At Portland’s DIY Bar, two brothers serve up craft drinks and craft projects.
Text by Anna Harmon
Images by John Hook
To craft or not to craft is not the question at Portland’s DIY Bar. Instead, the question is which craft drink to sip on—kombucha, hard cider, or an IPA—while painting a concrete planter or embossing letters in soft leather. The levels of difficulty of these DIY projects are measured by the number of drinks, aka the time, they may require to be completed: One drink is fine for the leather luggage tags, but you may need three to finish a leather koozie or complete your string-art wall hanging. Other crafts include concrete coasters, bracelets, a cat scratcher, a leather-wrapped flask, a wallet, and a drop-catch bottle opener.
DIY Bar, which is located in the northeast Portland neighborhood of Boise, is the brainchild of two brothers, Jason and Adam Gorske, who debuted it in the spring of 2017 to family and friends. Originally, they imagined the bar as a messy place where no leftover craft supply went to waste and imaginations could go wild amid leather scraps and bottles of paint. They quickly found, however, that a successful business model would require structure, and introduced the signature craft projects that are nicely packaged in kits handed out at the start of crafting sessions. Now, the bar offers three-hour “craft and sip” sessions twice a day (thrice a day on Saturday). When patrons show up for their sessions, they choose a project and then order drinks at the bar, which is set behind Kraft paper-wrapped work tables. Having settled in at a table, patrons then dig through kits of cloth buckets containing every tool their chosen crafts may require and examine laminated instructions. The sound of hammering with soft mallets fills the room, as does quiet discussion about what colors to choose or which technique to take on. Occasionally, Adam steps behind the bar to pour another drink.
Recently, the brothers have also begun hosting one-off craft sessions. These partnerships with local makers have included candle-making, belt-making, and even vegan cookie dough-making. While the bar’s model is evolving, it cashes in on a type of carefree time the adults who patronize DIY Bar relish but rarely have the opportunity for anymore: time spent conversing with friends while also making things with paints and scissors and beads and thread. The resulting physical product comes with a sense of accomplishment and comradery that is buoyed by the bonus that cleanup is left behind.
Adam Gorske (pictured above) and his brother, Jason Gorske, came up with the idea for the DIY Bar when they were hanging out in Jason’s backyard.