Skip to main content
In a majority-white city and a straight and white-dominated industry, Jarek and Laurence Oliver’s craft-beer melting pot, Mosaic Taphouse, stands out not just for who owns it but what it serves.
The Olivers fell in love over brewpub culture, marrying in 2020 at Level Beer. (Eschewing most other wedding traditions, they instead developed a wedding cake stout.) Their queer-and- Filipino-owned taphouse, which in November celebrates its first year open, serves a beer (among its two dozen selections) found nowhere else in Oregon. Partnered with Vietnamese pop-up Chém Gió in a repurposed 1950s service station in St. Johns, Mosaic Taphouse is one of Portland’s most interesting new beer pubs.
Mosaic’s 24 draft lines pull from a powder- coated pipe that drops from the ceiling. The steampunk-looking setup is the bar’s functional centerpiece that insulates long beer lines running from a keg cooler outside. With rows of gold-plated unmarked faucets pouring the usual assortment of IPAs, lagers and stouts, one tap handle is marked with a red and white neck and a gold crown. This is for San Miguel, a Philippines-based brewery that can only be found on draft in Oregon at Mosaic, thanks to Laurence’s considerable effort to represent his Filipino heritage. San Miguel’s pale pilsner, akin to other imported lite beer, is a beloved draft for Filipino expats looking for home’s familiar flavors. On another tap, Mosaic highlights a coconut cold brew from local Filipino coffee shop Kalesa.
Anh Tran, the second-generation owner of Yen Ha, one of Portland’s oldest Vietnamese restaurants and bars, launched Chém Gió as a pop-up before landing at Mosaic Taphouse. Moving away from traditional Vietnamese food like pho and banh mi, Chém Gió focuses on modern street food like Canh Ga Nuoc Mam (fish sauce wings) ($14) with so much sweet-salty-spicy gooey sauce on each plate that you’ll want to bottle it up and take it home. Chém Gió's often messy but always fun finger food includes pork or vegan spring rolls ($10), panko-crusted shrimp ($15), spicy cola-marinated pork belly skewers ($9), and slow-braised Suon Nuong (pork ribs) ($15), each with their own dipping sauce, making for some of the best drinking food in Portland. Along with veg/vegan items like fried tofu skewer ($9), Goi Xoai (green mango salad) ($15), and vegan La Lot skewer (marinated tofu and ground Impossible meat, black fungus, and mushroom meatballs wrapped and grilled in piper betle leaves) ($10), there is something for everyone.
One of Chém Gió's newest sensations are the mini banh xeo tacos ($15) made with crispy rice pancakes similar to crepes. Comforting dishes like Bun Bo Hue ($18), a beef noodle soup with thinly sliced beef and pork shanks; cha (Vietnamese ham), tendon, pork knuckle and pork blood in a lemongrass bone broth; and vegan Pho Chay ($16), a nine-hour vegetable broth with rice noodles, fried tofu, cabbage, broccoli, mushrooms and bok choy, are now served with the season’s change.
Like the pride flag quilt currently being stitched together from donated fabric at the taphouse as a community art project, Mosaic seamlessly weaves together elements of Filipino, Vietnamese and queer culture. Hosting LGBTQ+ industry meetups and sports leagues and collaborating with other queer brewers are just part of the Olivers’ craft-beer mosaic.
“Something we’ve thought a lot about is how Mosaic Taphouse will fit into the queer community in Portland,” Jarek Oliver says. “Most of the queer spaces in Portland—and most cities—to get drinks are bars and clubs. These spaces are great, but they aren’t for everyone all the time. Mosaic provides a different kind of space by being a chill, craft-beer-focused taphouse.”
GO: Mosaic Taphouse, 7955 N Lombard St., 971-406-7279, mosaictaps.com. 3–9 pm Monday, 2–10 pm Tuesday–Thursday, 2–11 pm Friday, noon–11 pm Saturday, noon–10 pm Sunday.