Five-Course Dinner in Astoria Inspired By Historical Oregon Coast Culinary Figure

Published 11/04/2026 at 8:58 p.m.
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff

(Astoria, Oregon) – Taste a bit of the Oregon coast and learn about regional history. Well, not just a bit of tasting. More like a 5-course dinner. Also: Astoria. That's right: Astoria. (Historic photo of McCleary courtesy Lincoln County Historical Society)

Oregon Black Pioneers, Oregon's only statewide African American historical society, is teaming up once again with Fort George Brewery in Astoria to recreate a historic Black-owned eatery from the Oregon coast. On Saturday, November 14th at 6:00 PM, Fort George's Lovell Taproom will transform into "McCleary's Meats," an imagined steakhouse inspired by butcher and fisherman Alvin McCleary.

This is a chance to time travel to what would've one of the more famous restaurants on the coast back then.

The dinner will be focused on Oregon coast meat and produce: steak, octopus, elk, mushrooms and crab, among other treats.

McCleary was born in 1866 in San Francisco to an Afro-Caribbean father and a Native American mother. Orphaned as an infant, Alvin was adopted by a Black woman named Mary Cooper. Mary and Alvin moved to Salem, Oregon around 1870 where, in 1873, Mary met and married Louis Southworth, a well known Black pioneer of the Willamette Valley and Southern Oregon. The family of three relocated to Buena Vista, and then to Alsea in 1880.

Courtesy Lincoln County Historical Society

As a young man in coastal Lincoln County, Alvin found work in the fishing industry. He worked in Waldport and Newport canneries beginning in 1887. He then worked as a commercial salmon fisherman from 1893-1913. In 1906 Alvin opened a butcher shop in Newport, where he prepared and sold conventional meats as well as game animals. Alvin returned to Waldport in the early 1910s where he opened another butcher shop. Soon after, he began managing the dining room of the luxurious Wakefield Hotel. Among his other achievements, Alvin McCleary was elected to the Waldport city council in 1934, making him one of the first Black elected officials anywhere in Oregon.

The November 14th event will be the third Black history restaurant pop up put on by Fort George Brewery and Oregon Black Pioneers. Last November, the groups collaborated to recreate an Astoria oyster saloon run by Roscoe Dixon in the 1880s, and last May they hosted a tribute to a fried chicken dining room run by William and Emma Badger of Gearhart in the 1920s-1930s.

"Seeing a presentation on a historic Black restaurant is great, but it's another thing entirely to get to experience the tastes and smells of that restaurant too," says Zachary Stocks, Astoria resident and Oregon Black Pioneers' Executive Director. "We can't thank the Fort George team enough for their creativity and passion for elevating our region's Black culinary history."

Tickets for this event are limited to 50 and are on sale now on Fort George's website. 100% of net proceeds for the McCleary's Meat event will benefit Oregon Black Pioneers.

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