“It’s not just a bookstore or taproom; it’s a place to share words and ideas.” Early next year, Eugene will be home to its first bookstore-taproom. Hodgepodge Books & Taps is the dream of Sophie and Stuart Raymond, two book and beer lovers who decided to take the leap into business. While the interior of the building is under renovation, the Raymonds have been busy building a presence in the community. This Saturday, November 16th, Arable Brewing (510 Conger St.) will host Hodgepodge for one of the coolest pop-up events ever.

“We’re calling it Mini Book Deal,” says Sophie. From 5-8pm, local authors have 90 seconds to pitch their book to the voting audience (ballot available with the purchase of a beverage). The winner gets a pretty clutch prize: “8 copies of their book purchased. Their book on our webstore. And once we open, for 6 months we will display the winner’s book faced-out on a display table and in the local author section.” In the book world, having a title faced out on a shelf is akin to having a display station at a supermarket. More info here.

There are others like Hodgepodge scattered about the country; Spotty Dog Books & Ale in New York City, Busboys and Poets in DC, The Wild Detectives in Dallas. And as the beer industry stumbles into a new cultural era, Hodgepodge is positioned to set an example for future taprooms by thoughtfully integrating beer into its conceptual space.

Sophie is the big reader of the two. Stuart says he is a slow reader. Beerstone can identify with that. They came to Eugene in 2021 for graduate programs. Sophie spent some time working at Tsunami Books; she’d also worked for 54° 40′ Brewing in Washougal, WA. The first inkling of Hodgepodge came during a trip to Scotland. Like good book lovers do, the local bookshops were destinations. “We went to a really cool old bookstore, and thought it’d be sick if it had a pub in it too,” says Stuart.

“We don’t have anything in Eugene that has that vibe,” says Stuart.

Hodgepodge, located in downtown Eugene at 158 E. 14th Ave, will occupy a two-story, 120-year-old house. Once renovations are complete in early 2025, the shelves and taps will take up the ground floor, and the upstairs will have lounge areas and a small kitchen serving English-style hand pies. They’d hoped to open in 2024, but city permitting and negotiations between Agate Architecture and Pasquarelli Construction took longer than expected. The Raymonds are happy with the work done thus far, and are itching to move into the space.

Eugene has what Sophie calls a “literary ecosystem.” They are proud and excited to be bringing their unique vision to a city with eleven independent booksellers. While a couple shops have popped up in recent years, most of Eugene’s bookstores have been around for decades. Each one has quirks and specialties by dint of its owner, staff, and clientele; a good indie bookstore has its own persona, as if it was molded and brought to life.

Beyond the beer (which we will return to forthwith), Hodgepodge will be as a general bookstore (i.e. not specializing in a particular genre) that focuses on translated works. Stuart explains their rationale: “We [Americans] read books that were written in English, but there’s so many books written in different voices and perspectives. We want to expand people’s literary world by showing them books from all these other great places.”

(I’ll note here that I’m currently reading just such a book: The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas by Joachim Maria Machado de Assis. Stuart is right: there are many great books written in other languages. This is one.)

Just as literature spans the universe of human thought and emotion, so beer spans the senses of our dear homo sapiens. And what is one’s palate without a little bias?

Stuart, who got his start as a beer lover in Prague – a wonderful place to develop a love of beer – relishes lighter fare; lagers and English ales, for example, “so you can sit and have two or three and not be hammered. But we’ll still have IPA and things like that. We’re trying to pick out elements of a British pub in terms of style and a place where people congregate.” There will be around a dozen taps to choose from.

The congregation and conversation aspect of beer is something Sophie believes extends to reading, too. “People think reading is introverted, but it’s social. Everyone reads, or they tell stories. Since the beginning of time we’ve been telling stories.” And just try sitting at a pub without hearing a story.

The Mini Book Club event is a way to introduce Eugene to Hodgepodge’s first chapter. Eugene is both a beer city and a book city – ¿Por qué no los dos?

For its part, Arable Brewing has some of the most diverse events of any brewery in town; a recent fashion show brought in a new-to-them crowd, and music nights offer a showcase for Eugene’s terrific jazz musicians. They’re getting the concept, too: bring people in for a purpose; it’s OK for good beer to be the accompanist rather than the soloist. We’ll enjoy it either way.

Hodgepodge Books & Taps
158 E. 14th Ave.
Eugene, OR 97401
booksandtaps.com