Wayfinder Beer opening ‘The Highlands’ taphouse, beer garden, & food truck pod with Nico’s Ice Cream
Portland, Oregon’s premiere lager brewery Wayfinder Beer is opening a second location in Troutdale called The Highlands. Wayfinder is the four-time Oregon Beer Awards winner for best brewpub, which recently welcomed new brewmaster Natalie Rose Baldwin. With The Highlands, they are going in a slightly different direction by leaning into an open air beer garden and family friendly beer hall surrounded by a gated food truck pod. Wayfinder will share the anchor brick-and-mortar indoor component of The Highlands with the buzzy Nico’s Ice Cream.
Wayfinder celebrates their 6th anniversary this June, and felt the time was right to finally expand coming off of a successful 2022 food pop-up series they hosted at their taproom that featured weekly special menus from Tastebud wood-fired pizza and Vietnamese-inspired fusion Matta.
“Throughout covid we had a lot of difficulty staffing the pub's kitchen full time,” says Wayfinder’s operations manager Annie Brix. “The pop ups brought a new energy and different clientele into the pub. I love Wayfinder's food but I think Troutdale is asking for more options that one kitchen can provide.”
The Highlands is going to be a more upscale, cohesive and intentional food truck pod that plans to go the extra mile for their customers and on-site food and drink providers. The carefully designed landscaping, lighting, seating options, reservations and table service are some of the ways in which The Highlands plans to stand-out from similar operations. Customers will have the option to access the bar menu and the cart menus from their tables and can place orders without visiting each business directly. Wayfinder will offer reservations to better align with the restaurant model.
The day-to-day operations and the food truck selection will be curated by Wayfinder, and catered toward the Troutdale community based on feedback, surrounding area options, popularity, and compatibility with the Wayfinder brand. One of the first things on the agenda is finding those ideal food providers, and they are currently taking applications for food trucks at thehighlandscarts.com
“If I were to summarize the feedback from the community it would be that they are hoping for more of everything and nothing is off the table,” says Wayfinder partner and graphic design/brand manager Orion Landau. “We would love it if the carts had a range of cuisines to offer something for everyone. Burgers and fresh sandwiches, salads and veggie bowls, BBQ, Vietnamese and Middle Eastern. I personally would love tacos too.”
Among the many features of The Highlands will be a partially covered and heated patio, with large shared tables, smaller more intimate seating arrangements, and comfy chairs around gas fire pits in the 120 seat Highland garden area with something for everyone. While the original SE Portland Wayfinder does welcome kids, The Highlands location will be even more family friendly. In addition to the green space, Wayfinder will operate a 100 seat and 2,000 sq ft indoor, all-ages, dining room that will be shared by all the carts with a full bar.
“The bar will be very similar to our current offering in the pub and the beer will, of course, be identical,” Annie Brix tells the New School. “A big draw for the pub is our patio and we want to make sure guests will still have that experience at the taproom. The views of The Gorge will be highlighted with 2 story floor to ceiling windows in the pub and an unobstructed siteline from the patio.”
Nico’s Ice Cream’s New Zealand-style soft serve will be the main partner on the indoor beer hall space at The Highlands. They have two scoop shops in Northeast Portland and are excited to open their newest location in Troutdale. Nico’s imports a special/unique machine from New Zealand that mixes their vanilla base with fresh/local fruit and the customer gets to watch their ice cream being made to order.
The Highlands project is part of an incoming wave of exciting outdoors, food, and beer projects coming to Troutdale along with the multi-level new Away Days Brewing. The redevelopment is part of the city’s Urban Renewal Agency project The Confluence, a roughly 20-acre site on the banks of the Sandy River adjacent to downtown Troutdale just off I-84 at exit 17, westbound to the Portland Metro region and eastbound to the Columbia River Gorge.
This section of the historic downtown Troutdale is considered to be part of “The Gateway to the Gorge”, an underappreciated destination area for hiking, with swimming holes, campgrounds, and scenic views, at the start of old Highway 30. The City's Urban Renewal Agency is attempting to redevelop the area by building up its best aspects while filling in the missing pieces like dining and drink options. While the jury is still out on the success of “The Confluence” project, the plan seems to already be working with a lot of promising redevelopment bringing businesses like Wayfinder to the area.
“We didn't want to just open another location, we were waiting for a space that felt special. We think that this space fits the bill with its elevated seating area that looks out onto the opening of the Gorge and its large outdoor area that puts the garden into beer garden,” adds Wayfinder’s Orion Landau.
Wayfinder Beer’s The Highlands is aiming for a late summer 2023 opening.