No one calls it Hanigans Tavern, they just call it The Vern due to the sign being busted. This was my first bar in Portland in 1999. Actually, it was my first real bar that I frequented with astonishing regularity. Most nights of my first several months in Portland ended up here. For $4 you could get a whole pitcher of Pabst, if you were fancy you could upgrade to Weinhard's for $4.50 when it was still being brewed in Portland. The juke box was all 45s filled with punk and country and random shit. I based the beginning of one of my short stories in the Brainscan/no More Coffee Spilt here. Of course you can't get pitchers for $4 anywhere in Portland now I gather. It seems they raised the tiled insulated ceilings, updated the bathroom, and got some new chairs. I wonder how they got the decades of stale smoke out? #thevern
