photo/Jessie Banhazl
Erin Abraham (a.k.a. Kitty Caboose), Lily Abraham-Jellis
Ages: 40, 8
Homestate: Vermont
Bar of choice: Austin Street Brewery, Fox St.
Drinks of choice: Double IPAs, Honest Kids Goodness Grapeness Grape Fruit Juice
Austin Street Brewery opened its first tasting room 10 years ago on Industrial Way, out in Portland’s Riverton neighborhood, and it was much like the other craft beer tasting rooms clustered there: a modestly sized, lightly decorated drinking space sectioned off from the cold and noisy brewing operation. When they opened a second brewing location and tasting room a few years later on Fox Street, amid another craft beer cluster in East Bayside, the atmosphere was distinctly different: open, airy, with tall floor-to-ceiling windows reminiscent of a greenhouse and large, (very) real ferns soaking up the sunlight.
This attractive venue, which also hosts music and events, drew Erin Abraham and her daughter Lily there a few years ago. Now they’re regulars.
What keeps you coming back to Austin Street?
Erin: I love the vibe here. It’s always been such a warm, inviting space. It’s the place we go when we want to relax. We bring crafts here a lot. We’ll pick a craft and pack it up in a bag and come here, and Lily gets a juice box and I get a beer. It’s a nice, big, sunny space, even in the winter, and we’ve been coming here for several years. It’s family-friendly, and they always make Lily feel special. She goes up to the bar and they ask, “What kind of juice box do you want today?” She’s a regular!
What do you do for work?
Erin: I run a four-bedroom bed-and-breakfast. My grandmother owned a bed-and-breakfast when my mom was a kid, and I always heard stories about it. I thought you had to have a ton of money and buy a big house and turn it into a bed-and-breakfast, but it was always something I wanted to do. When I moved to Portland, I was running a cleaning business, and I was looking for cleaning jobs and found an assistant innkeeper position at this bed-and-breakfast by accident. I got the job and then slowly worked my way up to just being the innkeeper.
I begged the owner to sell it to me, so we’re buying it. We live on the third floor, and it’s a weird, weird life, but it’s cool. I feel really lucky because I don’t think there’s any other way we could afford to stay in Portland, and we love it here.
What sort of guests does the inn attract?
Erin: We’ve had people from literally all over the world, but a lot of the really far-reaching travelers visit in the summer. In the winter, it’s a lot more people from New England or northern states that are already used to snow, but they still want to come here and eat and drink.
Lily, do you ever help out at the inn?
Lily: Sometimes on weekends, I like to help clean the rooms and the bathrooms. I also know how to cook some French toast, pancakes, and a lot of other things. I want to learn how to make Eggs Benedict real bad.
What else do you two get up to?
Erin: Well, we flew to Paris to see Taylor Swift in the spring. We got an entire three days in Paris for the price of one [concert] ticket in the U.S., which is ridiculous, but it was amazing.
Lily: Oh my god. It felt like we were just sleeping in our own beds and just dreaming about it like it was not true!
Erin, we heard you’re also a burlesque performer. Can you tell us more about that?
Erin: When I first moved here about ten years ago, I met my friend Caitlin, whose burlesque name is Moxie Sazerac, and she asked me if I had ever thought about doing burlesque. We started a troupe together called Port City Peep Show. We pull in performers from the community, and it’s grown so much since then, as there’s so many people out there doing it now.
We were so excited when they wanted us to perform here at Austin Street. We just kind of found our niche doing what we love, performing here. You’re immersed in the crowd. Everybody’s real chill and friendly and respectful, and we just have this quirky, weird burlesque and variety show, and it’s different every time. [This tasting room] seems to be the best fit for it, because we are not a traditional troupe. There’s not a stage, we’re on the same level as the crowd, it’s not glitzy and glamorous. The crowd is also different every time, but I feel like the crowd at Austin Street really matches us. It’s kind of this contrast of us walking around half-dressed in sparkly stuff while people are sitting here at these picnic tables drinking beer.
Lily, do you want to perform too?
Lily: Yeah. I’m interested in someday doing burlesque like her. But I really just like dancing. I just like to do my own thing. I don’t even like practice, I just wing it.
Erin: You can tell that she grew up around burlesque.
Erin, how did you get into performing?
I did theater in high school. I went to school for theatrical design. I do a lot of sewing also, and I found burlesque to be the perfect combination, because you can create your own costume, you can pick your own song. I get to choreograph, and it’s all up to me. I can portray anything I want to. It fulfills so many things for me.
I’ve done some really goofy, light-hearted performances, and then some really heavy, emotional performances. I lost my brother a year and a half ago, and I did a performance where I put on all of his clothes until I was him and handed out cards with his picture and a suicide prevention line. It was a very emotional piece, but it was also a really great way to process for me. I find performing to be healing.
Lily, what do you want people to know about Austin Street?
Lily: They make really good beers here.
Erin: Beers that you’ve never had!
Lily: Come on, Mama, my twenty-first birthday is gonna be real fun. I’m already planning it. For now, I’ll just knock myself out with some “drunk on life” stuff.
Erin, a.k.a. Kitty Caboose, and her Port City Peep Show troupe perform “Mental Health for the Holidays” on Nov. 30 at Après (148 Anderson St., Portland) to benefit Samaritans for Suicide Prevention.
