The new N. Portland business Mosaic Taphouse is a queer love story between people, beer, and cultures.

Most beer bars try to just do one thing well, Mosaic Taphouse will have to represent far more than that owing to the queer ownership group and bringing in both Filipino and Vietnamese cultural touchstones as key parts of the concept. Part taproom, part Vietnamese restaurant, Mosaic will share space with Chém Gió, an exciting pop-up that will call this location their new permanent home. Mosaic Taphouse is owned by beer fanatics Laurence and Jarek Oliver, both entering the industry for the first time with a lot of enthusiasm and excitement for what they can bring to it.

“Being a married gay couple we know how important representation is in all aspects of life. We absolutely love the Portland beer community and are excited to bring some additional diversity to the craft beer scene through our identities in the queer and Filipino communities,” says Jarek Oliver.

Mosaic Taphouse will hold their grand opening on November 4th 2023, at the former location of Italian restaurant Gabagool in the St. Johns neighborhood. This spot was set to be Entre Compas, a contract brewing operation from brewer Nick Herrera and restauranteur Angel Medina, that was brewing out of Culmination Brewing before Herrera unexpectedly passed away late last year. Entre Compas was planning to represent the underserved latino community with a brewery to call their own, while Mosaic is different, it will represent an equally underserved and represented groups also through the communal experience of craft beer, good company, and good community.

Jarek and Laurence Oliver met in 2010, on a damp and cold, perfectly Portland day. A mutual friend introduced them on an elementary school playground. “Sardines” a playground game that is basically the reverse of hide and seek, where one person hides and everyone else must find them, was where the two first started their journey together. In the game, once someone finds the sardine they have to find to hide with them, until everyone starts disappearing leaving the final person as the loser.

”Jarek was the first person to hide and I was the first person to find him!” recalls Laurence. “Just lying down on the cold wet grass together in the dark looking at the cloudy night sky in silence. And as fate would have it, there was a clearing in the clouds where we both saw a shooting star. We both gasped and asked if we made a wish, which we both responded with a yes. And that was our first time interacting with one another. After we got home, we added each other on Facebook and wow, the rest was history by that point.”

Jarek was initially the beer nerd in the relationship. His early experiences were with his father,  a beer fan who was always seeking out new beers and breweries. Once Jarek turned 21, he joined his father on the hunt and got to know each other much better along the way.

“Now many of my friends and family are the first people to join me whenever I hear about a new taphouse or brewery to check out and similarly we've gotten to know many taphouse and brewery owners quite well. It's the great community in the Portland beer scene which keeps me excited about the craft,” says Jarek.

Initially Laurence wasn’t really into beer, but always ended up trying various styles on their outings, and spending time with Jarek’s family. At first he was only really into sour beers and ciders, but his palate changed in time and the IPA’s, hazy, stout, pilsners, and everything else began growing on him.

“Examining the characteristics of the beer and listening to others describe their experience gave me more vocabulary to work with and helped me better understand the craft,” says Laurence. “But on top of that, Jarek's passion for wanting to learn more about beer rubbed off on me too. Helping him home brew, taking tours, going to beer events, and once Jarek and his dad took a beer tasting class.”

Same sex marriage was legalized in the state of Oregon in 2014. Jarek and Laurence got engaged on August 5th 2017. Jarek proposed at the peak of the Painted Hills, a place Laurence always dreamed of visiting since seeing it in a newspaper in 2003.

Surprisingly, even for liberal bastion Portland, they were worried about challenges finding wedding venues that wouldn’t turn them down for being a gay couple, everything in this industry is catered to straight couples and they had to navigate that. Because Laurence and Jarek are an untraditional couple, they also wanted an untraditional wedding. They chose Level Beer to get married on February 2nd, 2020, both because they were a fan of the brewery but also wanted to take advantage of their covered greenhouse space in the winter when there would be less scheduling conflicts. Also, Laurence enjoyed the fact that both “LEVEL” and their wedding date 02-02-2020 are both palindromes.

Level Beer turned out to be great hosts, and it has kicked off a close relationship that culminated in a special Imperial Stout first brewed for the wedding, and that will return as a collaboration with Mosaic Taphouse for their grand opening. The Cake is a Lie; is an imperial dessert stout brewed to replace the wedding cake, a high gravity beer partially inspired by Goose Island Bourbon County Stout.

The Cake is a Lie is one of three collaboration beers that Mosaic Taphouse has collaborated on for their grand opening. Including Von Ebert Brewing / Mosaic Taphouse - Mosaic IPA; a clean, resinous, piney, clear West Coast IPA. And with Yovu Beer, Cozy Cones IPA, a Fresh Hop Winter IPA; this will be a winter style IPA fresh hopped with Mosaic hops inspired by Sierra Nevada Celebration with a bit more malt to give it more of an amber body and a little extra body to it.

These beers will fill three of Mosaic Taphouse’s 24 taps, which will be a feat in itself because they have had to install an entirely separate outdoor walk-in cooler to run the draft lines in from outside the bar because there simply wasn’t room inside for more than a small kegerator. The additional expense should payoff, as Northwest Draft Technicians installed an impressive glycol cooled, matte black and polished gold fauced drop-down system that will surely be one of the centerpieces of the taphouse. Around 18-20 of the taps will be dedicated to beer, and they want to offer plenty of seasonality in those selections, and some space will be devoted to stuff like seltzer, kombucha and cider. Also unique, a rotating tap of Sake from Sake One in Forest Grove.

Also impressive is how hard Jarek and Laurence have worked to get true imported Filipino beer on tap. Laurence is half Filipino, and he really wanted to get the signature beer of the Philipines on draft. After countless calls and emails with distributors, importers, and reps, it appears that Jarek has secured the first ever San Miguel Lager on draft in Oregon. This clean, clear, crisp, industrial style Pilsner is just one of the many ways Mosaic Taphouse will also represent Filipino culture and community.

“I've always felt torn between two worlds, half way in one community and half way in another community, but never fully in either.,” says Laurence. “In the last few years I've been reconnecting and re exploring my Filipino roots. Portland has been seeing an increase in Filipino culture and representation and it is inspiring me to keep that momentum going.”

Other ways Mosaic Taphouse will represent Filipino culture is in their coffee provider, locally roasted Kalesa, who makes a coconut cold brew coffee they plan to pour on nitro. And in representing Laurence’s mother, a legendary figure in the family for her endless cheerleading and for her traditional Filipino Lumpia dish. As a way of thanking and honoring her and having fun with it at the same time, Mosaic plans to feature a portrait of her depicted as a radiant saint "Our Lady of Lumpia” with golden brown crispy lumpia radiating from her.

Anh Tran, owner of Mosaic Taphouse’s kitchen partner Chém Gió, has similarly been inspired by the food of his mother to create the Vietnamese fusion menu. Tran owned and operated the long-running and beloved NE Portland restaurant Yen Ha for the last 13 years of it’s 35 year history. The family operation was passed down to Tran from his mother, former Yen Ha head chef “Mama Le” Nguyet. After taking a few years off, Tran got back into cooking with Chém Gió operating as a pop-up at places like Mestizo. Now they are settling down for permanent residencies at both White Owl Social Club and Mosaic Taphouse.

Chém Gió is described on their instagram page as Yen Ha reborn, but Tran himself talks about it as more of a Vietnamese street food vibe with modern contemporary fusions of flavors and presentation. Top of mind on all the dishes, is the best way to represent the cuisines without dumbing them down for American audiences.

Some of the recent specials that Chém Gió have been serving at their pop-ups:

• bánh bèo served with a pork and shrimp gravy topped with da heo chiên (crispy pork rinds) and toasted shrimp shell. Served with their house calamansi fish sauce.

• tôm kho tàu Vietnamese braised prawns. Paired with blue sticky rice.

• bột chiên trứng fried taro rice cakes then fried with eggs and topped with shredded papaya and served with house soy sauce.

• bún riêu cua tomato crab noodle soup.

Mosaic Taphouse will have to carry the blessing and burden of representing Vietnamese, LGBTQ, and Filipino communities in one smallish bar that seats 38 inside, and approximately 32 outside a roll-up door covered front patio along N. Lombard Street.

“Something we've thought a lot about is how Mosaic Taphouse will fit into the queer community in Portland,” says Jarek. “Most of the queer spaces in Portland to get drinks are bars and clubs. These spaces are great, but they aren't for everyone all the time. Mosaic will provide a different kind of space by being a chill, craft beer focused taphouse.”

This will include hosting lots of events which showcase aspects of queer culture, especially community events and tap takeovers featuring queer and POC brewers and brewery owners. They also point to a great tight-nit queer sports community in Portland, and possibly sponsoring a local queer sports team. The mission ultimately focuses on forging genuine connections with patrons, maintaining a welcoming atmosphere, enhancing community engagement, and becoming a symbol of diversity in the craft beer scene.

Mosaic Taphouse Grand Opening is November 4th, 2023 from 12-11pm at 7955 N Lombard St, Portland, OR.