The REC Room is a colorful community events space located in the back of Hammer + Jacks. Dedicated to inspiring kids’ love of Reading, Entertainment and Craft, we host music shows, story times, author visits, creative workshops, and more!

Get updated about new events via our newsletter, Eventbrite, or @rec_room_pdx.

About the REC Room

We love toys but can we tell you a secret? Our favorite thing to do is create spaces for families to sing, dance, laugh, learn, and play with their neighbors! That's why we started the REC Room!

The REC Room is a 600 sq ft community space in the back of Hammer and Jacks. We host music shows, story times, puppet shows, creative workshops, and more on our GIANT TV STAGE! 

We strive to offer events that are accessible to all! Our events are typically by-donation with all proceeds going to the performer. No family will be turned away for lack of donation.

Health and Safety

Our store welcomes many young and high-risk visitors, so we built this space with COVID in mind!

To keep our most vulnerable visitors safe, H+J limits event capacity and highly recommends all visitors 5+ to wear masks in all areas of the store and event spaces.

We clean all spaces regularly and have an AirScrubber attached directly to our HVAC system ductwork to reduce viruses, bacteria, and other contaminants in the ambient air and on surfaces. (This patented air purification technology has been proven to reduce up to 99.9% of many common airborne and surface contaminants!) 🦠🚫👎

Staff and event hosts are vaccinated and we encourage all performers to test before any shows. Performers and workshop hosts are requested to wear masks if they will be interacting up-close with participants. We limit capacity for all events (max 30) and often book by bench (max 5 butts per bench) to allow groups to have their own bubbles.

We reserve the right to update these policies independent of local ordinance. We are careful in order to protect our community and our store team. Thank you for helping us keep our friends safe! ❤️🧡💛💚💙

Private Events

We offer private rentals for parties, celebrations, and meetups in The Happy Place, our indoor playroom. 🙂🙂🙂

The REC Room area is not currently offered for private rentals, but if you have an idea you'd like to bring to the space, please send us an email.!

Info for Performers

We love to work with awesome people of all kinds to offer affordable and donation-based shows for kids in Portland. If you're interested in performing, teaching, or sharing, we want to meet you. 🥳

Setup: Our space offers a lot of flexibility for different types of events. Performances can take place inside the fully-enclosed TV (screen 6x7, stage 6x8) or on the stage in front of the TV (3x8). (There's even a private green room behind the stage for storage and hiding!) There are 6 built-in benches, each with their own fold-down table (attached to the wall) that can be used for interactive events like workshops.

Materials: We are typically happy to provide supplies and materials for events—we just need a list of what you need! You are not limited to using products from our shop, but for sourcing and cost, it's preferred when possible. Musicians are welcome to use our amp and mic, bring their own, or go acoustic. (We also have a vintage piano and toy instruments available to you!)

Payment: We strive to strike a good balance between offering events that are accessible to all families and paying performers a living wage. We typically do suggested-donation events with all proceeds going to the performer. We also offer a paid ticket option with a small sliding scale fee to the house for maintenance. If you prefer a flat fee or other payment structure, we're all ears!

Expectations: We ask everyone who uses our space to both arrive with ample time to set up and to stick around afterwards to help us tidy any leftover materials. We will advertise your show on our Instagram and Facebook pages and ask that you please do the same! We reserve the right to request professional references.

COVID-19: Our store welcomes many young and high-risk visitors, so we maintain careful policies to protect our community and our store team:

• We highly recommend all visitors 5+ to wear masks in all areas of the store and event spaces.
• Event hosts don’t need to wear masks if they’re staying within the TV, but are asked to wear them if they'll be interacting up-close with the audience/activity participants.
• Store staff and event hosts must be fully vaccinated and boosted. We reserve the right to request vaccine status and we encourage all performers to test before any shows.
• We limit capacity for all events (max 30) and often book by bench (max 5 butts) to allow groups to have their own bubbles. If you'd like to invite a larger audience, we're all for booking double-shows (e.g. 10am + 11am)!

If all of that sounds good to you, please email us at events (at) hammerandjacks.com or click the big purple button below to get in touch! We can't wait to meet you.