Blair Reynolds
The Portland bartender who solved the modern revival’s ingredient problem by founding BG Reynolds Syrups, then opened Hale Pele to demonstrate what serious ingredients could do behind a bar. Ran the integrated supply-plus-venue operation from 2008 through 2016, then stepped back from the bar to focus on the syrup company full-time. BG Reynolds is now his primary work; Hale Pele continues under co-owner Martin Cate.
The Pacific Northwest’s revival anchor.
Blair Reynolds is the Portland, Oregon bartender behind two of the modern exotic-cocktail revival’s most consequential Pacific Northwest operations: the syrup company that supplies a meaningful fraction of the country’s serious tiki bars, and the bar he opened in 2012 to demonstrate what those syrups could do. Between 2012 and 2016 the two ventures ran as a single integrated project—supply and venue, ingredient and execution, both controlled by the same person—a model that few other revival figures have attempted. In 2016 Blair stepped back from the bar to focus exclusively on the syrup company; Martin Cate of Smuggler’s Cove bought in as co-owner of Hale Pele the same year. BG Reynolds Syrups remains Blair’s primary operation today.
BG Reynolds Syrups
BG Reynolds Syrups started in the late 2000s as a small-batch operation, born from Blair’s frustration at the available commercial options for the syrups exotic cocktails actually need. Bottled falernum was thin and over-sweetened; commercial orgeat was almond-flavored sugar water; passion fruit syrup was mostly artificial coloring and corn syrup. The serious bartenders he respected—the Cates, Jeff Berry, the Tiki-Ti family—all made their own. The home bartender and the small regional bar didn’t have that option.
Blair started bottling his own, first for friends and a few other Portland bars, then for a slowly widening circle of revival operators, then commercially. By the mid-2010s BG Reynolds had become the de facto standard for serious exotic-cocktail syrup supply in the United States. The bottles show up at Smuggler’s Cove, Three Dots and a Dash, Hale Pele itself, and dozens of other revival-era bars across the country. For the home bartender ordering ingredients online, BG Reynolds is the workhorse first call.
Hale Pele
In 2012 Blair opened Hale Pele—House of Pele, the Hawaiian volcano goddess—on Northeast Broadway in Portland. The bar served two purposes. The obvious one: Portland needed a serious tiki bar, and the Pacific Northwest didn’t have one at the level the revival was establishing on the coasts. The less obvious one: the bar gave BG Reynolds Syrups a permanent demonstration space. Visitors who tasted a drink at Hale Pele and noticed the depth of the orgeat or the bite of the falernum could read the bottle behind the bar and order it shipped home that night.
Blair ran the bar through its first four years. By 2016 the syrup business had grown to the point where it needed his full attention, and the obvious move was to step back from day-to-day Hale Pele operations and hand the room to a partner who could run it at the level the program required. Martin Cate—who had been a longtime collaborator and who had been thinking about a Pacific Northwest extension of the Smuggler’s Cove approach—bought in as co-owner. Hale Pele continues to operate at its founding standard. The volcano still erupts on the hour. The BG Reynolds bottles are still behind the bar.
The integration
What made Blair’s founding-era operation distinctive wasn’t either business individually—there were other good craft syrup producers, and there were other serious revival-era tiki bars. It was the integration. The syrup company supplied the bar; the bar’s success validated the syrups; the same person controlled both ends of the quality chain. Most syrup companies don’t run their own bars, and most bars don’t run their own syrup companies. The integrated model was rare enough that it’s worth understanding as a deliberate choice rather than a coincidence—the supply problem and the venue problem were two faces of the same problem, and Blair solved both at once.
The 2016 hand-off changed the structure but kept the connection. Hale Pele still uses BG Reynolds throughout the program. The lineage is now distributed across two operators rather than concentrated in one—Blair on the supply side, the Cate-affiliated team on the bar side—but it’s still the same lineage.
What he made
A syrup company that supplies a meaningful fraction of serious American tiki bars and serious American home bartenders. A bar he founded that anchors the modern revival in the Pacific Northwest and continues under thoughtful co-ownership. And the cleanest single demonstration of how the revival actually works at ground level—someone who saw the ingredient shortfall, built the supply, then built the venue that proves the supply matters, then handed the venue to a partner once the supply side needed the full attention.
To go deeper
- Bar Hale Pele, Portland, Oregon. Volcano erupts hourly.
- Syrups BG Reynolds Syrups. Ships nationwide; the falernum and orgeat are the standard.
- Related Vernacular Falernum, Orgeat, Grenadine.