SEASIDE – I was overwhelmed by a Reuben.

During my first visit to Goose Hollow at the Cove, the Seaside outpost of the renowned southwest Portland watering hole, I was bested by a sandwich. Prodigious amounts of corned beef, sauerkraut and melted Swiss came layered between two slices of toasted dark rye.

True, it wasn’t the heftiest Reuben I’ve tackled. But Bud’s intensely rich Reuben sauce – named after Bud Clark, the former Portland mayor and colorful character who owns Portland’s Goose Hollow Inn – now that was my downfall. Blended with the corned beef and kraut, that creamy triple-rich thousand island-like sauce filled my tummy beyond capacity.

I needed to order a second glass of beer – water wasn’t adequate – to wash it all down.

Jason, Angela and Rachel Clark opened this new Goose Hollow scarcely more than a month ago, and the pub already is popular with everybody from cliquish surfers to gregarious seniors. The name derives from the tavern’s proximity to Seaside’s Cove area, and its location could barely be better, a couple blocks from the beach. Plus, the menu is extensive for a pub: 13 sandwiches, upwards of 10 appetizers, pizza, a fine array of draught beers, even two handfuls of reasonably priced wines by the glass.

In addition to the Reuben, the Goose’s grub rates anywhere from OK to excellent. Some of the meats – the first-rate corned beef, for one – are baked on premises, and the sauces are housemade. Starters such as substantial Dungeness crab or shrimp cocktails and slabs of garlic bread can be paired to make full meals.

We thought the meat and veggie pizzas trumped everything else on the menu. These stout, thick-crusted, cheesy beauts arrive slathered up to the edges with a sauce redolent of basil and oregano, and the $12 whole pie will easily feed two. “It’s fun to eat something so messy,” my dining companion opined, even though she eschewed a fork for a hands-on approach.

An open-faced bay shrimp sandwich is equally hearty but compromised by a kaiser roll that’s too wimpy to grill well (unlike the dark rye that envelops the Reuben) and isn’t up to the task of hosting the bounty of shrimp and melted cheddar. Sliced carrots and the kosher dill pickle that accompany every sandwich are nice touches, but the potato salad is garden-variety.

Still, to come here isn’t simply to savor the sandwiches (there’s a splendid roast beef and a meatless Reuben, too), the seafood cocktails, the chips and salsa, garlic bread or even the pizza. No, patronizing this place is to bask in the same type of convivial vibe that permeates the 38-year-old original Goose, where “hizonner” Bud Clark is said to have masterminded his successful entry into politics and otherwise held court accompanied by some of Portland’s most quirky characters.

Listen in on some recent Saturday evening buzz at the new Goose, which features a utilitarian rather than flashy interior, a patio and a few sidewalk tables that are ideal for watching Seaside’s Avenue U scene pass by. A mix of Gen-X’ers and 60-somethings seated at a communal table debate the finer points of child rearing, while outside on the patio a couple local gents play a game of chess. A trio of younger female scenesters have commandeered three of the four bar stools and chat up the barkeep. Two guys are smoking pipes and talking about who knows what at one of the small sidewalk tables.

We’re inside discussing Seaside’s restaurant scene, but can barely hear each other, or the Cannon Beacher who joins us, over the din. Coincidentally, our table guest has frequented the original Goose and introduces us to Bud’s friendly daughter Rachel, who’s on duty tonight.

It’s not that the Goose’s atmosphere is overly raucous or obtrusive; it’s usually just loud enough to render any attempt at intimate conversation frustrating, if not foolish. Harsh acoustics make the establishment less than the ideal venue to propose to your sweetie, but it’s a fine place to hang and linger over a craft beer, an inexpensive glass of vino, a Sierra Mist soda or even a cuppa joe.

Whether you’ll meet your match with the Reuben sandwich, like I did … well, just order one and find out how you fare.

Contact the Mouth at The Daily Astorian, P.O. Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103, phone (503) 325-3211 or e-mail mouth@dailyastorian.com

This popular sandwich fashioned with generous layers of corned beef, Swiss and sauerkraut has two origins. The most accepted version seems to be that Reuben Kay, an Omaha wholesale grocer, invented the sandwich during a poker game in 1955. That same year, Fern Snider, a business associate of one of Kay’s poker partners, entered the “Reuben” in the National Sandwich Contest and it won first prize. Renown followed.

The second story of the sandwich’s origin is that New York restaurateur Arnold Reuben invented the sandwich in 1914, when a leading lady of Charlie Chaplin’s asked Reuben to make her something special.

Afterwards she exclaimed: “Gee, Reuben, this is the best sandwich I ever ate; you ought to call it an Annette Seelos Special.” To which Reuben supposedly replied: “Like hell. I’ll call it a Reuben’s Special.”

Concerning the two possible origins, well-known food writer Craig Claiborne stated that the Reuben Kay story is the true origin of the Reuben sandwich, and that Arnold Reuben produced a forerunner. Almost serendipitously, the sandwich traces its roots to two men named Reuben.

(Sources: “Craig Claiborne’s The New York Times Food Encyclopedia” by Craig Claiborne; “Food Lover’s Companion” by Sharon Tyler Herbst)