Pelican Pub History   ~   Part 1

In 1995, Jeff Schons and Mary Jones purchased an old brick building on the oceanfront in Pacific City.  Over Sunday morning coffee, Jeff and Mary came up with the idea of opening an oceanfront micro-brewery.  Since they knew almost nothing about the brewing process, they decided to attend a Craft Brewers conference in Portland and see what they could find out. 

 While there, it occurred to them that there could be a potential brewer at the conference that might want to work in Pacific City and a hand-scribbled note (with cell phone number) on a 3x5 note card was quickly taped up on a bulletin board.  Not long after this posting, Jeff discovered that the cell phone battery had gone dead (that was in the days when cell phones were nearly as big as a loaf of bread) and so the phone was put in the car to charge for a few hours.  Upon returning to get it, they discovered about a billion messages from a fellow named Darron Welch (well, really it might have been two or three, maybe four).  This Darron guy really  wanted to meet Jeff & Mary.  Turns out that he grew up in Eugene and really, really wanted to move back to Oregon after living in Wisconsin for a year working as an Assistant Brewer.  A job as a Head Brewer on the Oregon Coast was a dream come true!

Anyway, long story short, Darron and then-fiancé Stephanie, moved to Pacific City and began work prior to the beginning of construction on the Pelican Pub so he was able to design and help build his own brewhouse.  (This is why he can’t blame anyone else when things don’t work right).  While the Pelican Pub was under construction, Darron began brewing test batches of beer in some mini-storage units down the street….here’s Jeff, Darron & Mary in the first brewhouse of the Pelican Pub.

 Since the doors opened on May 4, 1996, the Pelican Pub & Brewery has been serving up award winning beers almost from Day 1.  Our first award was “People’s Choice Award” from the Florence Chowder, Blues & Brews Festival in 1996.  But that was only the beginning.  Our first year entering the Great Amercian Beer Festival (1998), we won a bronze medal for our Tsunami Stout and a Silver Medal for Doryman’s Dark Ale.  The next year, we won a Gold Medal for Doryman’s Dark Ale.  In Year 2000, we really went wild….here’s a photo from the big day at the GABF when we won a Gold Medal for the Tsunami Stout, and a Gold Medal for Kiwanda Cream Ale, AND “Small Brewpub of the Year”.  In 2004 at the Australian Beer Awards, we won a Bronze Medal for Doryman’s Dark Ale, a Gold Medal and “Grand Champion Ale” for India Pelican Ale; and we also won 3 Medals (!) at the GABF (Bronze for Surfer’s Summer Ale, Silver for Tsunami Stout, and Gold for India Pelican Ale); and  we also won Medals at the World Beer Cup (Silver for Tsunami Stout and Gold for Kiwanda Cream Ale); and we also won 2 Medals at the North American Beer Awards (Silver for Kiwanda Cream Ale and Silver for Tsunami Stout).  Whew, that’s a lot of wins!

In 2004, the Pelican Pub was remodeled to double the size of the brewery and kitchen, and add a banquet room on the oceanfront.  Darron, along with his Assistant Head Brewer Jason Schoneman, continue to brew the finest beer in the world, and people from all over the world come to drink it.

Now, about our great food……. a fellow named Ken Henson decided he wanted to find a friendly small town in the Northwest to raise his family.  Happily, Ken is a top notch Chef (not to mention all-around good-natured kind of guy) and the Pelican Pub & Brewery was looking to fill the Executive Chef position (for what seems like the millionth time!).  Oops, we’re nearly out of room….. we’ll have to continue this story on the next menu revision – come back and see us to find out more.