OUTHEAST PORTLAND Prohibition was as hotly contested in Portland as anywhere. The region’s historic identity was of brawny, flannel-clad buckers, sawyers, and whistle punks hoisting foaming tankards in halls that rang of the hope of the new age. Taking beer out of that delicate equation simply left a lot of bored lumberjacks angrily completing crossword puzzles in quiet taverns. Where there is man, there must be liquor, so before long clandestine breweries arose quietly in the subterranean crawls and tunnels that span the Westside. Without the double-
edged sword of federal regulation, illicit brewers cutting corners to lower costs forced each other into a game of bare minimums: Whoever could produce the cheapest kettle was assured his future, for the men would drink anything, so long as it helped them to stomp their boots and give half-masted chase to the rantipoles. Businessman “Cunty”* Ramon Montoya, a native of the Andorran region of Spain, and his brewer, an Englishman named Salisbury who reeked of kerosene and cigarettes, sank to perhaps the lowest lows in the development of their particular alcohol. Supplies of genuine hops and barley commanded a princely sum, so CONTINUED ON PG. 15
* “Cunty” was not the slur we know today. In Prohibition times, it meant one who was skilled in speaking smoothly and persuasively with lawmen, and was likely derived from the adjective “cunning” and the noun “punty” (the iron rod used in handling molten glass, itself also slang for a quick, cool thinker). From this term comes the doggerel set in tile at the threshold of 318 NE Sandy, a former speakeasy and coin parlor, which reads, “Cunty Men Sit Thick Within.” (The location is now, ironically, a Bikram yoga studio.) “cunning” and the noun “punty” (the iron rod used in handling molten glass, itself also slang for a quick, cool thinker). From this term comes the doggerel set in tile at the threshold of 318 SE Sandy, a former speakeasy and coin parlor, which reads, “Cunty Men Sit Thick Within.” (The location is now, ironically, a Bikram Yoga studio.)
October11, 10,2012 2012 The TheMercury’s Mercury’sEat Eat&&Drink DrinkGuide Guide 13 1 October