Paymaster Lounge was originally Moonshine Kitchen & Lounge in homage to the Red's Pure Old Panther Piss prohibition moonshine label. While no one objected to the cat's actions, a certain sister city to the South wanted the name moonshine all to themselves.

In an attempt to stay one step weirder than Portland, these Texans challenged us and all other moonshiners to a day in court. Like any good bootlegger, rather than face the law, we chose to revisit our own history, when the Pearl district was a series of warehouses and our building was the Paymaster Check Writers & Signers Swingline Business Machine Company. The old sign remains in place above our door.