Portland Oregon Taverns

If you just crawled out from under a rock (or got to Portland a more conventional way), beer is microbrews, and microbrews are big business here.Folks take it seriously. If you are a newcomer, we're here to hold your hand, at least until you get belligerent and uninteresting.

The big microbreweries here are Widmer (929 N Russell), and Bridgeport (1313 NW Marshall). But there are tons of smaller breweries, some of which only serve their own brew in their own brewpubs.

If you want to try many different micros in one place, the Horsebrass may be your pub (4534 SE Belmont). They have been around since before microbrews were actually micro. For sheer quantity of taps, you can't beat the Dublin Pub (6821 SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy) or Old Chicago (a chain in the suburbs), both with around 100 taps.

And, if you want to hitting the brewpubs and not drive (a good idea), the brew-bus is your answer.

Binks
2715 NE Alberta
493-4430
Micha writes (10/2001), "Limited ale selection although they pour Fat Tire Amber Ale which sits well with me. Their Indian chicken tandoori pizza is really tasty, although they use some weird pre-packaged crust. Also good salad with "African herb" dressing - that's what the waitperson called it. No idea what's in it. Lemon and then a lot of things which are not lemon."
Mirfy adds: "Andrea does a great job of having a good red wine available by the glass!"
For many of my friends, the allure of the place is the garage door. Binks is about as big as a gas station, but it's certainly an enjoyable hangout spot, with good salads, and pizza made to order. And, they have one of the best jukeboxes in Portland!

Bridgeport's Hawthorne St Ale House
36xx SE Hawthorne
The word of mouth on this place is excellent...

County Cork
1234 NE Fremont
faux Irish meets sports meets ?
7 days a week
13 taps
No smoking
While I frequently complain, I am happy to have County Cork in the neighborhood. They have an interesting selection of craftbrews, they have burgers and sandwiches, and they have a few of those typical British Isles meals. They used to be brilliant -- now they bounce between okay and really lackluster since changing hands.

Dots
25xx SE Clinton St
Not a huge collection of beer, but there are always the perennial favorites -- Black Butte Porter, Widmer Hefeweizen, McTarnahan's, Newcastle Brown, and Rolling Rock in bottles. They recently got a liquor license and also do foofy and brat-pack styled drinks, margarita slushies, wine, champagne and cider. Also, great tavern food (including reasonable selections for vegetarians and vegans)

Dublin Pub
6821 SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy
297-2889
104 taps. Sheesh.

Horse Brass
4534 SE Belmont

232-2202
A British style pub with darts, an extensive collection of draught beers, and yummy food. Technically, a bar, but that development is fairly recent.

Laurelthirst
2958 NE Glisan
Breakfast and pubgrub options for food, with a distinct emphasis on groovy vegetarianism (though there is meat -- I just had a bacon sandwich the other day), pool, and much beer and wine. The service improves the more the servers recognize you.

Rogue Brewpub
1339 NW Flanders
The food here is close to inedible, but the beer - damn! Try a tester tray.

A craftbeer on tap is $3.50, and the taps include:

• Newcastle Brown
• Deschutes Obsidian Stout
• Shiner Bock
• Sierra Nevada pale
• Caldera Dry Hop Red
• Lagunitas Pils
• Lagunitas IPA
• PBR

• Hamms
• Rainer
• Guinness

• Bud
• Bud Lite
• Negra Modelo
• Hornsby's
• Pacifico
• Czechvar

They open at 4pm.

Other Press:
• Trendy East Burnside has a flip side, too: Bar of the Week: The B-Side Tavern
  Joseph Gallivan, The Portland Tribune, Apr 28, 2006

photo by Andrew Morton

I used to fetishize their grilled cheeses. They were made with whatever Grand Central bread they had in the kitchen, so every now and again you'd get a phenomenal one made with yeasted corn. But even the unphenomenal ones were really tasty.

The sad thing is, they do have food, and lots of veggie options, but outside of breakfast, I haven't had anything there that was noteworthy in a month of sundays. Which isn't to say it's bad—it just is. That said, hot and cold sandwiches range from $2.75-$8 and come with chips. They also have burgers ($6-$8), and plates that come with a green salad ($7-$7.75).

But let's talk about the interesting stuff. They have special drinks that are $4.50-$5. Beer on tap is $3.75 a pint. When I was there, they had:
-a rotator (when I was there, it was New Belgium Skinny Dip)
-Rogue Dead Guy
-Mt Hood Cascadian Pale Ale
-Anchor Porter
-Skagit Valley Scullers IPA
-Elysian the Wise ESB
-Anderson Valley Boont Amber
Bottled beers range from Session to imports, from ($2.50-$6)

And of course, there is a happy hour.

Other Press
• BarFly
• Gulch Guide

Ah, Biddy's. In spite of owner changes and venue changes, they've never forgot what makes them tick. It's a modest place, wood and smoke, covered with political posters and beer geegaws, but mostly political posters, some in Gaelic, most in English.

But probably what you're interested in is the beer, irish whiskey, and a smidge of food. We ate, it was nothing really to write home about, everything between $3-$8. They do offer cheese fries, served with steak fries with not quite enough cheese. But the fries were good.

They offer music every night of the week, a quite a bit of it free. Given that this is a reasonably small place, you'll probably actually want to like the music, but they keep the events calendar on the web site up to date.

Now beer, that's something. They serve imperial pints of
-Stella Artois
-Pyramid Hefeweizen
-Harp
-Pilsner Urquell
-Macs
-Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale
-Deschutes Black Butte Porter
-PBR
-New Belgium Fat Tire
-Bass
-Smithwicks
-Full Sail Amber
-Bridgeport IPA

with

-Beamish
-Guinness
-Boddingtons

on a beer engine.

The beer we had was good, and as we were there early, it wasn't too smoky. With a Irish jam session happening in the middle of the room, it was tremendously pleasant.

• BarFly

more photos, including the beer garden

So, of course there's beer (Terminal Gravity IPA, Sierra Nevada Pale, Widmer Hefeweizen, Fat Tire, and Guinness, among other things). Pints are $3.50 (Guinness, natch, is more). They offer free WiFi, video games, video crack, pool, and shuffleboard(!), as well as a spacious and excellent beergarden, open noon to dusk. I mean, I wish my backyard looked this good. And, you can reserve it for your party, and/or bring your own grillables, which is great since the food there is limited to snacks.

Oh, and need to take away some beer? They're licensed to sell beer to go.

• BarFly

Do you like fish? Or are you celiac (gluten-allergic to you, bud)? Or pining for the northern midwest? Need to feel that Green Bay Packers spirit? Get thee to Corbett Fish House. If you don't like fish, you could have chicken, a gardenburger or a salad. But if you like fish, well, you could sure do a lot worse than here.

The menu online isn't up to date, sadly. Appetizers include a number of seafood you'd expect, plus sweet potato fries, packer fries and deep fried cheese curd. Now, the latter is just plain wrong, which explains why it disappeared off our table as soon as it arrived. Packer Fries are their great french fries covered in melted cheddar and pickled jalapeno. The jalapeno is easy to pick off, for those who chose to. Prices range from $2.50-$12.

They offer soups, salads, sandwiches, which I'm sure are great ($3.75-$13). But the fish and chips are the thing ($10-$18). For those of you who care, they follow the Monterey Bay Aquarium guidelines. They have:

• prawns
• oysters
• yellow perch
• walleye
• halibut
• chile-fried catfish

They also have fish tacos, three different types made with halibut and chile-fried catfish, which are yummy, huge and filling.

Everything that is gluten-free is clearly marked, and that is most of the menu, so celiacs have lots of choices here. It's also wheelchair accessible (though there is a lip at the front door).

Of course, fish and chips requires beer, and Corbett offers a full bar. When we were there, they had on tap:

• Mirror Pond
• Alaskan Amber
• Fish Mudshark Porter
• Widmer Hefeweizen
• Terminal Gravity ESG
• Walking Man IPA
• PBR
• Michelob Light
• Pilsner Urquell
• Guinness

Happy hour is 3-5 daily; no drink specials, but they do offer 8 items for $3.95:

• deep fried cheese curds
• fried oysters or chicken strips & fries
• a catfish sandwich
• calamari
• a caesar
• bay shrimp cocktail,
• oyster shooters.

How to begin? I know Jim Parker, one of the owners of the Green Dragon, and I worked on a first draft of their website. And perhaps you know of Jim Parker as well. If you frequented the Horse Brass or Concordia Ale House in 2005, chances are you were served by Parker. If you love Oaks Bottom, know that its first iteration was guided by Parker as an owner.

The Green Dragon is a lofty goal: a tavern serving small, unusual great beers, serving great bistro, non-tavern, meals, microbrewing their own craftbrews, AND, distilling their own fine liquors. It's rare to find a place that does any one of these things well, none the less a combination of the four.

It's located in the old Yamhill Brewing space. Luckily, everything is exponentially better in Green Dragon's iteration.

The space is divided into a large bar area (with foosball!) and a smaller restaurant area.

It easily meets the first goal. With 18 or so taps, there is always something interesting and unexpected on. For example, yesterday, I had a glass of the excellent Mia & Pia's Pilsner, from K Falls, driven up to Portland in a milk truck. In the half-dozen times I've been in, I've tasted new-to-me beers every single time. That's exciting.

Foodwise, it's good... but at this point not great. The menu is small, and there are no burgers or fish-n-chips on it. The fries are consistently excellent and garlicky. Serving bowls are massive, insanely huge. And yet, the caesar salad tries hard, but the dressing just doesn't have any real zing. I've tried a number of things on the menu that really haven't been compelling. The cajun meatloaf sandwich is tasty, but inconsistent with the portions, and frequently cut into chunks so it can't be dipped into the chunky "cajun" "au jus".

If you sit at the bar, you're interacting with some serious beer geeks who won't steer you wrong. But if you're sitting on the restaurant side, it's potluck if you'll have a server who really knows beer, or can handle more than a couple tables, or who'll know when the kitchen is out of things (like what you ordered).

Of course, the brewing and distilling operations are still to come. The space is industrial and relaxed. Tables on the bistro side are covered with chalkboard, and your table comes with chalk to keep you busy while you wait for food.

The other fly in the ointment is the temperature and lighting. It can be seriously cold in there. It's a warehouse space, so I bet it's a bitch to heat ... but I hate having to wear gloves when I'm drinking beer. Lighting in some areas is good, but in others, it's rather dark, and heaven help you if you came in to read a book and drink a beer.

All my misgivings aside, I keep going back. I trust these issues, however, are going to work themselves out. GD has been open now for about 2 months. But I hope these issues will be addressed soon.

When I heard about Henry's the first time, I thought, right, 100 beers on tap—how likely is that? I had all sorts of expectations that it would be suburban and sportsy and not serious. And you know, I was totally & completely wrong.

The bar has several different levels, including a lovely outdoor patio. You can watch sports on the huge flatscreen tvs, or, you can sit so you don't even know that there are giant flatscreen tvs. The volume is on mute, anways. It's a classy place, and hooligans are asked to leave immediately. Really. I saw some guys come in who were obviously already inebriated, they treated a waitress badly, and several managers went over and helped them out.

You can sit well away from the bar, but if you're serious about beer, you want to sit at the bar. They have a cool ice ring to set your beer on, and their bartenders know the beers well and serve them in appropriate glassware. (The wait staff haven't a clue).

Be sure to ask if the beer is old, and if you can have a taste. Somethings don't move so fast at Henry's.

For your friends who don't get beer: there's mixed drinks. Though I wouldn't know anything about that.

I wouldn't expect a lot from the food (this is a Pacific Coast restaurant, so solid but unexceptional chain fare), but if you order during happy hour, at least it's cheap.

Yesterday, I demanded that my better half take me to an establishment that served alcohol, stat. And thus, we ended up at kid-magnet Laurelwood Public House during happy hour.

Since I'm allergic to kids, we don't usually go there, but it did seem like a decent option for beer and food. After all, while Laurelwood's food is not great, it's consistently good and edible.

The happy hour menu includes $2.75 pints, and $3.95 food. The food options include

• the Happy Burger with fries, perhaps half the size of their regular burger (and you can add cheese for an extra buck)


• the Happy Aritichoke-Jalapeno (sic) Dip, which comes with tortilla chips (artificial artichoke?)


• the Happy Mediterranean Pizza with Pesto


• the Happy Mac 'n' Cheese with Ham (with tortilla chips)


• the Happy Taco (with tortilla chips and salsa


• the Happy Nachos (add chicken for $3 more)


• the Happy Garlic Fries


• the Happy Chicken Caesar Salad

So with dutiful grouchiness, we ordered our Happy Cheeseburgers, our Happy Nachos, and our Happy Mac 'n' Cheese. The folks next to us appeared to be at the beginning of a wake.

Like I mentioned above, the Happy Burger is a small, plain hamburger with lettuce and a single slice of insipid tomato. It comes with a small handful of fries, which are batterdipped and double-fried. I suppose someone might get full off of that serving, but my guess is that 99% of the American adult population would not. But then, none of these servings are large.

The Happy Nachos are really the most cheerful possible thing: tortilla chips covered with black bean chili, cheese, and olives. There isn't a lot of it, but, really, a little goes a long way.

The Happy Mac 'n' Cheese looks like Kraft dinner with little cubes of ham on top. And it definitely tastes like something out of a box, designed not to offend the sentiments of children, like something midway between Kraft dinner and Annie's.

So, we each spent about $9 on food. For that $9, we could have gotten any of their 1/3# hamburgers with lots of toppings, and fries or salad. Which just makes me think we were ripped off!

Anyways, if you're just feeling noshy, the Laurelwood happy hour isn't a bad deal. But if you're hungry, just stick to the regular menu.

Mash Tun is just a little brewpub, just a little off Alberta, behind Office. It has a nice little bar, a small room, and a nice covered patio which easily doubles the space. In addition to brewing a few house beers, they have a nice, concise selection of craft beers and imports, and they offer food: not the best food, but the sort of stuff that can prolong your drinking.

Now, brewpubs or taverns that offer undistinguished, inconsistent food isn't that unusual, of course—it sadly seems to be the law (with exceptions like Widmer). But how many of them offer vegan options next to their more meaty third-cousins? I can think of only a handful of places, but Mash Tun is one.

On tap, they have 2 house beers, 3 imports, and 7 craft beers. They also have a handful of things in bottles and cans (brother, clap your hands). None of this is terribly cheap: for imperial pints, the house ales are $4, craft beers are $4.25, and imports are $4.50, with non-tap options ranging from $2.25-$4.50.

I haven't been so crazy about their house beers, but they are very drinkable. The tap selections rotate, so there is always something good on. Last night, for example, there were 4 or 5 different craft beers that I would be very happy to drink. Nice!

In recent times, the place has changed up a little bit. You can still smoke at the bar, or outside, but you have to vacate outside by 10. The jukebox is still there. But the pool table has been replaced by table-tables. I don't know about the wi-fi, but I hope it's still there. We got there shortly before 6, and the place was pretty full.

The new food menu is about a month old, and made up of appetizers, a small collections of soups and salads, and pub grub (which means sandwiches). No more of their wildly erratic fish and chips. Appetizers range from $2.75-$7, with all of the usual deep fried subjects. Tots and fries can come cheesy if you like. There's also vegan red lentil puree & tempeh things, and nachos.

They offer house, caesar, spinach, and a roasted beet salad, a soup de jour, and a chili con carne, $2.95-$7. And for sandwiches ($7.50-$10), they have a burger, and a variety of other things that are served on rolls. Vegan options include a vegan burger & a BLATO (fakin-lettuce-avocado-tomato-onion with veganaise), and there's falafel and roasted eggplant for veggies.

We tried to order cheesy tots, but alas, no tots this evening. So we ordered a cheesesteak and a meatball sandwich, both with their hand-cut skinny fries. And both sandwiches were very edible. The cheesesteak had a nice balance of cheese to meat to cooked yellow onion, and came with a side of good, but not great marinara. The meatball sandwich was dosed in both marinara and melted cheese, but the meatballs were plentiful, tender and tasty. Unfortunately, neither of the rolls the sandwiches came on had been toasted, and the fries are soggy and greasy. Why do some taverns insist on hand-cut fries?

So. Nice patio, nice ever-changing selection of beers, and deep-fried appetizers rock... unless they're fries.

Not actually a brew pub.
My friends call this the slophouse.

Jim Parker, former Oregon Brewers Guild director and general indicator of good beer, and Jerry Fechter (of the Lompoc empire) have opened this tiny, comfortable pub in the former location of Tartine and the Jones Public House. Lights are comfortably low, yet it's not dark. Boothes line one wall (a wheelchair ramp the other, yay!), and biggish tables designed for sharing. They have a full menu of food, and I'm assuming they'll be working the kinks out of that. Two words to remember: tater tots.

But let's talk about the important stuff: beer. They feature 6 Lompoc taps, and 6 guest taps. Last night that meant Caldera Pilsner, Bend Brewing Big Eddy ESB, Amnesia Double Whammy, Terminal Gravity Porter, Walking Man Sasquatch Imperial Red, and Pelican IPA. They have hard alcohol as well, and a Sunday Bloody Mary special.

There are some outside tables, and I'm not sure about bike parking. Last night, the place was full to the rafters.

But this place has a chef, according to the Oregonian. It's a lovely, wide open space, with tables and booths, and a full wall of windows onto Interstate. And, it's owned by the Low Brow guy.

Anyways, we went in for lunch and really liked it. We had great but relaxed service (though admittedly, the restaurant only had a couple tables going). Water and cokes were refilled frequently. The menu is just one page but stocked with comfort food in the cheapish range ($7-$11). And, there is a full bar, and about ten taps (Bud, Bud Lite, Lagunitas IPA, Lagunitas Maximas, Terminal Gravity Fest, Guinness, a Dick's, Boont Amber, a Flying Dog, and Black Butte Porter). In chatting with the staff, they are planning on rotating at least part of the taps, with Hales Wee Heavy next in line for the cask.

We had the crab/cheese dip, meatloaf, and mac-n-cheese. It was quite impressive when the crab and cheese dip came to the table, in its own boat, covered with breadcrumbs, and quite molten. The dip came with grilled pita bread. It was delicious, and we made short work of it.

Next came the entrees. So, the meatloaf is not what you'd eat at home unless perhaps your mom was a Food TV addict; in fact, I'm not sure how to deconstruct it from the one bite I had. But I'm generally not a meatball fan, and this was quite tasty, like a meatball loaf. It came served on mashed taters, covered in a pancetta gravy. Health food, in other words. It was a substantial portion.

The mac n cheese came in a large, round, low baking dish, perfect for a high molten mac-n-cheese to toasty bread crumb ration. I couldn't even make it through half before getting it boxed up. It was quite delish, a nice classic mac with a smidge of heat.

So, all in all, it was great. Good food, good beer selection. Can it last? Gosh, I hope so.

UPDATE 5/5/2007
Sadly, it appears Pause has settled into mediocrity. The last 4 or 5 visits have been underwhelming at best. But they do have an outdoor setting area, fenced off from Interstate, surrounded by lawn which is great for little kids and smokers.

Produce Row Cafe has 15 taps, over 200 bottled beers, and a full menu, including an abbreviated happy hour menu M-F 4-6PM. It's also a bit chilly when it's relatively empty. They offer wifi, pool, a huge deck, and that beer selection is pretty exciting. I just wish I was a bit more excited about the food. We tend to get burgers and fries, and the fries are great. The burger is just okay. They offer live music almost every night.

But the beer! 24 taps, and the menu arranges itself by Oregon Micros (Deschutes, Terminal Gravity, Rogue, Racoon Lodge, Off the Rail, Golden Valley), and others (Bear Republic, Sierra Nevada, Boulder Beer, Laguanitas, Leavenworth, Mac&Jacks). Though, man, it would be more enjoyable if you could actually taste the beer rather than the smoke.

Like other denizens of the east side, I'd go past the space at 1000 SE 12th, just up the block from the Basement pub, and wonder, WTF? Is it a cult headquarters? Gastronaut told me it was a tavern, but I was still sure that it was like a Chunk666 World Headquarters with some cash.

It was clearly open for business so we went in.

The patio is nice and funky. They had tons of umbrellas and other shady things out so no one was broiling in the sun unless they wanted to be. There were beautiful plantings next to beautiful junk, and a bike rack. We had just spent way too much time outdoors, so we went inside. That was also comfy and funky.

They appear to just have a tavern license -- wines by the glass, and a couple beers on tap. The taps rotate, but when we were there, they had PBR, Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale, Mt. Hood's Ice Axe IPA, and Lompoc's LSD. We helped ourselves to icy cold water, and each had a beer. The food menu appears to be mostly grilled meats and veg on a stick.

Our beers were $3.50 each, and the food menu appeared pretty reasonable: you could spend $10 on something but you'd have to work at it.

Food here is pretty limited but there are always some vegetarian or vegan options, as well as fruit and baked goods. We had a Pelican Pub Tsunami Stout ($3) with a Small World Sandwich ($3.25), a hummus-avocado-tomato sandwich on a Grand Central bolo roll. What an outrageously good deal. We loved the vibe...