ANDY NGO REPORTS: Portland business owner who promoted Antifa riots closes taproom, cites business decline in the city

A leftist Portland, Ore. business owner who advocated for the city's destruction during the Antifa and Black Lives Matter riots of 2020 and 2021 announced he is closing his taproom after suffering significant financial losses since that time.

Nat West, the owner of Reverend Nat's Hard Cider on Southeast 35th and Division Street, who identifies as he/him on social media, is permanently shuttering the doors to his taproom. The taproom's beverages are a former staple in the progressive city now struggling with surging crime, homicides and business closures following the 2020–21 riots.

The shuttering of West's taproom is ironic given his strong advocacy and promotion of property destruction and vandalism in Portland.

"Please smash all my windows if it will be a step toward change," West said in an Twitter (now X) post in April 2021, nearly a year after the deadly riots started in Portland. For more than 120 days straight in Portland, far-left extremists carried out acts of insurrection against the local and federal governments through firebombings, explosive attacks, looting, arson, gun violence and rampant property destruction.


Nat West owns Reverend Nat's Hard Cider in southeast Portland



The owner of Reverend Nat's Hard Cider repeatedly expressed support for far-left political violence in Portland, Ore. 

In response to an individual criticizing rioters for smashing up the Oregon Historical Society in October 2020 at an Antifa direct action, West suggested the museum deserved it.

"Just because you are doing a better job now than you've done in the past doesn't exclude you from a little bit of reckoning. Doesn't demand it either. But windows are windows," West wrote.

In March 2022, armed Indianapolis gunman Malik Muhammed was convicted for smashing up the museum and other businesses that night. He was also convicted of multiple charges of attempted murder, unlawful manufacture and possession of a destructive device, unlawful possession of a firearm and other felonies related to his involvement in weeks of rioting. Muhammed was sentenced to 10 years in prison in a sweetheart deal that merged his state and federal prison sentence. 



Nat West, owner of Reverend Nat's Hard Cider, appears to justify the violent attack on the Oregon Historical Society museum by a now-convicted attempted murderer and bomber 

During the height of the riots in August 2020, West used his social media to obfuscate on behalf of Antifa and to share flyers for riots. 

"Here is graphical proof that there is no antifa high command coordinating the resistance," West tweeted. No organization would ever dilute the message with five different event posters. We are concerned citizens of Portland, working to defund the police and lift up our Black neighbors." West then shared flyers for multiple violent direct actions where attendees are instructed to "wear black" and "mask up."

Nat West shared multiple flyers for riots

Supporters of Antifa often deny that an organizational structure exists in their affinity group. This is a propaganda tactic. However, 61 alleged members of an Antifa-linked affinity group in Georgia were revealed last week in a Fulton County indictment on RICO, domestic terrorism and money laundering charges. And in San Diego, alleged members of a southern California Antifa group will face trial on charges of felony violent conspiracy. Several members had been convicted last year.

West also revealed his extremist support for political violence in response to the Portland mayor. In reply to a video speech of Mayor Ted Wheeler denouncing the violent riots during a press conference in June 2020, West wrote: "Protests are effective when they cost money." After just six weeks of rioting in 2020, city officials estimated that downtown businesses alone suffered about $23 million in damages. A complete account of damages to the city throughout the entire duration of the riots has never been released.

Nat West signals his support for political violence

West's far-left extremism appears to run in the family. In 2021, he revealed that federal police officers had arrested his daughter Lillian Dorothy "Beck" West during a riot in 2020. He alleged she had a "permanent hearing injury" and thus had filed a lawsuit against the US government. The lawsuit was laughed out of court when a federal judge dismissed it in June 2022.

Portland violent Antifa activist John Hacker, who was a defendant in the Andy Ngo v. Rose City Antifa, et al. lawsuit, also filed a similar claim against the federal government, which was dismissed at the same time. Hacker was represented by attorney Michelle Burrows in his failed lawsuit. Burrows was one of the Antifa defense attorneys who said to jurors in Ngo's trial before deliberations: “I'm going to remember every one of your faces when you leave here."


Nat West's daughter filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government over an arrest at a riot. The case was thrown out of court in 2022.

Now, after just six months in its new southeast Portland location, West's Cider Taproom is closing down due to sustained financial losses from the last few years.

"We've done so many things and made thousands of ciders. We were successful in every way but financial," West told the Beervana Blog.

West continues to advertise his beverage consulting side business on his website for the rate of $350 per hour for white clients, and a "$0 to $250" per hour rate for "BIPOC majority-owned businesses."

Portland's beverage industry has several figures in it who are far-left extremists. Abram Goldman-Armstrong was a cider maker who owned Antifa pub Cider Riot. That pub shut down in 2019 following a violent riot and homicide outside the business. A report by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission into the pub found it obstructed and misled state investigators and did not preserve evidence. Goldman-Armstrong was never prosecuted.


Despite his business failures, Nat West continues to promote his beverage consulting business which operates on a racist pricing scheme

Portland is one of several cities experiencing an exodus of big and small businesses following the 2020 riots. Walmart closed all its Portland locations in March and a business association revealed last week that Nike's iconic community store will not reopen due to theft and public safety issues. Nike had asked Mayor Wheeler if it could pay for Portland Police to be security but the request was denied due to ongoing police staffing issues stemming from the 2020 riots. 

Portland's population has also suffered since 2020. According to Census data, the city lost the sixth-most number of people of any city in the US last year. The decline came after the city saw 15 straight years of growth.