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Craft Brewery

sold the brewery and pub to Merchant Du Vin
the following year. Drew Gillespie, Pike’s current Presently, Pike partners with local distilleries,
president, began as a line cook in 1998 during this including Woodenville Whiskey, Dry Fly Distil-ling
period, which he describes as the Dark Ages. “There and Copperworks Distilling for their barrel-aged
wasn’t a lot of investment or passion within the program, which they look to expand in 2020. They
company.” also plan on making more sour beers to meet the
customer demand for more extreme types of beers.
After realizing they were missing their brewery
and the maturation of the industry, the Finkels Despite these innovations, Pike’s prime focus
purchased Pike back in 2006. Gillespie describes remains its consistency. “We like being slow-mov-
this purchase as “a rebirth that really picked up the ing. We don’t feel we need to expand and get
heart and soul that the Finkels bring to their work.” giant. We just want to have a nice solid base, two
Upon their return, the Finkels further built up their restaurants and a beer distribution network in the
community connections, ethical business practices Pacific Northwest,” says Gillespie.
and sustainability focus.
To this end, they’ve made in-roads in Hawaii and
Among their numerous community projects Alaska and want to establish a presence in Or-egon.
include a long-standing commitment to Planned In 2018, Pike went global by launching a collabo-
Parenthood, where Charles Finkel served on their ration in Japan with hopes to expand the Pike con-
board before founding Merchant du Vin. They brew cept to China through a Chinese partner.
a specialty beer titled Morning After Pale as a fund-
raiser for Planned Parenthood, which they offer “If we could maximize the capacity of the brew-
during their annual Women in Beer event. Also, ery, we will be helping the local community and
their annual event, Chocofest, sup-ports Long Live being a good employer,” says Gillespie. “That’s a
the Kings, an environmental group dedicated to recipe for success for our little mini-empire.”
preserving local salmon.

Moving Towards the Future

Currently, Pike has five owners, who are all mem-
bers of the board: the Finkels, Gillespie, VP and
Controller Patti Baker and Executive Chef Gary
Marx. “We call this selling in versus selling out,”
Gillespie says. “You have to have people on site
who are really focused on how to make it success-
ful and willing to put their life into it.”

Pike further expanding its brewing capacity in
2017 by launching Tankard & Tun. This intimate
seafood restaurant located on the second floor
above the pub enabled them to serve dishes like
oysters on the half shell that are hard to serve in a
hectic pub environment.

They also introduced cocktails, which Parker
says is a relatively new development in brewpubs.
“There was a time, if you were a brewery and you
had cocktails, you were seen as not committed to
being a brewery. You must think your beer is not
good enough to be able to stand on its own. But
that’s sort of like saying we’re not going to serve
wine either because no wine can be better than our
beer. Well, that’s wrong.”

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