Upcoming Bend/Portland Trip

Hello, All!

I have been perusing your threads for a while and have accumulated a decent amount of suggestions for breweries. I will be flying out next Wednesday and staying until December 4th. My plan is to spend the 29th in Portland and head down to Bend for the night on the 30th. We will then return on the 1st to Portland for the rest of the trip and make a swing out to Tillamook at some point.

Activities so far: Holiday Ale Fest and A Perfect Circle concert
Hopeful breweries/stores to check out: Ale Apothecary, APEX Bar, Belmont Station, Boneyard, Cascade, Crux, De Garde, Deschutes, Fat Head's, Great Notion, Hair of the Dog, Johns Marketplace, Pelican, and Upright
Food: Blue Star Donuts and Pine State Biscuits

Trying to find some recommendations for coffee roasters/shops, restaurants and anything else sight seeing that shouldn't be missed while out there.

 

Hope to get up early to get to Bend at a reasonable time. Heard that Whitewater is a nicer/calmer place than Deschutes which is perfect for me.

Digital Pour is a pretty cool site and app. Wish places had that here!

 

Noted!

Thanks everyone for the tips... hope I dont need to use any chains, get enough winter garbage over here. Not that it would be a bad thing trapped in Oregon.

 

Where do I start...?

Day 1: We landed and headed directly to Lardo for lunch and the Modern Times pop up tent. We got the Banh Mi and Chef Special for sandwiches. After that we headed over to Hair of the Dog and the two stand outs were definitely Jim and Yellow Peach Adam from the Wood. We then grabbed our room and walked down to the HolidayAle Fest, my favorite beer of the festival was Drake's Santa's Brass which we almost passed up. We figured we hadn't drank enough so we walked over to Fat Heads for a couple and grabbed a happy hour pizza (which I was scolded for by friends that said I needed the wings).

Day 2: Up early to head down to Bend, made a quick stop and Blue Star donuts for breakfast and coffee. The lemon poppy seed donut was legit, coffee was very good as well so we grabbed a beans to take home. Drive down flew by due to the mountains and scenery and the chains we bought never had to be put to use. Got to Boneyard and had all the samples and asked for a recommendation for lunch. We were told to head over to Wild Rose and their was no disappointment in that recommendation. We got the spare ribs and some sort of spicy noodle dish.

We then made our way over to Ale Apothecary, we were the only two in there the entire time which I dug as the wife of the brewer just chatted with us and told us everything about the beers. We had Sahalie, Be Still and La Tache from the offered opened bottles. The pine worked in the La Tache quite nicely. She recommended a few bottles and we ended up choosing the Blueberry La Tache that was phenomenal. We took a bottle of Cognac El Cuatro home and that didn't disappoint either. As we were leaving she recommended us to head to Hood River to check out the waterfalls and pFriem. Then made a quick run over to Crux for the sun down happy hour. Most of the beers were alright, the highlight was the meat/cheese platter and Tough Love.

Day 3: Up early again and googled for some breakfast places and landed on Bad Wolf Bakery and Bistro. This will be one of the highlights of the trip, probably the best breakfast we have had. I got the Fried Chicken benedict on jalapeno cornbread. Unfortunately the owners were dirty Packer fans, but the table next to us chastised them for it and happened to be Viking fans, small world... Made a quick stop to Deschutes which didn't serve for a few hours but we were able to grab a bottle of Murder in the Rye, which ended up to be infected.

Hit up many little stops on the way to Hood River including the Pete Skene Ogden State Scenic Viewpoint which was pretty cool. Got to pFriem and ordered a flight, the IPA's were decent, the BA Stout surpassed expectations. Was going to end up passing on Druif but our server talked us into it and was one of our favorites, slightly beating out Frambozen.

As we were heading out, I had remembered good things about the Volcanic Bottle Shoppe, so we made a quick stop. Stop lasted a little longer than expected, ended up leaving with a MoaS, B-Bomb and couple others for the room. Had an overly friendly local who tried to talk us out of driving back to Portland and staying at his place. I didn't want to become a lamp shade so we rolled the dice on driving back to Portland. Even though most things were closed up due to the fires we were able to get a little glimpse of the Multnomah Falls. Once back in Portland we had Apizza Scholls for dinner, that was some fantastic pizza!

Day 4: Another early morning that started at Pine State Biscuits for the Reggie Deluxe and then it was off to Tillamook. We got in pretty early and was able to check out the Cape Lookout as well as the cheese factory. Had one of the best grilled cheese sandwiches I have ever had and more than enough ice cream. We then made our trip over to the wrong location for De Garde, haha. Once to the proper location we were able to get a seat at the bar which we occupied until they closed for a special event. We purchased bottles for on site consumption first (Broken Truck, Nectarine Premiere, and The Bluest). We then went to order the on tap beers and Brass Berries kicked, to which they replaced with Nectarine Premiere...

Once we left down $2-300, we thought we would go spend some money at Pelican. Got a quick flight and bite and made our way back to Portland for the A Perfect Circle concert. The vocalist was a bit sick but got into a groove near the middle and got the songs I wanted that we didn't get at our local show.

Day 5: Early morning start at Stumptown Coffee Roasters, stop at the White Stag sign and another stop at Blue Star donuts. Got the joy of seeing my least favorite UFC fighter, Jake Shields, in line for donuts. Made a quick stop at Fat Heads to reconcile not getting the wings. Then headed back to Hair of the Dog to get the ones we wanted from the on site bottle list (Doggie Claws, Maja, Otto).

We then made our way over to Great Notion and tried everything on tap minus a hiccup with our waitress. She stated a beer wasn't on tap even though it was on the board and was posted 2 hours prior as being on tap. We walked up to the bar and got a pour, she then never came back to our table. DDH Juice Box, U-Pick, and Double Stack were a few of our favorites.

Starting to wear down from the onslaught of beer we made our final brewery stop at Cascade. The small pour sizes were very much welcomed. The Glueh Kriek which is served hot stood out quite a bit, didn't expect to like it that much. As we head out, I see Blind Pig and Pliny are on tap at APEX, choke those down and then head back to the room.

Day 6: Another stop and Pine State Biscuits and hop on the plane home.

Day 7: Snow storm and my 10 minute commute to work takes 50 minutes... Great to be home!

(I will try to add some pictures later, got all the typing out of the way.)