Abyss

Excellent. If the weather holds, I think I'll add a visit to the brewpub to the list of "must visit" stops today.

Thanks for the tip!

 

That might actually be a better time to stop in.

The wife and I stopped by for lunch at around 2:45, and there was a minimum 30 minute wait for a table (had to be at least 20 or 30 people waiting to get in). I think the food and beer at the Deschutes pub are pretty good, but not so good that it's worth a 30 minute (or more) wait during off hours. Needless to say, we told the hostess we weren't interested, and went elsewhere for lunch and drinks.

Now I remember why I haven't been to the PDX pub in over a year now...

 

What did you think of the Matt Larry? I assume you must not have completely hated it, seeing as how you picked up a case of it. :-)

 

The Bend pub seems to be every bit as popular, and I'll be damned if I can figure out why. The last time I stopped in was last summer, and there was a crazy long wait to get a table. I was by myself, so I was able to get a lone spot at the bar. Otherwise, I want to say that the wait for a table was more than an hour... and damn if there weren't people adding their name to the wait list anyway. The menu is pretty much just standard pub grub with a few specialty items; it's hardly what I would call any sort of fine dining destination. IMHO, there are a lot of places with much better food and a decent tap list in Bend (even the food at the St. Francis school McMenamins was superior to the Deschutes pub - at least that was our impression).

As for the PDX pub.... granted, the pub is located in a prime downtown spot and the food there is pretty good, but on the other hand, once again there are all kinds of good places to get food around that part of town, and also have a decent tap list. Most of the folks I saw waiting for a table yesterday did not appear to be there for the Abyss release. I mostly saw couples and families, who appeared to just be looking for a snack in between shopping (if was very crowded downtown yesterday, for all that the temps were pretty frigid). Unfortunately, I was with my wife (who really wanted a snack, and it didn't have be from the pub), or I would have just walked into the bar area and ordered a couple of sample glasses. Usually, if you're just by yourself, you can generally get something at the bar without any problem (though you may have to stand around with your drink in hand). I'm tempted to do that today, except it's such a pain in the ass to deal with the traffic, find parking, etc.

 

So, I bit the bullet and stopped by the pub this morning. At least at 11:25, there was no wait and I was able to get a spot at the bar. Currently, the only Abyss on tap is the 2016, both on nitro and regular gas. There are still bottles of the 14, 15 and 16, but that's it. Was told they sold out of all the variants a couple days ago. However, stores in town should start getting their allocation some time this week.

That's all I know.

 

I think the food is better over at Deschutes, but I can't argue with your assessment of the beer at Fatheads (as it compares to the beer at Deschutes). The new Abyss is fine, but I saw nothing on the tap list otherwise that I even wanted to sample. Fortunately, Growler Guys is now open, they have the NFL Redzone on, and I'm happily drinking a glass of Maui Wowie (which is flat out superb).

 

I honestly don't know. The times I've been there, there were definitely a lot of tourists there(people from Kansas who were miffed and disappointed that they couldn't buy bottles of Abyss in August), but there seemed to be a fair number of locals there as well. Nothing against the beer and food selection at the Bend location, but I just couldn't figure out why anyone would wait an hour for the experience. For example, Crux and Bend Brewing both have way better and more interesting food and beer (IMHO).

@sharpski would be a better person to weigh in on this, as he lives up that way.

If there were nothing but tourist types at both or either location, that would make complete sense to me. However, both locations seem to be very popular with the local population as well. That's understandable to some extent, but it seems weird to me that someone from Portland or Bend would be willing to wait for a half hour or an hour for a pretty mundane food and beer experience.

 

This is pretty annoying. Have so far gone to the MofC by my house (Terwilliger), the Bridgeport WF's and the Deschutes Pub, and have struck out at each place.

It's starting to affect my normal jolly Christmas holiday outlook. :-)

 

In retrospect, I'm kicking myself for not going over there instead. However, I thought there was a better chance that the WF's store might have some remaining bottles of CCBOMB, and I couldn't resist the lure of a $10 six pack of Lagunitas High Westified. Serves me right.