Wyrd Leatherworks and Meadery located at 4515 SE 41st Ave., Portland, Ore., Saturday, May 29, 2021.

A pirate, an elf and a Viking walk into a bar.

No joke. That’s just a typical Saturday night at Wyrd Leather and Mead, which has opened a new medieval fantasy-themed tavern in SE Portland.

At Wyrd Hall, visitors can dine on Nordic-inspired stews, purchase drinking horns or handmade leather goods, and try Wyrd’s selection of meads made onsite with locally sourced honey.

Cosplay garb is encouraged but not required.

The place is something of a childhood dream for co-owners Travis Sigler and Tayler Toll, who have been best friends since middle school. They’ve also brought on a third business partner, Doug Wingate, who co-founded Mac Mead Hall in McMinnville.

“I grew up in high school reading medieval fantasy, Tolkien, and wishing that I could go to somewhere like that,” Sigler said. “I’ve been to New Zealand. I’ve been to all the ‘Lord of the Rings’ filming sites, and they’re amazing. But if you’re in Portland and you can’t get to Middle-earth, coming down out of the real world, walking into our door takes you into a whole other realm.”

The tavern is only the latest project of Wyrd Leather and Mead, a company that started in 2017 by selling leather goods and bottled mead in Milwaukie. Sigler, the leather worker, specializes in custom armor pieces for fantasy and medieval cosplay.

The business takes its name from the Web of Wyrd – pronounced “weird” – in Norse mythology. The web represents time, destiny and the interconnectedness of the past, present and future.

“So past – growing up with medieval fantasy, mead and friendship,” Sigler said. “In the present, we’re trying to create something that we hadn’t really done before, something that’s unique to Portland, and this is our future.”

Last fall, Wyrd was looking for a larger location to make its mead – a process that requires large vats and months of cool storage. Mead is not quite a wine, though Oregon regulates it like one. It’s made by fermenting honey and water rather than grapes and is considered the oldest alcoholic beverage developed by humans. Mead can range from sweet like a fruity wine to dry like a cider, and it can be infused with any number of fruits or herbs.

At first, Sigler and Toll were looking only at the commissary kitchen in the space that had been home to the colonial-themed Ye Olde Towne Crier restaurant for more than 40 years. But when they toured the building, they also asked to see the basement, which hadn’t been listed for lease.

In the stone fireplace, wood-paneled walls and log-lined bar of the restaurant’s basement, they saw potential. With just a few changes, it was the perfect space for a medieval tavern.

On a recent Saturday night, Sveinn Kjartansson sat in the corner of Wyrd Hall, drawing runes and sipping from his handmade drinking horn. Wyrd sells a number of products from local artisans, including Kjartansson’s drinking vessels made from cow and buffalo horns.

“I just like drinking from something that’s considered mine,” Kjartansson said. “It’s kind of like having your own personal mug.”

Dave Goodman, in full hobbit attire, posed in front of the fireplace with a long-stemmed churchwarden pipe, which he had retrofitted into a vape pen.

“This place is just amazing,” he said. “I love the look of it, the sound of it. It feels like I’m someplace else and someone else.”

Two men at a table played a trading card game. One couple played hnefatafl, a board game sometimes called Viking chess. A pair of pirates found a spot near the fire to sip their mead.

“You hear the cha-clink, cha-clink, cha-clink of chain mail,” Sigler said. “I love the ambiance.”

Weekdays, Wyrd Leather and Mead is open for retail sales of artisan goods and bottles of mead. During hall nights Friday through Sunday, you can sample Wyrd’s meads, along with other local meaderies’ wares, by the glass or by the flight. One popular choice is “Cast the Runes,” in which you allow the barkeep to pick your tasting flight.

Wyrd also offers a variety of non-alcoholic drinks and beers, and minors are welcome until 8 p.m.

The food menu is full of soups, stews and hearty charcuteries – boards of meat and cheese – the sort of fuel one might be looking for after returning from an epic quest.

While we remain in the “great plague,” as it’s referred to in the hall, seating is limited to four people per table. Plans to host organized Dungeons & Dragons game nights are on hold but likely to start soon. The hall does have above ground, outdoor patio seating, and offers all its food and drinks to go.

Whether you’re a cosplayer, a D&D lover, a fantasy novel fan, or just someone looking to try mead for the first time, Wyrd welcomes all in its hall.

“We’re Wyrd, and Portland is weird, so I think it’s going to be a pretty good place for anyone who falls into any of those categories,” Sigler said.