Visiting Portland (Spring 2015 update)

Well, I'd like to point to the other side of the coin. Some folks like having places to take their kids, and some business owners fill that market niche. Some of us prefer to not have the lil ones running around whilst we relax over a pint, or 5, and some business owners fill that market niche. So while some places may not be legally able to allow children, there are other who are allowed to, but choose not to allow the kiddies.

In WA, you can allow children in a place if there is a separate bar area. Often, the only thing that "separates" the area is a 40 inch barrier, not a wall. I was at one of my favorite local spots on Sunday, which was pretty quiet. A few folks at the bar, and a couple couples having late lunches. Young couple comes in, and sits at a table with their 6month old (ish, I have no idea how to judge these things) baby. Like clock work, every 5 minutes that kid would let out a screech that sounded like a siren. They were there for over an hour. I was ready to duct tape that kid up.

I tell that story to show why some places may choose to not allow kids, even though legally allowed to. There are different approaches, neither is absolutely right or wrong.

 

And like I've said before, I hold no ill will towards any establishment that chooses to be 21+.

 

Used to be, in WA, to serve spirits, you had to have 5 meals on your menu. Things like pizza and tacos didn't count. I worked at a music venue in town that had a very nice oven, and made quite good pizza. In a freezer, we had 5 different frozen dinners. That's what it took to keep LCB happy. Maybe something like that is what's going on at Upright?

The local dance clubs do the same thing, although there is now a "Cabaret" license, that exempts places that are only open for events like live music from the food requirements.

 

Most places with a 'kids until' time is 8 or so. At least, all of the ones I have checked.
I noticed that in San Diego too. I think they may have a law specific to that.

 

And on the opposite end of the spectrum, which ones on the "Walk it off tour" would be BPF (bachelor party friendly)? Mainly something where we can find seating and decent service, not planning on getting rowdy or anything. Looking at the following --

Deschuttes
Hair of the Dog
Commons (added this in)
Cascade
Burnside

We are at the courtyard marriot in downtown, so any other that would be good for us would be welcome as well.

 

Any of the "Ballet Theatres" would work. Hell, ya can even get a $10 T-Bone with your ecdysiast delights.

 

that pretty much sums up the post I was in the middle of writing. If it were me, I would drop Burnside and go with the following route:

Cab/Uber/Bus to Cascade > walk (15-20 minutes) down to APEX & Beer Mongers > walk (8-10 mintues) up to The Commons > Walk (18-20 minutes) over to HoTD > walk (18-20 minutes) across the Morrison Bridge to Bailey's > walk (8-10 minutes) up to Deschutes > walk (3 muntes) west to Fathead's > walk (8-10 minutes) back to the Marriott.

If you need a break from walking you could take an Uber/cab from HoTD to Fathead's, and then work your way from there to Deschutes, Bailey's, and then your hotel.

 

Thanks for the tips guys. We will have a group of 12. It will be Saturday, July 12. Probably get going around noon/1 and finish by 6 ish. I like Apex for myself but I think these guys want to go to only breweries or brewery tap rooms.
I shoud have sad this before, but realistically we are probably only going to hit 3 places. Anymore may be a bit much if we plan on making it out later that night.

Thinking the must go to is Cascade and because Deschutes is semi close to the hotel we can do that too. Guessing we'd just need a stop in between so either HoTD or Commons would be logical if both accommodating?

 

The Acrop might be a bit of a hike to include in a walking bar crawl, but Sassy's is only a block from Cascade, and they have 30+ beers on tap.

I can understand wanting to stick to breweries, but doing so will cause you to miss out on tons of beers from breweries that don't have local pubs. If nothing else, try to hit Fathead's when you're near Deschutes (they have 25-30 guest taps), or swing by Bailey's for a nightcap since they're like 3 blocks from your hotel.

 

Thanks! Maybe I will work those in Friday or Saturday night.. the Groom wants a brewery crawl so if I gotta stick to those during the day.

 

I consider a bar and a brewery two different things but maybe I am alone on that. I have a 8 month old son who has gone with me to at least 4 breweries here in Texas. Many of them encourage the family atmosphere. I just dont consider most breweries the same as a bar.

 

Thought it would be nice to have an Traveler's Perspective: I was in PDX over the Memorial Day Weekend

Wow, what a great beer destination! The Sibling In-Laws were at work most of Thursday and Friday, thus giving me plenty of time to explore the different neighborhoods. All the taprooms were super accommodating and often would help and give recommendations of food and beer options. Many of them carry the Beer Guide to Oregon which is helpful if you have limited knowledge of neighborhoods.

Williams Street - Started at Tin Bucket ( Highly Recommend ) not sure if their tap-list is always so good but to name a few, bcbs, BA Victory at Sea, Supp, Consecration,.. paired with a nice little bottle shop. Made our way up yo HuB (hop works) ,pretty solid offerings, and pints during HH were like $3.50 , yes, Apparently Brewery HappyHours are a thing in Oregon. Also plenty of good food options on Williams.

SouthEast - We ubered from HuB to Cascade ( $9-10) , Cascade is a must, huge list of offerings, and they offer tasters on pretty much anything, I believe we had almost every selections. Cascade was within walking distance of quite a few things. Commons, The beer guys, Green Dragon and HotD, Im sure there are more. Stopped to play some pingpong at a bar right by cascade, the name escapes me. HotD had Adam from the Wood on tap, really solid, had a bottle of Otto, and thought it was decent, the bottle list is a fun novelty for us traveling folk , someone had actually bought a Dave earlier in the day ( Its fun to take a picture of the price tag on the Menu of $1500 and send it to your beer friends )

Mississippi Ave - Stopped at Storm Breaker and Ecliptic, Ecliptic was solid, preffered that to Storm Breaker,but hey, they are within a 5 minute walk of eachother. Get the fries at Ecliptic with the malt vinegar aoli. You are also relatively close to Widmer and Upright . Ubered to Fat heads ($6)

North West - Fat Heads was awesome, a beautiful space, with some great beers and a lot of variety, flights available which while tasting all day is fantastic, the food looked really good, but we had ate previously. Didn't stop at Deschutes as its available here, but that is only a block away, There is also a Whole Foods a block from Fat Heads which had a great bottle selections, Firestone, DeGarde and a Few Eclipse Variants, among many local options.

Finally, @deGardebrewing on the Coast, what a beautiful drive out there, we made a day trip and hit some hiking trails on the coast, Hit deGarde on our way back, the space is awesome and the staff couldn't have been more friendly, got there around 5pm Saturday and was still able to get a few Fruit Bu bottles to go. The on premise list is awesome (I want to bathe in Imperial Purple). There were maybe 10-12 people there, super chill. I'd say if you are traveling to PDX, it is 100% worth it to get out there, that was my beervana... only dissapointment was there lack of the DeGarde t-shirt in my size, only if they had an online store

 

Their tap list is generally solid, but you happened to hit them on their anniversary weekend and they pulled out all sorts of stuff from the cellar.

Beyond that, nice write up! it's always fun to hear an outsider's perspective.

 

i'll add some content, since we spent the weekend down in PDX and drove out to de garde on Sunday and also up the coast to Ft George. overall - great weekend.

we spent friday going from apex, drinking plenty of gems that i don't see much of in Seattle (felix love and a ton of barley brown's, specifically). cool place, but after my buddy got a $6 notorious that was 6oz, i started to see where the complaints about this place come from. we did a quick nightcap at cascade, which was excellent, and called it a night.

saturday we did the wonderful HOTD/Commons combo, followed by a hearty lunch at olympic provisions (damn, that's some fine meat!), followed by (!) the much anticipated stop at fat head's. is it even possible to say that i stopped at fat head's and offer no comment? i'll be straight: that place sucks. i think everything that has been said about fat head's has already been said, but my official stance is that it sucks and i'll presumably never go back. we restored some sanity by heading over to bailey's afterwards.

sunday was a great day, we opened up de garde and had plenty of great beers. hung out at the beach after, then headed over to ft george which was super cool and far exceeded my expectations.

OR beer continues to amaze me.