There it sits, as improbable as a flannel-clad lumberjack at a tech start-up mixer: a weathered little shanty from the 1920s, tucked along NW Front Avenue in Portland, surrounded by gleaming high-rises, glass façades, and the kind of redevelopment that laughs in the face of wood-frame modesty. That weathered old building is the home of Dockside Saloon and Restaurant, a place that has quietly stacked up more stories than a dozen condos across the street. Let’s pull up a stool, drink in the atmosphere, and dig into its wild ride.
Good Old Bones: Where Dockside Came From
By our best reckoning, the building that now houses the Dockside was built around 1925. Back then, this waterfront stretch of Portland was all gritty industry: longshoremen, rail workers, cargo gangs, and a port-city hum that didn’t mind a little grime or a lot of early-morning bacon. The building even served, at one point, as a commissary for train workers.
Over the years, it changed names. “Dot’s Sternwheeler” was one earlier iteration, and later “What’s Up Doc” before the Dockside opened. Through all of this, the building endured: the rise and fall of the industrial riverfront, warehouses converted into lofts, cranes shifting to condos – yet the little shack stood firm. A stubborn relic. According to Willamette Week: “the development [The Field Office] will horseshoe around the 90-year-old building … as if the Dockside had a forcefield around it.”
It’s poetic, really. The old timber exterior, darkened by decades of Portland weather, flanked by shinier newcomers. If those new towers could talk, they'd whisper envy.
Enter the Dumpster, Enter the Drama
For those of you who may have been living under a rock, or just weren't born yet, here's the sordid rundown:
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In January 1994, figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was brutally attacked after a practice session at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit, her leg struck with a police baton in an attempt to keep her from competing. Investigators soon discovered the assault had been orchestrated by associates of fellow skater Tonya Harding’s ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly. The plot, equal parts tragic and absurd, dominated headlines, turning the world of Olympic figure skating into a media circus. Kerrigan recovered in time to win silver at the Winter Olympics, while Harding was later stripped of her U.S. title and banned from the sport, cementing one of the most notorious scandals in sports history.
Now let’s lean in for the juicy bit. There are restaurants that earn a reputation for their brunch. Then there’s Dockside: a breakfast heavy-metal legend because of what landed in its dumpster (its brunch is actually fantastic...more on that later). On January 30, 1994, then-owner Kathy Peterson emptied the dumpster behind the restaurant and discovered several trash bags that shouldn’t have been there. In them: a check stub made out to Nancy Kerrigan’s rival, Tonya Harding; an envelope with Kerrigan’s practice schedule from her skating rink; handwriting later identified as Harding’s. Boom.
“That’s really all it boils down to,” Peterson told KOIN in 2017, “if other people put garbage in my dumpster and I see that it’s a different bag or whatever, I go through it and find out who you are. There were bags and bags and bags of someone else’s trash. It wasn’t the bags we use.”
What followed: the dumpster-find verbiage became evidence in what would be one of sports’ most notorious scandals. The FBI got pulled in. The press swarmed. The humble Dockside found itself center stage in a national headline.
Peterson later told Willamette Week she had no idea why the bags wound up there: “It could have just been someone saw a window of opportunity and thought, ‘Maybe I’ll save a couple dollars by not going to the dump.’ Big mistake.”
And the restaurant menu doesn’t shy away: “Our real claim to fame was the finding of the Tonya Harding garbage…” it reads. Dockside breakfasts come with a side of history, intrigue, and a dumpster that refused to stay quiet.
Breakfast That Could Heal a Hangover or a Broken Knee
Don't come to Dockside for the scandal. Stay for the hash browns, which some have lauded as "the best they've ever had". CLUB sandwich, anyone? We'll see ourselves out.
The Grilled Ribeye Steak & Eggs is the kind of plate that could power a longshoreman through a 12-hour shift or a hungover journalist through a Sunday morning deadline. Eggs any way you want them, a juicy 8-oz Angus steak, and golden hash browns fried to that impossible state between crunchy and soft. It’s greasy perfection, in the best way.
The corned beef hash deserves its own chapter. It’s chunky, smoky, and actually made in-house (none of that canned mystery meat you’ll find elsewhere). Top it with a couple of over-medium eggs, and you’ve got a dish that could make a food critic weep quietly into their coffee.
Speaking of coffee, it’s bottomless and old-school strong. The kind of cup that could stand up and argue with you if you added too much cream. Pair it with a strawberry and whipped cream-topped loaded Belgian waffle or a stack of fluffy pancakes, and you’ll understand why this place still packs in regulars who’ve been coming here since before Pearl District was a thing.
If you linger past breakfast, the Cowboy Burger is a local legend in its own right: a thick, juicy SRF Wagyu patty cooked on a flat-top that’s seasoned by decades of sizzling bacon. It comes with melted cheddar, BBQ sauce, crispy onions, lettuce, and tomato. Two bucks extra for a side of fries that somehow taste better after you dip them in ranch. For something old-school, grab the Patty Melt. Buttery rye bread, grilled onions, and cheese melted to that perfect, gooey sweet spot.
The New England clam chowder makes a strong case for Portland’s most comforting bowl, creamy, peppery, and packed with tender clams, best eaten on a chilly autumn PDX afternoon. Use it as an appetizer to the crowd-favorite French dip, done right with "horsey sauce" and umami au jus.
We hear that Dockside also serves up pretty amazing Bloody Marys and giant mimosas to boot; the perfect accompaniments to a lazy weekend brunch.
The Dockside Saloon Bottom Line
So here’s your scene: a little 1920s railroad-era building that refused to vanish, surrounded by glass towers. Within its modest walls, a breakfast crowd shares tables with regulars who know the hash browns and biscuits & gravy routine. Out back, a garbage bin once held one of the wildest trash-to-trial stories of the ’90s, proving that sometimes, history isn’t made in grand halls but behind a steel dumpster.
If you’re in Portland and you want more than just “nice brunch,” you’ll find it here. The food’s honest, the story is rich, and the vibe is one part working-class, one part sunset-on-the-river, one part “yes, we found Tonya Harding’s trash.” That’s a mouthful. Might as well pair it with a big plate of breakfast.
All The Dockside Saloon Info
Address: 2047 NW Front Ave, Portland, OR 97209
Phone: 503-241-6433
Hours: Sun-Wed, 7 AM–9 PM, Fri and Sat, 7 AM–10 PM
Web and Menu: docksidesaloon.com
