Established in 2018, Ale & Cider House is located in downtown Willamette and serves beverages from over 40 taps of craft beer and cider. Outside of drinks, the business has three food trucks toward the back of the building, serving Mexican, Mediterranean, and Italian cuisine, and an event center.

Ale & Cider House is a branch of the 7Bev business, a family-owned beverage company that began in 2015. It produces hard cider and wine under the Queen Orchard brand, another branch of the 7Bev business, situated on a 65-acre farm, 12 miles from Ale & Cider House.

Toney Chay, general manager, makes the beverages and maintains the company’s facilities. Chay graduated from Oregon State University in construction engineering management and worked for a construction company before helping his parents open Ale & Cider House.

“I think I like figuring out problems or even just building things for the business,” Chay said. “Even figuring out how to do our cooling system for the cider, buying tanks, and working on drainage. I pretty much had to build out and hook up everything, and whatever we had to build, we had to do ourselves. I think the best part for me about this job is figuring out all these different things, which is pretty fun.”

Chay’s parents were originally in real estate development and owned the Ale & Cider House building, constructed in 1915, before the business began. Damage was eventually done to the interior, and in turn, they remodeled the building in 2018. After gaining interest from different breweries and cideries, they decided to develop their own business instead of renting it to other companies.

“My dad originally was going to import and export international beers, so we worked with people in Korea and also local breweries and cideries inside Portland,” Chay said. “But the margins were so tiny that it didn’t really work out for the smaller craft breweries. Cider is also not as popular as beer, but it’s kind of upcoming.”

Ale & Cider House hosts events throughout the year, such as seasonal painting nights, cookie decorating, bingo, movie nights, and more. Every Thursday, they have open mics, and on the weekends, they have live music. The business also hosts fundraisers for local organizations, including schools, Abby’s Closet, cancer treatment centers, and West Linn law enforcement.

“One of my favorites was helping one lady raise enough money to afford her cancer treatment,” Chay said. “All these people from all over the community came.”

Chay’s family built the interior architecture of the building, gathering inspiration from Williams Ale & Cider House, an English pub in London. The space is designed to have an open layout, allowing for conversations during opening hours and community events.

“I think all the city managers and everyone are regular customers here, and they know our family,” Chay said. “I think everybody loves coming here, so we know everybody, and it’s like a small community. And I grew up here too, and went to [West Linn High School], so I know how everything is small, and everybody knows each other. It’s great.”

For the holiday season, Chay and other employees pick up a Christmas tree from Holy Star Farm, a local family business, and set it up outside of Ale & Cider House’s main entrance. Using their equipment, they decorate the tree, and this year, on Nov. 29, they celebrated the seventh annual tree lighting ceremony.

“The tree is set up with all of our equipment and decorated too,” Chay said. “We don’t get any money for doing this, but I feel like it’s a huge thing we do for the community. I also think Ale & Cider House is unique because it’s such a big space—I don’t think anywhere in West Linn has a big space, especially for events. We also make our own ciders with real fruit and everything. I feel like a lot of people these days use really cheap ingredients and then try to make it as cheap as they can, but we’re more focused on quality that still tastes good. And that’s what we’re doing for our beers as well. I think that just adds to the whole experience.”

By February, Ale & Cider House will add two more food trucks to their lineup—Little Ladda Thai and Daily Dose of Aloha. They plan on expanding Queen Orchard’s brewery and cidery, as well as introducing different beverages, such as skilled spirits and coffee.

“We’re going to build out more, like facilities in the back for seating and stuff like that. For Queen Orchard, we had a soft opening in October, and that was pretty successful, so it will reopen in the summertime,” Chay said. “As for the food carts, I know there’s the Willamette Garage, but I feel like we have more room. I guess it’s just a little different experience.”

For more information on Ale & Cider House, visit their website. To learn about upcoming events and fundraisers, go to their Instagram page.

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Lauren Sexton

Holiday spirit. From the Fourth of July to Valentine's Day, Ale & Cider House decorates the interior, and occasionally the exterior, of the building for holidays. Currently, decorations such as ornaments, mistletoes, garlands, and colorful lights adorn the walls and tables. The decorations extend to the area dedicated to making Italian hard sodas, hard slushies, and hard frosés. “I think we started decorating because my mom just likes it,” Chay said. “My mom watches the Hallmark Channel almost every single day of her waking hours, and she wants to copy it.”