A Combination Bar and Bookstore Is Opening on Northeast Fremont This Month

Rose City Book Pub will have 18 taps plus more reading material than the shop even has room for.

IMAGE: Christine und Hagen Graf / Flickr.
By Andi Prewitt

Portland is getting its first official bookstore-bar hybrid.

Rose City Book Pub is moving into the recently closed County Cork Public House at 1329 NE Fremont St. The business will not only sell books but also have 18 taps of beer and wine for sale.

Owner Elise Schumock announced that she signed the papers for the space Sept. 18 on the pub's Indiegogo site that helped her raise nearly $11,000 to launch the project. She's now in the process of building shelves to bring that library-like atmosphere into the bar.

"It's mostly putting all the things I like together in one room, which is wine and beer and books and people," Schumock says. "I've been planning this for three years. A friend suggested it as a pipe dream, and I said, 'I can do that.'"

Thanks to her personal and parents' collection of books that'll be available to purchase, there will be more reading material than the shop even has room for. Many of the books are signed since her father used to interview authors on KBOO's program Between the Covers.

While Schumock promises corners where people can pore over their books without being bothered, there won't necessarily be a decibel-level rule—it is, after all, still a pub. There are plans to host events, like Wednesday night trivia with a literature theme.

Rose City Book Pub is tentatively scheduled to open Oct. 14, barring any snags. A grand opening party is set to follow Nov. 3.

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