Much beloved breweries that have passed on!

Did you ever make it over to the old Rose and Raindrop pub on SE Grand Avenue? Outside of the Horse Brass, it was the only place I would ever see a number of cask beers available on a regular basis. I think Don Younger had some involvement with the place (I used to see him over there all the time), which in hindsight probably explains the reason behind all the cask beer.

They had HOTD stuff on cask so often, I just took it for granted that it must be easy to find cask HOTD all over PDX. Of course once they went toes up, I never saw any HOTD beer on cask ever again.

It was right on my way home from 2004 to 2007, and any time there was a hint of bad traffic, I'd say screw it and head over to the R&R until it had clamed down a bit.

They always had a pretty outstanding taplist, and if you could afford it, one hell of a bourbon selection as well. I think it was the first place I ever tasted Pappy van Winkle bourbon (at the recommendation of the bartender - I'd never heard of it. LOL!!!).

 

Agreed.

@derftron's comment about Bailey's (I feel the same way) made me think about the R&R again. I used to stop by fairly frequently back in the day, and I still remember when the bartender told me that the LL hadn't renewed their lease, and that the R&R was going to close for good beginning the new year in 2007. I literally couldn't believe it would really close. I thought for sure there would be some last minute reprieve and it would remain open.

Service was up and down, but the taplist was always very good, the food was solid and I loved the ambiance (pub was located in an old funeral parlor). The place just exuded character. It really hurt my heart when it closed.

The only upside is that the stupid bank that took over the building went belly up themselves just a couple of years later. If I could have, I would have danced on their grave.

 

Oops. Thanks for the catch. That was a typo. I meant 2007.

 

My exact reaction as well. I stil remember thinking that the atmosphere there was just so good, the beer would have to be pretty awful for me not to put it on the regular rotation list. As it turned out, the beer there really wasn't awful, but it was so mundane I very quickly stopped going there. I thought their impy stout was pretty decent, but otherwise...