2 weeks Ago
At Portland bottle club Man & Oak, sitting in the social area signals to other members that you’re open to conversation. Photo by Leslie Bridgers It was about 6 p.m.
on a Thursday, and on the second floor of a brick building at the corner of Oak and Free streets, two couples sat on leather couches drinking old-fashioneds. By the picture windows, three co-workers from Diversified Communications, across the street, enjoyed smoky mezcal margaritas, while, nearby, a man sitting alone sipped a glass of Penelope Barrel Strength bourbon as he looked at his phone. In the next room, friends and strangers were gathered around a table covered in bottles and glassware, sharing splashes of brown liquor and their takes on Mount Desert Island restaurants, grown children living at home and, of course, whiskey.
This is Man & Oak, after all, Portland’s only private bottle club. There are no bartenders here and no tips or tabs. Members pay a monthly fee for a locker, from $55 for the smallest size (with room for two to four liquor bottles) to $300 for a corporate master locker (which fits up to 12).
The club features a self-service bar area with glassware of all kinds, ice cubes of varying size, tools like stirrers and shakers, and an assortment of mixers, bitters, syrups and fresh citrus fruits. Man & Oak founder said he envisioned the club’s different clusters of furniture to act “like little living rooms.” Photo by Chris Campbell/Water’s Edge Media It’s a concept that came to Mike Meir during the COVID-19 pandemic, when interest in whiskey spiked, as more people sought out rare bottles and held tastings at their homes while bars were closed.
He envisioned the club replicating that experience outside of the home, with the separate clusters of furniture acting “like little living rooms,” he said. Meir had already been holding whiskey tastings as a side hustle that dovetailed with his day job as a salesman for the wholesale side of Portland liquor store RSVP Discount Beverage. It was there, at the register, that I wrote my name on a piece of paper and dropped it in a bowl, entering a contest for a three-month Man & Oak membership giveaway.
In January, I found out I won. I didn’t quite believe it when I got the email. Was this a scam? Did no one else enter? Did everyone win? After accepting that I actually may have been the single person selected for this prize, I set up a time to meet Meir there, so I could get a fob to enter the building, the key to my locker and the rundown of how it all works.
The first surprise for me was that the club is not open on weekends, only from 3-11 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.
Meir said, when it first opened in 2022 , it had Saturday hours, but they were slow. Now, he tries to rent out the space for private events during that time and, if nothing gets scheduled, holds “bonus Saturdays” for members. Although it only ever took me 10 minutes, door to door, to get there from home (and was surprisingly easy to park, either right on Oak Street or nearby on Spring), I have a mental block about going downtown on weeknights that I knew would limit my use.
Another wrinkle is that memberships are only for one person, so anyone you bring is subject to a $15 guest fee ($5 during happy hour). Not equipped with the confidence to hang out there alone or strike up conversations with strangers, I realized quickly that this giveaway was going to cost me. And lastly, for people like me who prefer a cocktail over straight liquor, the mixers provided are mostly limited to plain-flavored bubbles, making my default drink a vodka soda with lime, which doesn’t exactly inspire keeping hard pants on and forgoing the comfort of home.
A sitting area at Man & Oak, Portland’s only private bottle club. Photo by Chris Campbell/Water’s Edge Media On the other hand, this place is much more comfortable than my home, with plush furniture and a sophisticated feel that’s free of any stuffiness — a credit to Meir who, typically in a backwards baseball cap and jeans, sets the tone. His years in sales and in hospitality before that shine through in his ease at chatting with anyone and his effortless way of making the rounds whenever he’s there.
Although I only managed to overcome my various holdups and get to the club a handful of times over my three-month membership, because it was free for me, I didn’t have the motivation to make it worth my money, but I can see how others would. Meir’s pitch is that if you spend $15 on four drinks out a month, you’re already breaking even on a small locker — though that doesn’t account for whatever you spend on your liquor. Liquor locker rentals start at a monthly fee of $55.
Photo by Chris Campbell/Water’s Edge Media However, you’re also bound to get a lot of free samples while you’re there — not from the club but from fellow members, many of whom join because they want to share their appreciation for premium spirits. There are other reasons, too. It’s a convenient spot to go after work, especially if your office is downtown.
You can have a drink there after dinner or before a show without worrying about getting a seat or settling up. It can be a place to network, bring clients, meet up with friends and make new ones. Considering that, now three years in, its 330 lockers are about 90% full, members clearly have found occasion to keep coming, and getting an inside look into why was the real prize for me.
Bar Guide: Take a peek into Portland’s private bottle club We believe it’s important to offer commenting on certain stories as a benefit to our readers. At its best, our comments sections can be a productive platform for readers to engage with our journalism, offer thoughts on coverage and issues, and drive conversation in a respectful, solutions-based way. It’s a form of open discourse that can be useful to our community, public officials, journalists and others.
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