“If you are driven to be as good a parent as you can be,
come here,” Graham says of the Oregon adoption process.
In the second half of 2014, two events occurred that
would change the course of Graham’s life. He lost his job
during Microsoft’s mass layoff of 18,000 employees and
his marriage ended, amicably. Graham and his ex-husband
now share custody.
In his former married and family life, Graham says, “I
didn’t step foot in downtown. I had no idea what was
going on in this town. It wasn’t until I was single that I
really knew there was no gay bar here.”
And thus Graham, who wasn’t fond of queer dating
and hook-up apps like Grindr and Scruff, embraced a new
mantra: “Gay taphouse.”
“So I’m at Studio One [Cafe] with my cousin,” he
recalls, laughing. “She comes back from the bathroom
and tosses Eugene Weekly on the table and it’s that cover
article.” The article “Home: The LGBT community needs
a space to call its own” came out Nov. 26.
Graham then tracked down John O’Malley, mentioned
in the article as founder of the monthly LGBTQA happy
hour event, Made in the U.S.A, at The Barn Light.
“I read what John had to say and found that we shared
a lot of the same culture shock,” Graham says. “What we
were both used to, it was very different in Eugene. I was
like, I need to talk to this guy and maybe there’s a meeting
of the minds.”
By March, Graham had convinced O’Malley to join
the venture as the venue’s events producer and marketing
director.
Meet the Lamb and the Wolf
Initially, Graham was looking to open a 6,000-square-
foot event space, but O’Malley steered him away from that
concept to something more manageable and affordable,
like a pub. Graham, who is financing the The Hammered
Lamb, didn’t want to go into debt. “I wanted to do it
without borrowing and let that decide everything,” he says.
After months of looking for a location and lining up
permits, a liquor license, insurance and vendors, Graham
says he and O’Malley have finally arrived at the “fun stuff.”
Pasquerelli Construction, the builders who worked on
other downtown spots The Barn Light and Sizzle Pie,
began remodeling the interior in April, leaving behind no
remnants of its former tenant, Lord Leebrick Theatre
Company, which housed its administrative offices there
from 2009 to 2012. The space has been vacant since.
“The interior design is essentially finalized,” O’Malley
says. Sitting next to Graham in a bar downtown, he
unrolls some tentative designs by GMA Architects — the
same firm that designed the interior of Tacovore in the
Whiteaker neigbhorhood. “It’s going to be big and cozy at
the same time.”
O’Malley points on the paper to a row of windows on
Broadway. They are replacing the permanently shut glass
panes with windows that open to the street, where there will
be sidewalk seating for the pub, serving lunch, dinner and
general pub fare throughout the day, seven days a week.
Both the pub and The Den will have a bar, and while
the two spaces are connected, they will also have separate
entrances, one to the pub on Broadway and an alley
entrance to The Den.
“We want it really to have a multipurpose quality to it
that doesn’t just exist on a nightlife identity,” O’Malley
says. Patrons “can be in the front cozy pub or they can go
back to The Den, where it’s dark and more exciting and
more modern.”
Touring the 2,770-square-foot site later that day,
Graham and O’Malley describe how the front bar will
divide the space horizontally, parallel to the street. In the
back half of the space, O’Malley points to the dressing-
room area, which will be next to the DJ booth, envisioned
as a window framed in lights overlooking the event space.
“We are anticipating doing some really fun neon work in
the space in a really exciting and modern way,” O’Malley
says. The event space will also be available to rent out.
Graham and O’Malley have tapped Brianna Bulski of
Little Arrow, a Eugene design studio, to do the branding
for the space. The brand identity for The Hammered Lamb
will be, you guessed it, a lamb, and a wolf for The Den
— a playful nod to one of Aesop’s fables.
City of Dreams
Early on in the planning, Graham and O’Malley
reached out to the city.
“I started doing research and I found out that Eugene
has a really great human rights initiative through the
city,” O’Malley says. “I thought it would be a great start,
especially because we’re working with the queer
community.”
O’Malley contacted Michael Kinnison, the program
manager for the city of Eugene’s Office of Human Rights
& Neighborhood Involvement, who in turn brought in
Nan Laurence, a senior planner for the city with a focus
on developing downtown. The four of them met in April
to discuss the new venture.
Laurence wanted them to know they had a buddy
downtown to ease them through the process, whether that
be guidance in acquiring an OLCC license or applying for
the city’s downtown loan fund.
“When you think about a high-functioning, attractive,
economically sustainable downtown, all these pieces have
to work together,” Laurence says of all the new businesses
convening in the urban core. “I think The Hammered
Lamb is bringing in a central piece.”
Laurence explains that downtown should be for
everyone. “The LGBT focus really speaks to inclusion,”
she says. The city’s “overall goal is to have everyone
come downtown on a regular basis. What’s not to love?”
The new venue, she says, will also draw students
downtown, helping bridge the town-and-gown divide.
COLIN GRAHAM WITH HIS GRANDMOTHER
MARDELLE BOLES AT THE BARN LIGHT
Graham and O’Malley also met with Mayor Kitty
Piercy and consulted with Sgt. Larry Crompton of the
Eugene Police Department, who gave them pointers for
The Hammered Lamb’s security system.
“One of the things I learned with nightlife in New
York is that the best approach to running a successful
nightclub is to be as transparent with the city as possible,”
says O’Malley, who moved to Eugene from New York last
summer. “If you open a dialogue with them and you
create an experience where they know they can come to
you and you can go to them, that creates a safe
environment.”
Graham nods in agreement. Later he adds, “I would
love to write something about my process for starting this
business up just simply to highlight Eugene as an
exemplary place to get what you need if you’re going it
alone and you want to start a business.”
It’s not only the city offering guidance. “It’s nothing
but a big collaboration of business down here,” Graham
says. “All we’re getting is support.”
Oregon Contemporary Theatre (formerly Lord
Leebrick Theatre Company) sits on the same block as The
Hammered Lamb, a block whose storefronts have been
slow to fill. OCT artistic director Craig Willis writes in
an email to EW that he is glad to see another empty space
occupied and looks forward to mutually supportive
relationships with neighbors.
Tobi Sovak, owner of Noisette Pastry Kitchen — a
block west of The Hammered Lamb location — says she’s
thrilled more business is coming to that stretch of
downtown.
“At first when I heard it was a bar, I was like, ‘We don’t
need another bar,’’ Sovak says. “But when I heard it was
a gay bar, I was like ‘Yeah, we need one!’ We need more
diversity downtown.’”
Safe Spaces
Graham, 46, never came out. “I was never in,” he says.
“I’m very fortunate with my family. I never for one
moment in my childhood faced any kind of oppression or
even a suggestion that being gay had negative
connotations.” He adds, “That’s why it was so shocking
when I did finally experience it.”
Growing up in L.A., the first exposure Graham had to
homophobia was through television and film. It wasn’t
until he was in his mid-20s and living in San Francisco
that he experienced it firsthand, changing his outlook
forever.
“It was actually quite a gay part of town,” Graham
recalls. He compares it to the scene in Boogie Nights when
Mark Wahlberg’s character is jumped by a group of guys
in a parking lot. “It was that kind of truckload of guys that
were chasing my partner and me. All of a sudden we
heard screeching of the tires and we didn’t hear a word
— we just heard the tires and we knew. We knew.”
They ran and managed to escape by turning down a one-
way street. “That was the closest I’d ever came, and that was
the first time I ever felt like San Francisco was even a scary
place to walk down the street holding a partner’s hand,” he
says. “From that point on, I’ve been careful.”
O’Malley, 31, who grew up in Washington, D.C., came
out at 16.
“My family was 100-percent accepting,” he says. “My
sister is queer identifying and my parents are amazing.
They have never once not supported me.”
O’Malley too has personally experienced homophobia
and hate speech in Eugene, in D.C. and even recalls a
confrontation in the birthplace of the gay rights movement
— New York’s Greenwich Village.
“That, right there, is the core of why safe spaces are
important,” O’Malley says. “You can walk in and feel
without a doubt that you will be comfortable.”
“And if you’re feeling uncomfortable, you will tell me
or tell someone who works there and they will do
something about it and they will fix,” Graham says of his
establishment. “The reason day one I was like, ‘I wish
there was a gay bar’ is because I wish there was a place I
knew I could walk into and I could be completely at ease
that if I wanted to interact with somebody that I didn’t
know, or flirt maybe, that I can do that reasonably without
fear of putting myself in danger.”
Our Community
In anticipation of The Hammered Lamb opening in
August, O’Malley is planning a series of pop-up events
including one to crowdsource what local brews to put on
tap at the bar.
“I want this community to tell me what to serve,”
Graham says.
O’Malley has also organized a photo campaign, “Our
Community,” which will feature portraits of the local
queer community as well as straight allies, including
images of Graham’s family, which will eventually hang in
the space. “No matter what sexuality you are, you will
enjoy this space,” O’Malley says.
Graham admits that he can’t help but think of legacy
and wanting his family to enjoy The Hammered Lamb
over the years.
“I’ve got kids,” Graham says. “For me, I’m trying to
create my future here with what to me is an amazing
business opportunity. It is staring me in the face. How can
I not take it?”
For more information and event updates, visit hammeredlambeugene.com.
eugeneweekly.com • May 14, 2015
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