Hi there-I received awesome restaurant recs fro Chowhounders. My last request (I think : ) is if you could recommend one favorite brewery within the city to grab a beer, which one would it be? If it matters-4 ladies in their 30s...really eager to check out local drink/food scene but not with a lot of time. So we'd like to make sure we hit at least 1 brewery. Thank you!!
Brewery: Baerlic (we were there for the second time on Monday; nice room, tasty beer, popcorn and nuts only)
Taproom: Imperial or Civic Taproom (first has a good bottle shop as well as lots of interesting taps on a foodie street -- we were there on Tuesday; the second has six beers, six ciders and six wines on tap; no food and nothing that great nearby to bring in; went in May)
Brew pub: Loyal Legion (99 local taps including ciders and meads; surprisingly good bar eats in a foodie neighbourhood; sort of a new take on a "local"; tips are included in the cost of the goods served)
Loyal Legion might be your best bet to cover all your bases. We were there at happy hour on Saturday with a group of five and snagged a nice spot in a "snug" sharing but far enough away from another group. You can get samplers of everything which is a fun way to try a lot of brews in a short time without getting blotto (sampler availability is fairly widespread in Portland; worth asking if you don't see them listed; usually 4 oz for $2). We got ten.
Good luck and have fun!
Brewery: Tugboat (711 SW Ankeny St) -- on an alley of a street off SW Broadway. Very small place...enough room for about 50 people. Specializes in British style strong ales. Next door is Santeria -- one of the better practitioners of TexMex in Portland. Both Tugboat and Santeria share the building with Mary's Club -- a strip club so that's your location marker... Everyone in Portland knows where Mary's Club is.
My 2nd choices would be Bridgeport (1313 NW Marshall Street, at the north end of the Pearl District) or Widmer Bros. (829 N. Russell St at N. Interstate). Both are comfy rooms with good beer. Widmer Bros has perhaps the more interesting selection to me right now. Both serve food but I think Bridgeport's is a bit better...but neither's food is anything to get worked up about. Widmer specializes in darker, heavier beer in their taproom (try the Alt Bier or the barleywine). Bridgeport tends to be lighter and hoppier (if they have any Summer Squeeze on tap try that -- light and citrusy).
Tugboat, Bridgeport and Widmer are accessible easily via the MAX or the Streetcar so you don't have to drive.
I like Cascade Barrelhouse (939 SE Belmont St). Cascade specializes in sour beer so that would probably be different for you. The food is kinda meh but I think the beer is great -- if a little spendy. greyelf is not as enthusiastic about Cascade as I am...still Cascade is about the only purveyor of sour beer in Portland. Cascade is right up SE Belmont (1.5 blocks) from Green Dragon.
Taproom: The Civic Taproom (SW 19th & Burnside -- near Providence Park). The people that run this place are fermentation fanatics and are knowledgeable and friendly. greyelf was a bit mistaken...the Civic has 22 taps -- 12 dedicated to beer, 6 to cider and 4 to wine. The selection changes often. The Civic is near Providence Park so the MAX is a viable transportation mode. No food. I like the taco place in the breezeway between the Civic Condos and the Morrison Apts directly behind Civic Taproom (can't bring the food in though).
2nd choice would be Baileys (213 SW Broadway) -- across SW Ankeny from Tugboat Brewing (in case Tugboat is crowded). 25 rotating taps with a few dedicated to cider. The selection changes often. No food. Friendly crowd.
3rd choice would be Green Dragon (928 SE 9th Ave) -- this is probably craft beer nirvana. It's a home brewer hangout so if you're interested in shop talk, this is your place. It seems to specialize in very hoppy beer (I have to be in the mood for it). Serves food -- standard pub fare...again nothing great. Green Dragon and Cascade are driving destinations so you need to be responsible about that.
Imperial Bottle Shop & Taproom (3090 SE Division St) is also a good choice. It's smack dab in a very foodie section of town so there are lots of restaurants to choose from if you want to eat after you're done hitting the bottle (Bollywood Theatre, Pok Pok, Whiskey Soda Lounge, Sen Yai, Roe, Ava Gene's, etc.). This is a driving destination. You'll have to park on the street -- probably on one of the numbered side streets off SE Division.
As greyelf mentions, Loyal Legion would probably be a good choice as well but I've not been there. One of these days...the eternal conundrum of a Portlander...
-- sw
Thanks for the correction on Civic's taps -- I thought there were more beers when we went but that's what my obviously wrong notes said, doh.
I almost mentioned Bailey's because they have such a great list and their beer is so reasonable but the room is, shall we say charitably, basic and I thought perhaps not ideal for the OP. I think you can bring eats in from Santeria there as well.
We've had nicer sours at random breweries around town, having found Cascade's offerings a bit watery overall. Agree their food was meh but it's been a couple of years.
Will have to check out Tugboat next trip, since the SO was born a Brit :-).
Well, I know what you mean about Cascade...some of them ARE watery. IMHO some of them are very good. However, it's the only place in Stumptown that specializes in sour beer. The one that Cascade had at the Brewer's Festival this year was very good but I've never seen it in their taproom.
Double Mountain Kriek (Hood River, OR) is easily the best sour I've ever had. Buoy Beer (Astoria, OR) put out a (mildly) salty/sour Gose that I had a few times this summer and at their taproom when I was there in September. It was pretty light and pretty low alcohol so you could drink a lot of it.
Buoy Beer makes a varied product line that is consistently good. Civic carries their stuff a lot. The three of us who live in my building who like beer (the other two are far more expert about it than me), have voted Buoy our favorite Oregon brewery for the moment.
You and Mr Grey should take a trip to Astoria to go there. It's in a converted warehouse at 8th Ave & the (Columbia) riverfront. Nice room (EXTREMELY CROWDED in the summer though), friendly staff, good beer, great location with a great view of the mouth of the Columbia. I think the food is pretty good too -- esp. the fresh shellfish.
Ft. George (Astoria) holds their "Festival of the Dark Arts" on the 3rd weekend of February every year -- all things dark beer. It used to be free but it's gotten so popular that they have to charge for it just to control the crowds. It's a good time... They have bus charters from Portland to Astoria for the Saturday that includes the festival ticket so you don't have to drive.
-- sw
Buoy will be sought out next trip! This time we brought back Crux Crystal Zwickle fresh hop pale ale and Apoth's Sahalie mixed fermentation ale aged in wine barrels ($28 for 750 ml, the most expensive beer we've ever bought) at the recommendation of the guy who owns Mr Green Bean's (he's given us good beer ideas in the past). We also grabbed Breakside's Lunch Break India session ale, Upright's Flora, a "historically profiled" saison and a half sac of Deschutes Hop Trip, another fresh hop pale ale. Eight cans of Fort George's Fresh wet hopped IPA rounded things out. Lots of work to do!
Here's Buoy's beer list at the moment: http://www.buoybeer.com/beer/
Of this list, I've had:
- Helles
- Czech Pils
- Cream Ale
- NW Red
- Raiders of the Lost Fort ( 102 IBU! )
- IPA
They were out of stout and I don't believe the porter was released the last time I was there. IMHO, the beer and the food there are very good. The food is pretty standard pub fare but very well-made pub fare.
Don't know if you're into sake' or not but there's a very good sake' brewery in Forest Grove:
They give tours. Brewing sake' is very different than brewing beer (there's fungus involved :-) )...
-- sw
P.S to the OP...
DO NOT get sucked into going to Henry's (NW 12th & Burnside). All though Henry's has 100 taps from all over the world, it's the hipster Pearl District at its worst.
It's loud, expensive and the food just SUCKS!
You've been warned!
-- sw
For future reference: I thought Deschutes had a taproom/small brewery in Portland. No mention of it here so should I assume it's not worth a visit for some reason.
Deschutes does have a taproom in Portland. It's in the Pearl District at 210 NW 11th Ave. My problems with it are:
- it's always crowded;
- the food is just OK;
- it's spendy.
Deschutes has pretty large distribution in Portland (and in Oregon generally) so you can get Deschutes beer nearly anywhere. I'm assuming the OP and all the rest of the posters here are looking for something a bit more unique or special than Deschutes. It's not that Deschutes is a bad place or makes bad beer -- it isn't and doesn't...it's that you can ALWAYS wait in line to get into Deschutes or get Black Butte Porter or Mirror Pond at the supermarket.
For the record, I really like Mirror Pond...
-- sw
Deschutes has a couple of pretty tasty fresh hopped beers available bottled right now as well. And we've seen several of their beers on tap around town. No need to go the tap room unless you fancy it. We thought the food was pretty average when we went in 2012, per stevewi's assessment, and it was very busy, though we were seated immediately as it is also very large.
Hi everyone-got back to Austin really late last night and though i'm still groggy i wanted to circle back and let you know that i love portland!! what a fantastic town and we looked out with unseasonably sunny, warm weather. here are some FOOD highlights:
-Blue star donuts. YES. creme brûlée donut, rasberry rosemary, marionberry, OG, almond ganache--all so light and flavorful. YUM.
-Pok Pok--i know that people are very opinionated about this place. i shut out the noise, and just went bc I just have always wanted to go here. all four of us just swooned through our meal. We loved it--it was warming, satisfying, and just so so savory. I found the service a bit rushed but we ignored and ate to our hearts content. Besides the cocktails, we loved the chicken wings (of course), green bean/shrimp salad, smoky charcoal eggplant (my favorite), Khao Soi with Chicken, A sweet pork shoulder/belly stew (very good but probably my least favorite), and a bean thread dish with wild prawns (insanely good).
-Bollywood Theater-full disclosure-we're all four Indian. so we are PICKY about indian food. We all were excited by how well our dishes were executed. We agreed all the dishes we ordered were not spicy enough but they were flavorful, fresh, and well executed. We only ordered the chaat items-Green Tomato pakora (delicious), Pav Bhaji, Dahi Puri, Fried Okra (favorite), Panner Kati Roll (this needed chutney or some other spice). Imperial for beer--good beer, but didn't love the vibe.
-Breakfast at Imperial (Hotel Lucia)-good, not great. Lunch at Carte Blanche--Phenomenal. Ordered the Mac N Cheese (very good), Crispy Rice salad (extraordinary) and the addictive compost cookies. Ate with beer from Growler Hawthorne. Dinner that night at Davenport. Okay so I'm a bit sad about this one. it was mixed. The Seafood stew, scallops and beet salad were phenomenal as was the cheese plate. Really sensational cheese and interesting accompaniments. But the braised leeks were disastrous as was a pork belly dish that came with a HUGE pile of the most bitter raddichio. it was perplexing. but service, and wine were just outstanding. We made things really right by going to Papa Hadyn afterwards for desserts.
Beast for Brunch. probably THE highlight of our trip. just outstanding on all levels-service, food, decor. we'll remember that meal for a while.e It was such a pleasure to explore this great city. We all agreed we will be back, next time with our kids in tow! thanks again for your thoughtful suggestions.
So glad you had a great time and some solid eats. Sorry to hear Davenport was mixed for you. I'm surprised to hear it was a couple of the veggies that let you down as I often find I like the sides there as much or better than the proteins.
We were steps from the Bollywood Theatre on Division at happy hour at Imperial by coincidence. Would so have gone if I'd realized they had okra. Was it deep fried?
Grey --
Indian okra and American Southern okra are two different animals. Indian okra is dredged in some kind of flour -- usually channa (chickpea) -- and then sautéed in an oiled pan with spices and onions. Sometimes whole, soaked channa, various chili peppers, tomatoes, squash etc. can be added as well. It's usually served with rice.
American Southern okra is dredged in flour, soaked in milk/buttermilk, and then dredged in corn meal and deep fried (a' la catfish or chicken-fried steak). There are very few spices beyond salt & pepper. Fried okra (like that other deep fried Southern delicacy, fried green tomatoes) are always served as a side (in my experience with fried chicken).
Now you know... Both are equally tasty!
-- sw
I'm down with okra pretty much any style that prevents the slime from erupting :-). I quite like it barbequed whole.
I will say that these okra were prepared a little differently. They were sliced very thin, dredged in flour, and deep fried. They were so thin and crispy. No real spice or masala to speak of. Very simple. Squeezed with lemon they were perfect.
Ahhh...I forgot... The Bollywood Theatre serves chaat -- Indian street food. Lotus7's description of the preparation would be much more consistent with a takeout dish while mine would be for an entree served at a table.
Diff'r'nt strokes...
Pickled okra (another American South thing) is very good too:
http://sgbrown.hubpages.com/hub/Jalap...
It makes a great substitute for an olive in a martini!
-- sw
Seriously wishing we'd had that dish! Thanks for the details.
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