Downtown’s Shift Drinks Unleashes Free Sunday Dinners

Shift Drinks is feeding you for free. Every Sunday starting at 7 p.m., it’ll serve free dinner until the food runs out. Co-owner Anthony Garcia tells Eater his wife and Shift Drink chef Annie Garcia will prepare roughly 40 meals, and Sunday dinner will run every other week through the end of the year.

Sound crazy? Maybe, but this dedication to the Portland community has been Shift Drinks’ m.o. since opening in May 2015. It quickly staked its claim as the go-to bar downtown for the hospitality industry’s legions, and its team has kinda become guardian angels to the Portland bar scene, consulting and otherwise helping others make their way.

Here’s why chef Annie says she’s starting the dinners. It’s near poetic:

“The idea for Sunday Suppers came about well before the events of last week, but since then, has certainly made the vision more meaningful. Yes, we’re a bar, but our intention has always been to serve food that’s wholesome, satisfying, unintimidating, and just plain makes you feel good. Sort of like those home-cooked meals, if your mom was a good cook, or the ones you had at your friend’s house, if not.

“I am one of those lucky individuals of whom both parents were good cooks, and my favorite day was Sunday, when my dad pulled out all the stops to make a memorable afternoon meal. The day was often lazy, with some kind of sports game in the background and the washer/dryer machines going, to get ready for the start of another week, but we were together, happy, and bound together by a Sunday ritual that we looked forward to and probably pulled us through some tough weeks, as we individually navigated our disparate worlds.

“These are memories I have that I will always look fondly on, evoking feelings of love and nostalgia for my family despite our differences, distances, and years passed. At the risk of sounding completely hokey, I will say that subconsciously, a part of me entered the hospitality field professionally to bring these moments to others. More likely it is a way for me to selfishly revisit them.

“Either way, Sunday Suppers at Shift Drinks were born out of a desire to utilize our space to somehow recreate that same environment of being truly cared for, humbly doing our part to improve this tiny fraction of the world, and hopefully bolster our guests/supporters/peers for the rest of the week — we all need it. Thank you, and see you Sunday.”