Sandbar BBQ offers burgers, tacos, pulled pork, tri-tip and more. 

As the community of Sandy grows, so does its food scene. One of the newest culinary kids on the block is Sandbar BBQ, in the old Red Shed location at 39750 Highway 26.

Clint Melville bought the property in October 2022 and opened the Sandbar BBQ the last week of May.

Melville said: “The community seems to be embracing us so far.”

With a menu full of barbecue favorites and comfort food and a full bar, what’s not to embrace? (The Sandbar already has 27 reviews on Google and an overall 4.4 stars.)

“It’s been the longest three weeks, but it’s been good,” Melville explained. “We’ve been super happy. The reception has been above and beyond what our expectations were.”

While Sandbar is a new venture, it is not Melville’s first foray into the food scene. He opened his still-running food truck, Rip City Grill, in 2008, operating on Portland’s south waterfront for eight years before taking the business to a brick-and-mortar location from 2015-19.

“COVID kind of took us out (at the brick-and-mortar space),” Melville said. “After that I kind of went back to my roots with the food truck. I actually swore off ever doing a restaurant again. But, I’ve always loved that (former Red Shed) property, and I just somehow made this happen.”

Melville is optimistic about this new east Sandy eatery, and hopes it brings something that is needed and wanted by the community.

“I live in Oregon City, and Sandy I think is an underserved area for the amount of traffic that goes through here,” he explained. “There’s a market for what we’re doing.”

He’s also happy to return once again to some of his roots, but this time those are small-town roots.

“I’m originally from a small town and I like that vibe,” Melville said. “There’s definitely a sense of community here you don’t get in Portland or even Oregon City. I feel like the people really care about their community.”

Melville described the Sandbar menu as a “marriage of the things I’ve done in the past and things I’ve made along the way and haven’t served before.”

With Rip City Grill, which Melville still operates through the food truck to cater events, he made his tri-tip his “calling card.” That tri-tip now has a place on the Sandbar menu, alongside his new baby back ribs, which he said “are probably the best thing” they offer.

“A lot of our menu is food I’ve been wanting to cook but haven’t been able to do,” Melville explained. “But I also don’t want to get too far away from what I’ve been doing.”

On the menu at the moment, Melville’s personal favorite item is the chicken tacos. They also offer in-house-made sausage, including an al pastor sausage, and pride themselves on providing “fresh, bold flavors” with their barbecue.

To help wash down the barbecue, Sandbar also has a full bar, offering 29 taps of craft beers, nonalcoholic drinks and wines, as well as 10 specialty cocktails.

Melville said all of the ingredients for their drinks and food are high quality and sourced fairly locally: meat from Double R Ranch in Washington, produce from around Oregon, bread from Portland French Bakery and more.

“We are dedicated to serving the best possible food we can,” he explained. “We hope we can be a spot for people to come and feel at home.”

Current hours for Sandbar BBQ are 4-9 p.m. Thursday through Monday, though those have potential to change.

Check out sandbarbbq.com for more information and to view the menu.

Sandbar BBQ | @sandbarbbq

Location: 39750 Highway 26, Sandy

Website: sandbarbbq.com

Phone: 503-832-8246

Hours: 4-9 p.m. Thursday through Monday