Fracture Brewing, a Portland brewery begun early this year by the husband and wife team of Darren and Ny Provenzano, is preparing to open its first taproom in Southeast Portland, with invite-only, trial-run events through the end of the month and a public opening expected in October.
Fracture will be an anchor tenant in a Buckman neighborhood community hub being developed that will include the new home of North Portland’s Dos Hermanos Bakery and Lil’ America, a BIPOC and LGBTQ+ focused food cart pod and seating court.
In March, Fracture took over the 15-barrel Northeast Portland brewhouse that previously was home to Burnside Brewing and also for a year served as the pop-up taproom of international brewery Mikkeller. Fracture rebuilt the brewhouse then started producing its beers – styles ranging from a pilsner, to hazy and West Coast IPAs, to a coffee milk stout and a petite saison.
“Darren and I always had the dream of opening a brewery with a taproom featuring his beers,” said Ny Provenzano, who studied hospitality in her hometown of Saigon and oversees Fracture’s retail and brand components. “I am excited about Fracture Brewing because Darren makes really good beer. The world will see how talented he is.”
Darren Provenzano, who oversees production, began his career in Southern California then spent the past several years at Vietnam’s 7 Bridges Brewing. While there, he helped lead the brewery to numerous medals and mid-size brewery of the year honors at SEA Brew competition, Asia’s equivalent of the Great American Beer Festival in the U.S. He then moved to Heart of Darkness Brewing in Saigon.
Fracture is supported by the ChefStable restaurant group, which has minority ownership of the business, owns the brewhouse and taproom properties and is developing the rest of the hub around the taproom at Southeast Stark Street and 10th Avenue.
The Provenzanos, who met and in 2018 got married in Vietnam, said one of Fracture’s goals was to bring people, friends, and colleagues together from around the world, and Fracture plans regular collaborations with breweries in Asia and beyond.
Darren Provenzano credited his wife’s expertise in hospitality as a significant asset as Fracture prepares to open the taproom, which will seat about 50.
“We spent lots of time traveling abroad to Thailand and Singapore, for beer-related business,” he said. “She was a crucial part of me being able to productively conduct business in Vietnam. Without her, I would have been clueless.”
Lil’ America, the adjacent food cart pod, is being developed as a partnership between ChefStable and Win Win, a new community-focused restaurant group co-founded by Jasper Shen and Linh Tran of XLB, a Portland restaurant specializing in its namesake, Xiao Long Bao, along with third co-founder Catie Hannigan.
The group said Lil’ America would be a food court pod with a mission: “to bring fresh cultural flavor to Inner Southeast Portland. … This bright new project will feature diverse small businesses, indoor/outdoor seating, and event space. Win Win spearheads this project with their core values of inclusivity, diversity, equity, empathy, and community with emphasis on amplifying BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ voices.”
ChefStable owner Kurt Huffman said the pod lineup hadn’t been finalized yet, but it would include at least six carts, and Win Win is accepting applications. He said the organizers haden’t determined yet whether the pod would include the carts currently on the site.
Huffman said plans for the pod area included a large, wooden, landscaped deck with tables and seating for about 125. It will be tented and heated in the winter and include dedicated restroom facilities, and the carts operators will have prep and storage space inside the main building.
The pod area will also be connected by door to the Fracture taproom, and at a yet-to-be-determined time each night the pod will become a 21-and-over space for late-night eating and drinking. The pod will be enclosed by a fence, and its gates will be closed at night, with access only available through the secured taproom, providing a more safe environment for customers and the cart operators.
Huffman compared the exterior space to another ChefStable property, Loyal Legion Beaverton, and said he hoped to have the exterior space built out and open in two months.
Plans for the outside area include frequent community events, such as live music, DJs and other gatherings, all of which will be organized by coordinator Kamyar Abtin.
“We want to be open to everybody, but I’m trying to bring in a younger crowd, more people who are curious in trying new things,” he said. “I want to have DJ nights, do live music, just different things to have people come sit and relax.
“Lil’ America will be curating a bunch of different carts from a bunch of different ethnic communities, which is going to be really cool,” he said. “We’re still working on finalizing exactly what will be in there, but I think it’ll bring a more diverse crowd and have people trying new foods. That’s the big thing, having a spot for everyone.”
Dos Hermanos Bakery, which now operates on North Williams Avenue, will become the second primary tenant of the complex’s main building. It will have a storefront space on Stark and a large production facility in back.
Fracture has been self-distributing its beers since January and has collected about 60 accounts, including Portland-area New Seasons, Market of Choice and area bottle shops. Fracture is also regularly on taps at both Loyal Legion locations, Lardo and Pacific Standard at KEX Hotel.
Fracture’s initially began making lager and hop-forward ales with lower alcohol content, but the styles are continuing to evolve. Provenzano said they now occasionally made a higher alcohol-by-volume beer, and in April he hired brewer Steve Beaudoin, formerly of Cascade Brewing and Old Town Brewing, who has begun developing mixed-fermentation and barrel-aging programs.
“The nice thing was our brewing philosophy matched up pretty similarly when we met,” Beaudoin said. “My forte is long-term barrel aged sour. And I’m fortunate he’s open to expanding that program.”
Fracture’s taproom eschews the minimalist aesthetic of many recent taprooms, favoring instead color-splashed appointments that mimic the almost tropical animated aesthetic seen on its beer-can labels. A purple ceiling; dark, rich leather booths; slate floors; and red mahogany bar tops accent wall muraling by local artist Hawnuh Lee, who also designs Fracture’s cans.
Outside, mural artist Mario De Leon, who will have a residency in a part of the main building, will create a large mural on the south side of the building.
Huffman said the development represented a new focus and direction for ChefStable.
“Right now ChefStable’s focus is going to be much more on community hubs, because Portlanders love food cart pods and all the energy around them,” he said. “So this will be the first one we do, but the plan is to do more of them, but where there’s the infrastructure for food carts to survive.”
And Provenzano is happy with the reception of his beers in Portland, and instead of being intimidated by the competition, he’s thrilled to be part of a vibrant beer scene.
“It’s great. It’s a constant evolution,” he said. “There’s always going to be new breweries opening. You just gotta choose your lane and deliver the quality.”
Details
- Address: 1015 S.E. Stark St.
- Early access: The invite-only events this month are open to the public. To sign up, go to the Fracture Brewing website.
- Hours: Not established yet
- The bar: 14 taps, including two side pours, plus two taps for wine; full cocktail bar developed by Ny Provenzano. “Since we’re a beer bar, we will do some classic cocktails,” she said, “like a house Old Fashioned, a Negroni, a Margarita, and three or four signature cocktails. Things with pineapple, passion fruit, coconut, easy to drink, not complicated at all.”
— Andre Meunier; sign up for my weekly newsletter Oregon Brews and News, and follow me on Instagram, where I’m @oregonianbeerguy.
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