Hey all. I'm planning an Alaska trip next year and I'll be hitting Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Homer. Is there anywhere I need to go? Besides the obvious Anchorage Brewing, Midnight Sun, and 49th State. I am also looking for food recommendations. Thanks!
Fairbanks: Black Spruce, Silver Gulch & HooDoo. For sure HooDoo. And make sure you do the bus tour in Denali Natl Pasrk. Make your reservation in advance as they do sell out. There's lots of Cruise ship tourist there in the summertime. Also do dinner at the Pump House next to the river. Decent beers on draft. The salmon chowder is killer. Anchorage: Chilkoot Charlie (for the atmoshpere) The Great Alaskan Bush Company for the Girls, Girls, Girls. Oh yeah! Back in the days (mid 80's) they let us bring our own cooler of beers inside. Im sure things have changed by now.
Anchorage - Anchorage Brewing - Cynosure Brewing - Girdwood Brewing - Turnagain Brewing - La Bodega bottle shop - Tent City - tap house. - Midnight Sun is a nostalgia act these days; fallen way off Homer - Grace Ridge - St Elias (Soldotna) Fairbanks - Black Spruce
I'll second Girdwood. Great place, great location, great beer. And as someone from outside Alaska, we went to Midnight Sun twice in five days. It was awesome!
Awesome, this is a nice list of places. Any suggestions for places between Fairbanks and Anchorage and between Anchorage and Homer? I don't mind going out of the way a bit for excellent beer and/or food.
Not too many side roads in AK so there are many roadside breweries on those drives: Anchorage to Homer Girdwood Brewing - 5 miles off the highway, but Girdwood is a destination in itself for hiking and views. Ride the tram. Eat at Double Musky, Jack Sprat St Elias in Soldotna is right on the highway, good food, good pizza Kenai River Brewing right on the highway in Soldotna - great food, hit of miss on the beer Coming soon in Sterling right on the highway is Naptowne Brewing Cooper Landing has a brand new beautiful Brewhouse in Cooper Landing Homer is small so it’ll be easy to hit Grace Ridge and Homer Brewing - I’d go to Grace Ridge if you only have time for one Anchorage to Fairbanks In Wasilla you have Bearpaw River, Last Frontier, Bleeding Heart - Bleeding Heart has some very interesting experimental brews, Bearpaw River is solid on traditional styles. All on the highway Talkeetna is worth the detour and as I’d Denali Brewing. 2nd biggest brewery by volume in the state - Twister Creek is their flagship and is a great old school IPA for crushing 6 by the fire, mead, spirits too In Denali Park - Prospectors Pizza - great pizza / tap list for being in the middle of nowhere 49th State in Healy - definitely worth a stop, awesome outdoor seating and good place to let the kids run around. It’s big and usually busy - lots of food and beer options - everyone will be happy with this stop Nothing else until Fairbanks If you make it to Seward- look for Stoney Creek Brewing. Seward Brewing doesn’t do it for me for food or beer - except their TK Stout. That one is amazing. The best food / beer experience is Anchorage Brewing but you may get sticker shock at both. Pours are generally $7-$20 and a bratwurst was $18. No flights. But amazing space and arguably the best beer. For me Cynosure is a close 2nd with flawless European styles and a great variety of food trucks. Lots of smaller no hype neighborhood breweries and anchorage. They all bring something slightly different to the table and there’s more every year.
I'll add on to what @unclekeith said and start with - if you're going to hit Anchorage and Turnagin, you will likely (or might as well) hit King Street too, since you literally can't get between the two without passing it. I'll mostly agree that Midnight Sun is nostalgia, as I've not been very impressed with anything out of there lately, however they do usually have some pretty great food. If you're downtown and hitting Tent City (which you should - definitely things you won't find elsewhere) and 49th State, might as well pop in Glacier Brewhouse and see if there's anything interesting on. Their core beers are rapidly becoming just ok by today's standards, but their barrel aging program is outstanding and worth a pour. The food is also above average. Humpy's has mostly been ousted by Tent City in terms of interesting taps. I'd definitely add Onsite to the Anchorage list. Other food places that I frequent when I go to ANC: Snow City Cafe - best breakfast spot in town, in my opinion Spenard Roadhouse - great dinner spot from the same owners Fat Ptarmagin - great wood-fired pizza place downtown Mexico in Alaska - good mexican joint on the south side. South - great food on the southside. from the folks behind Snow City, et al. Hearth has good pizza and a good taplist. I'll also say that there's not nothing between Healy and Fairbanks.... I'd say that Skinny Dick's is a great stop between the two for a laugh if nothing else. In Fairbanks, as stated above do not miss HooDoo or Black Spruce. Newcomers Midnite Mine and Lat 65 are rumored to be worth checking out (I've not made it back up since they've been open). Lavelle's Taphouse is a great spot as well. There's no shortage of great thai food in Fairbanks (Lemongrass is my favorite). The Pumphouse as @dcgunman mentioned. I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting but Fairbanks isn't exactly known for great food (outside of lots of great thai food) but maybe there's a FBX BA who can add...
