======================================================================== Katy O'Briens taphouse 28th and NE Sandy Portland, OR Note: It's a little bar with some interesting beers that are not found on draft too often. They had Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA, Pelican IPA, and Terminal Gravity Extra Special Golden, which was about to be replaced with Terminal Gravity Porter. We also had a reuben sandwich which was very good. The atmosphere, however, is a little odd, kind of like a frat house. At age 27, I was definitely one of the older people in there! ======================================================================== Moon and Sixpence taphouse 42nd just West of Sandy Portland, OR Note: Very good English style brews and pub grub. More authentic Brit pub experience. Great ambience and character in which to enjoy their fine beers! The English and Irish bars may be kitschy and stereotyped, but they're based on a tried and true model. "Reinventing" the local pub only works if you have something that is both inviting and original - such as any McMenamins. McMs continue to thrive in spite of overall average suds and grub because they are fun, comfortable places. A beergeek will stand out in a soaking rainstorm to try an interesting beer, but most everybody else just wants a friendly place to quaff their favorite brew. That is what makes a true pub. By the way, the food at Moon and Sixpence is not nearly as memorable as, well, just about anything else about the experience, including locking the car door after you park out front on NE 42nd. However, the Tetley's tastes just great, and is the model of what a session beer ought to be. -- Noel Blake Fish 'n' Chips are pretty forgettable (a cardinal sin in an "English Pub"!)- but try the pasty or the meat pies! Wonderful and light crusts -- Russ Rainforth ======================================================================== County Cork Public House taphouse Portland OR Work: 503.284.4805 1329 NE Fremont St Portland, OR Note: Hours: closed Mon, Tues-Sat 11am-12pm, Sun 11a-11p. WW: When it comes to Irish food, County Cork takes a different approach. Rather than ersatz Irish dishes, this pub offers real flavor along with the Guinness. Try fish & chips. There's an Irish theme, of course: Bangers and mash combines grilled sausages and garlic mashed potatoes, and a cold plate of Irish cheddar, hard-boiled egg, pickled onions, sliced apple, dill pickles and a wedge of soda bread called the ploughman's platter purports to be a "traditional Irish workman's lunch." But the burgers, fries and clam chowder are just like what owner Jeanie Subotnick used to make when she ran Shakers. ======================================================================== Dublin Pub taphouse Portland OR Work: 503.297.2889 Home: www.dublinpub.citysearch.com Fax: 503.296-6382 E-Mail: dublin.pub@worldnet.att.net 6821 SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy Portland, OR 97225 Note: Hours: Mon-Sat 2pm-2:30am. Irish pub, outstanding recommended taphouse, live music can be a bit overwhelmingly loud. Specials: Wednesday Domestics Thursday Microbrews Monday free pool & foosball, band auditions & open mic 105 taps, many good ones. Great tap house. Highly recommended. Live music every night. Also sells beer retail. $2 happy hour menu 4:30-6:30p, F-Sat 10p-12p: giant pretzel, smoked or spicy sausage dog, wings, rings, fries, chips & salsa. Several barleywines in bottles, can be crowded & loud. Seats 280 people, small lights twinkle on each table. The mood is comfortable and casual. Lots of burgers, sandwiches, fish & chips, wings, pub grub. For example, brewers on tap include: Micros: Alaskan, Anderson Valley, Anchor Steam, Bear Republic, Bridgeport, Cider Jack, Deschutes, Fishtail, Full Sail, Golden Valley, Grant's, Hair of the Dog, Hale's, Lost Coast, Mac and Jack's, Mad River, Mc Nally's, Mt. Hood, Nor'Wester, North Coast, Pacific City, Pike Street, Portland, Pyramid, Red Hook, Rogue, Salmon Creek, Sam Adams, Saxer, Sierra Nevada, Thomas Kemper, Umpqua, Widmer, Wyder's, Yamhill. Imports & Industrials: Abbot, Bass, Beamish, Beck's, Boddingtons, Fosters, Fuller's, Guinness, Harp, Heineken, Henry Weinhard, Hornsby's, Killians, Labatts, Murphy's, Newcastle Brown, Pauliner, Pike, Pilsner Urquel, Steinlager ======================================================================== McMenamins Grand Lodge taphouse Portland OR Work: 877.992.9533 E-Mail: info@thegrandlodge.com Work: 503.992.9533 E-Mail: grandlodge@mcmenamins.com E-Mail: w.mcmenamins.com/grandlodge/index.html 3505 Pacific Av downtown, off Rt 8 Forest Grove, OR 97116 Note: Group Sales: 877.992.9530 From Portland: 503.992.9530 McMenamin empire's newest addition is the Grand Lodge, a Masonic home turned bed and breakfast. The property features 78 guest rooms, a lobby pub, 5 specialty bars, outdoor beer garden, soaking pool, game room, massage services, gift shop, artwork and wine-tasting room. Just in time for spring 2000, the Yardhouse Beer Garden opened on the property's front meadow, across from the Children's Cottage. The indoor pub and outdoor beer garden serves a pub menu, 4 beers, wine and cocktails. The Yardhouse is open daily, 11:30am to 1am, with the outdoor garden open until 10pm. Live Music Thursday Nights, No Cover, Day Spa 503.992.0876 ======================================================================== Higgins taphouse Portland OR Work: 503.222.9070 1239 Broadway (Jefferson St) downtown Portland, OR 97205-2915 Custom 1: **** Note: Lunch: Mon-Sat 11a-3p. Dinner: Mon-Thur 5p-10p, Fri-Sat 5p-11p, Sun 4p-9p. Bar Hours: usually stays open later. O: Higgins (Oregonian's Critic's Choice) Zagat's: F=25, D=23, S=24, cost $34 NWBP: Fine dining, 10 serious drafts, 100 in bottles, 45 from Belgium. Say hi to Warren, the beer steward, from Ommegang. NWBP Beer: Twelve taps pour an extraordinarily well-chosen blend of craft brews & imports, frequently with a Belgian. Comprehensive menu of bottled beers, including a huge selection from Belgium; many presented in the appropriate glassware. Full bar also features a wide range of liquors and wines, including a good selection of single-malts. Food: Exceptionally high-quality with a varied menu. The main dining room is the focus of this place, but it boasts one of the best beer-bars in the city, too. Atmosphere: Upscale downtown restaurant & bar in central Portland. Wood predominates in the bar's interior, with knowledgable & friendly service. Can be popular at weekends. Incredible selection! Beer Specials: Variable; inquire at bar. Parking: On-street parking in metered streets or pay lots only. O: How important is space to a restaurant's success? Ask Greg Higgins, who runs one of the best places in town. Higgins' two interconnected dining rooms step down from a small street-level lobby that also leads to the partly open kitchen and back to a dark, clubby and very popular bar. Crowded and noisy, the dining rooms have such an efficient flow that they offer a seemingly impossible combination: buzz and intimacy. You get the invigorating feel of a busy public space, but also a sense of comforting privacy: Each table, miraculously, feels far from the madding crowd. It's an ideal atmosphere for a downtown hot spot (Higgins is big on power lunching) and it sets the table for a creative menu that truly shines in the way it treats vegetables -- both as vegetarian plates and settings for meat dishes. Higgins is an obsessive experimenter with a sense for the ways flavors will combine. Even when you don't like one of his experiments --and most of the time you will -- you'll like the urge that got him there. Where else, for instance, are you likely to encounter a plate of rigatoni with grilled dandelions and endives, alder-smoked bacon and feta cheese? CUISINE: Northwest improvisational: local ingredients, flavors that play off one another like good jazz. ATMOSPHERE: Busy and buzzy but also intimate. MENU: Half-dozen soups/salads/starters $4.50-$9.50; six or eight lunch main courses $7-$14; six or eight dinner main courses $14-$24; extensive bistro (bar) menu $4.25-$12; desserts $5.75-$7.25. MUST-HAVE DISHES: Menu changes frequently, but shellfish and combination salads are almost always winners. Wild or unusual greens, heirloom potatoes, root vegetables, chutneys, polentas, chiles and the like are frequent visitors to the menu. REASON TO GO: Higgins is a leader in the organic and fresh foods revolution, and the level of cooking is consistently high. A good share of the menu is always vegetarian-friendly. The place has perhaps the best beer list in town, with a beer steward and a knockout selection of Belgians. Wine list is good and reasonably priced, too. DRAWBACKS: Sometimes the experimentation outstrips itself, and you can find yourself longing for something simpler and fuller-flavored. EXTRAS: Full bar; major cards; disabled access; street parking; smoking in bar only, with cigars permitted after 10pm Z: "In" Places, Business Dining, Caters, Cigar Friendly, Credit Cards Accepted, Dining Alone, Meet for a Drink, Open Sunday, People-Watching, Romantic Spots, Visitors on Expense Accounts, Winning Wine Lists ======================================================================== Horse Brass Pub Don Younger's hangout taphouse Portland OR Work: 503.232.2202 Fax: 503.234.9107 E-Mail: www.horsebrass.com 4534 SE Belmont St Portland, OR Custom 1: **** Note: Hours: Mon-Sat 10a-10p, Sun noon-6pm. (formerly open M-F 11a-2:30a S-S 10a-2a) Nick Bruel's review: This is Oregon's most important pub, and easily one of the very best in the entire US. It's important because of the enormous support proprietor Don Younger has given to startup local breweries over the last 15+ years. It's great because of the special combination of great beer (~40 taps, including 5 casks/beer engines, and a *great* diversity), atmosphere--authentic British with smoke, bangers, Scotch eggs--and terrific, knowledgeable service. The HBP is generous with free tastes for those not familiar with their beers, and even those who are but want to see if a given beer's *just* right before ordering an imperial pint. Simply the must-see pub in Portland, for those interested in beer history. Tell them you're visiting town. And, stop by the fantastic new beer store, the Belmont Station, just next door. If Joy or Jeff are working there, tell them I sent you. ======================================================================== The Produce Row Cafe taphouse Portland OR Work: 503.232.8355 204 SE Oak St (2nd Av) Portland, OR 97214-1087 Note: Hours: Mon-Thur 11am-midnight, Fri-Sat 11am-1am, Sun noon-11PM. Recommended grungy taphouse, Deli restaurant. NWBP Beer: 29 taps; offerings include beers from most area craft breweries, as well as a couple of imports. 200 bottled beers. Zagat's Good Value: F=15, D=13, S=14, $10 Happy Hour, Specials: Mon-Thu 5-6pm, Fri 4:30-6:30pm; domestics $1.50, micros $2, imports $3, medium sandwiches $4.25 (Sunday 6:30-10pm happy hour specials for those employed in the restaurant & bar trade) Food: The original home of McMenamins-style pub grub, mostly sandwiches w/ chips, & some snacks. Popular items include the House Special (a sort of steak sandwich) and the Stormin' Norman. For folks on a budget, a large sandwich easily feeds two. Atmosphere: Produce Row provides funky, simple premises for lovers of a variety of good beer. The place is divided into three rooms: the main front room and bar, a smaller side room, and a back room with a pool table. Fine deck in back with plenty of picnic-table seating, wonderful on nice days. The interior is humble & unpretentious, because the beer's what matters here. Clientele is just about anyone: college age or middle-aged locals. Collection of vintage beer bottles & cans. Smoking Policy: Allowed Special Events: Live music at weekends Parking: Parking is available on-street and is usually easily found. Pub's location is in a warehouse / industrial district. WW: Mortadella, that recently legalized Italian-style bologna, has been served in an Americanized version for years. More tavern than cafe, tucked away in a maverick section of industrial Southeast known for warehouses & train tracks. Once the heart of the produce industry, the Row, as it's affectionately known, is a great to get full, and possibly tipsy, for about $6. Beer choices are vast, prices are some of the lowest in town. The Row does a brisk lunch, serving up man-wiches to the area business people. Sandwiches come in small, medium and large. Translated: big, bigger and God, are you gonna eat that? Rocky's Favorite ($8.50). is made with mortadella, carriani, capacolla, cotto and provolone cheese served on sourdough bread. Try the outside beer garden. (ML) Z: Post-college slackers mingle with a blue-collar crowd at this East Side pub known for its mammoth beer menu (28 on tap, 150 in the bottle) that leans heavily toward international and microbrew labels; other draws include a "great backyard deck", an eclectic rotation of bands and "sloppy", "inexpensive sandwiches." Live Entertainment, Open Late, Open Sunday, Parking Lot, Patio Dining, Pubs/Bars/Sports TV, Singles Scenes, Sunday Dining -- Best Bets, Takeout, Teflons, Wine/Beer Only. WW Review: Category: Patio Best: Way to travel the world without moving your weary tuckus. The Specs: Gleam or gloom, Produce Row has you covered. If it's dry, bask on the high-fenced, two-tiered back patio with a cold one from the globe-trotting list of more than 200 beers, such as Trinidad's sweet, smooth Royal Extra Stout. On a soggy evening early in the week, settle in for the jazz or bluegrass jam with a friend and a wallet-friendly pitcher drawn from the 27 taps. The Row's atmosphere is unshakably low-key, the decor just dingy enough to let you slump in comfort. If sitting's not your thing, curl your fingers around a pool cue at the single table. The beer's already dirt cheap, but during Happy Hour (5-6 pm Monday through Thursday, 4:30-6:30 pm Friday) a pitcher of microbrew drops to an incredible $6.25, and $4.25 gets you a "medium" sandwich big enough for two. ======================================================================== Portland Rogue Pub Rogue Ales Public House taphouse Portland OR Work: 503.222.5910 Fax: 503.226.7339 14th & Flanders Portland, OR Custom 1: **** Note: All the Newport Rogue beers are on tap, XS series included. Oh, and Smoke is now a regular-priced beer, not an XS, and is very much worth a visit itself alone! Rogue got a GABF 2000 silver for its Chocolate Stout. Red Fox Amber Beer -- "Santa's Private Reserve triple-hopped!" They ran out of bottles so bottled the rest in another Japanese designed bottle--Chitose Hascup berry beer bottles, which are really pretty but have the same beer as above. 12 ounce bottles, $1.50/each. Chocolate Bear Beer -- "Shakespeare Stout with chocolate from the Netherlands." 12 ounce bottles, $2/ea. ======================================================================== Rose and Raindrop Pub R&R taphouse Portland OR Work: 503.238.6996 Home: 503.238.6995 532 SE Grand Av (SE Washington) Portland, OR 97214 Custom 1: **** Note: Hours: Mon -Fri, 11AM - 2:30AM; Sat - Sun, 10AM - 2:30AM; kitchen closes at 11PM. Happy Hour M-F 4pm-6pm, 10pm-midnight Owned by Don Younger. Amazing tap house, highly recommended. Beer: There are 33 taps (up from the original fourteen!) in the pub bar, pouring an astounding selection of craft beers, imported beers, and four handpumps with locally-brewed cask-conditioned beers. Crafts include a wide variety of Northwest favorites, including brews from Multnomah Brewing, Portland Brewing, Widmer, BridgePort, Pyramid, and Rogue Brewing, which brews a beer especially for the house, Younger's Special Bitter. Cask beers can come from the likes of Full Sail, Deschutes, Fish Brewing, or other area breweries, and if you're lucky, there might be a cask beer from Hair of the Dog. If that isn't enough, there's a full bar, featuring a good variety of single-malt Scotch at reasonable prices. Food: Traditional British pub food goes upmarket a bit, so you'll find pub burgers and fish and chips and pub appetizers in the bar, sure, but there's a nice menu with pasta and flank steak at lunch, and steelhead, lamb chops, tenderloin, or mahi mahi at dinner. Order some oysters on the half shell, too, or maybe some oyster shooters. Atmosphere: The owner of the Horse Brass Pub has joined forces with a partner to open the Rose and Raindrop, and the resulting pub is a must-visit. There are nice dining areas upstairs and down, with something of a warm, "clubby" feel, and the pub bar is very nicely appointed, very much in the style of a nice British town-center pub. The restoration job done on the pub and its building is superb; perhaps the only downside is that the location is a bit scruffy, on busy Grand Avenue. Once inside, though, the noisy traffic outside just ceases to matter. Smoking Policy: Allowed; cigars OK, too Happy Hour, Beer Specials: Reduced-price bar menu from 4-6PM and 10PM-midnight weekdays. Parking: On-street parking only. Public transportation: 6 bus at SE Morrison Street stop. Review by Nick Bruels: This is now one of the finest pubs in the US. Don Younger, proprietor of the legendary Horse Brass Pub took over the site in spring of 1997. A wonderfully diverse tap selection of about 33 beers, including 3 cask-conditioned. The menu is interesting, with a nice selection of seafood (a couple of types of raw oysters) and beer-infused items. Here's Don Scheidt's review (which doesn't reflect the recent addition of 19 taps). Across the street from the similarly wonderful Caswell's cafe. Citysearch: People Watching: Hordes of dart throwers in the corners, Anglophiles debating the future of the monarchy and folks who simply like good beer. When: Anytime—a 20-oz pint of Guinness will only cost you $4.50. Best Bet: Sit back and chat up your date over one of the 46 brews, a fine scotch or cocktail. You can even take your favorite stogie, because there's nothing but love for cigar-smokers here. ======================================================================== Snake & Weasel taphouse Portland OR Work: 503.232.8338 Home: dpelem@aol.com E-Mail: /www.wademedia.com/snake 1720 SE 12th St (SE Mill) Portland, OR 97214 Custom 1: *** Note: HOURS: Mon-Thurs 7am-midnight, Fri 7am-1am, Sat 8am-1am, Sun 9am-midnight. Hawthorne District. Most evenings you'll find live music such as folk, bluegrass, jazz, and ethnic styles. Owners: David and Mike Great taphouse, 100 different drafts each year, also contract brewpub. Simple basic menu of salads, soup, sandwiches, sausage, cheeses. Southern Sky -- a Bier de Guarde Spike Driver -- an American Strong Ale 'O Sweet Mama Stout - an Imperial Oatmeal Stout MUST-HAVE BEER: Sweet Mama stout -- rich and roasty with vanilla notes and good balance. Johns' review: Snake & Weasel is a Mad Hatters blend of brewpub, coffeehouse and a splash of Hamms. STYLE: American eclectic coffee and ale house ATMOSPHERE: Great inner Southeast hangout MUST-HAVE FOOD: Butternut squash lasagna, rich and complex with four cheeses and a shiitake mushroom sauce; ploughmans platter -- fruit, bread, pickles with Cotswold and Stilton cheeses STRENGTH: Solid, reasonably priced menu, a wide beer selection and a friendly, varied clientele FLAW: Rave night will make you feel your age SMOKING POLICY: Step outside