest beer selection in Portland if not the entire Pacific Northwest area. That's about the only good thing. By the time you get your beer home to drink more often than not it's way old and oxidized. Most all of the beer they have is just sitting at room temp on shelves and they just have too much of it to keep everything fresh. The place is discusting and the people who work there seem to be some of the trashiest people you could come across. In a town full of beer snobs who know good beer vs old past it's prime beer I'd be kinda surprised if these guys make it thru the next coming years withe better bottleshops like Tin bucket, beermongers and belmont station around.