Portland Recommendations (2022)

BA’s in the real!

 

I would add "Hot Suppa" to Restaurants

 

I overlooked this until now, but also should take off Timber Steakhouse as it no longer exists. Kind of an odd inclusion anyway as I have never heard one person mention the place. I assumed it was not great, although I never went there.

 

I’ve never even heard of it.

 

Finally after a 3 year delay then I should be in Boston in August.

Planning on taking the bus to Portland for a day trip. Arriving around 10 and heading back around 7pm. My spare days are a Friday & Sat. Leaning towards Fri as I take it Saturday are super busy ? Or does it not make much difference? On the opposite day then I'm thinking of taking the public transport down to Vitamin Sea's from Boston which appears to be a little over a hour away. Anyone done this recently, worth the effort ? I'm trying to utilizes my days the best I can, so any tips and suggestions would be gratefully received. Cheers

 

For your free day in Boston, check out this thread for more info: https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/boston-early-august.667063/

Ten hours in Portland sounds fun!
Allagash/Industrial Way breweries are far enough out of town that I would skip them on such a short trip. Or do them and skip the rest of Portland, your choice.

Bissell Brothers is awesome and is practically next door to the bus/train station, so that's a can't-miss.

Otherwise, do you have any particular kind of beer you're interested in?

 

Friday versus Saturday won’t make much difference in terms of crowds. If I had 9 hours in Portland, I’d focus on East Bayside (specifically Goodfire, Belleflower, The Shop, Oxbox/Duckfat) and make my way to Novare Res at some point. You will be arriving a bit too early for any of the drinking establishments, so maybe just walk around a bit at first and get some coffee. Bissell could be a nice place to end if you need some dinner and want to be close to your train.

 

Thanks for the replies. I'm mainly about the Haze, sad and predictable I know.
East Bay sounds a good shout. The instinct is to cram as much as possible in but a more paced day sounds the more sensible option. Luckily we get fairly decent access to beers from this neck of the woods in the UK. Cloudwater have a release tomorrow of Belleflower, VS, Trillium, Allagash, etc , I'll have to grab few to get me in the mood!.

 

Agree on what @rightcoast7 said for where to go.

However I just went this past weekend, and Friday was far more calm than Saturday. Saturday and Sunday were bananas up there. There were numerous places on Saturday that I've never seen that busy in any of my previous trips up there.

Could have just been that weekend though.

 

Driving from Toronto to Portland with my wife next week. First time visiting for both of us.

I put the guide below together using combined BA and RB place ratings. Wanting to know if there are any glaring omissions, or overrated places we should skip. Also up for any suggestions on worthwhile tourist attractions/things to do.

Plan is to arrive Saturday evening and leave around noon on Thursday, so our time will be a bit limited (Sunday to Wednesday are the main days while in town).

Any help is much appreciated.

Breweries / Brewpubs

Ø Maine Beer - 525 US Route 1, Freeport - RB: 95 / BA: 90 / CS: 93
Ø Allagash Brewing - 50 Industrial Way, Portland - RB: 91 / BA: 90 / CS: 91
Ø Oxbow - 49 Washington Ave, Portland - RB: 91 / BA: 86 / CS: 89
Ø Bissell Brothers - 4 Thompsons Pt Ste 108-109 - RB: 88 / BA: 88 / CS: 88
Ø Liquid Riot - 250 Commercial St, Portland - RB: 91 / BA: 80 / CS: 86
Ø Rising Tide - 103 Fox St, Portland - RB: 82 / BA: 84 / CS: 83
Ø Foundation - 1 Industrial Way‎, Portland - RB: 81 / BA: 84 / CS: 83
Ø Battery Steele - 1 Industrial Way, Ste 12, Portland - RB: 76 / BA: 83 / CS: 80
Ø Urban Farm - 200 Anderson St, Portland - RB: 77 / BA: 80 / CS: 79
Ø Bunker - 17 Westfield St, Unit D, Portland - RB: 76 / BA: 82 / CS: 79

Bars / Eateries

Ø Novare Res Bier Café - 4 Canal Plaza, Portland - RB: 98 / BA: 90 / CS: 94
Ø The King's Head - 254 Commercial St, Portland - RB: 87 / BA: 90 / CS: 89
Ø Eventide Oyster Co. - 86 Middle St, Portland - RB: N/A / BA: 88 / CS: 88
Ø The Great Lost Bear - 540 Forest Ave, Portland - RB: 87 / BA: 85 / CS: 86
Ø Duckfat - 43 Middle St, Portland - RB: 85 / BA: 86 / CS: 86
Ø Nosh Kitchen Bar - 551 Congress St, Portland - RB: N/A / BA: 86 / CS: 86
Ø Pai Men Miyake - 188 State St, Portland - RB: N/A / BA: 86 / CS: 86
Ø Mash Tun - 29 Wharf St, Portland - RB: 74 / BA: 95 / CS: 85
Ø The Thirsty Pig - 37 Exchange St, Portland - RB: 84 / BA: 83 / CS: 84
Ø LFK - 188A State St, Portland - RB: N/A / BA: 84 / CS: 84
Ø Central Provisions - 414 Fore St., Portland - RB: N/A / BA: 84 / CS: 84
Ø Slab - 25 Preble Street Ext, Portland - RB: 80 / BA: 86 / CS: 83
Ø Arcadia National Bar - 24 Preble St, Portland - RB: N/A / BA: 83 / CS: 83
Ø Little Tap House - 106 High St, Portland - RB: 80 / BA: 84 / CS: 82 (Arcadia)
Ø Flatbread Company - 72 Commercial St, Portland - RB: 73 / BA: 86 / CS: 80
Ø Salvage BBQ - 919 Congress St, Portland - RB: 74 / BA: 83 / CS: 79

Stores

Ø Bier Cellar - 299 Forest Ave, Portland - RB: 91 / BA: 89 / CS: 90
Ø Back Bay Superette - 1037 Forest Ave, Portland - RB: 73 / BA: 92 / CS: 83
Ø Old Port Spirits - 79 Commercial St, Portland - RB: 71 / BA: 84 / CS: 78

 

Man it's been a long time since I was in Portland. Gritty MacDuff's was the big thing last time I was there. I liked their Black Fly Stout

 

@cratez
Looks like a great list, although very ambitious for a Sunday-Wednesday. Some of those eateries are closed on Mondays as well. Any chance you could fly in instead of driving? You could add two days to crush that list!

-Mike

 

I like to organize my Portland trips around a couple of must-sees + geography.
- The must-sees are Bissell Brothers, Oxbow, and maybe Allagash. I would say Novare Res but (shame) I haven't gone there yet.
- Allagash is literally across the street from Definitive, Foundation, Battery Steele, and Austin Street. This bunch is about 30 min out of downtown proper. So that's one afternoon.
- Banded, Bunker, and Bissell Brothers are a little outside of the main neighborhoods. Banded is easy to stop by on the way to other things.
- Liquid Riot, Portland Beer Hub, King's Head, Mash Tun, Novare Res, Old Port Spirits are all in or near the tourist-destination Old Port neighborhood. Good for a long midday.
- Austin Street and Rising Tide are almost next door to each other and on the way to...
- Urban Farm, Belleflower, Goodfire, and Lone Pine make a good cluster that's not far from...
- The Shop/Oxbow/Duckfat Frites/Terlingua.

If you can do everything from Austin St to Terlingua in one day you have a heroic constitution. Or a commitment to small portions.

In short: there is more good beer in Portland than any mortal can drink. Think about how much time you want to spend on beer vs sightseeing, napping, etc. If you have any particular styles you want to look for we can steer you to them.

 

I underlined a few of my faves. I would agree with the other point - get a list of bars/breweries/restaurants in a certain neighborhood. I'm going next week for 2 nights, and one night will be: Austin St, Portland Zoo, Goodfire, Belleflower, The Shop, and Terlingua.
The other night will be: Scales, Novare Res, Thirsty Pig and that area.

Industrial Way is a hike and worth an afternoon. Maine Beer Co may be my favorite - the expanded venue is great, the beers are top notch, and their pizza is pretty good. The issue with MBC is that you have to uber there and back, which eats up a lot of time. We stayed in Freeport one night last year and just walked to MBC and Mast Landing. I also made it to Great Lost Bear, which is a great bar. But again, if you want to avoid driving, I'd nix it.

Bissell has fantastic beers, but the venue is not my fave. The outdoor space is meh, and it's not convenient to other places.

 

Thanks for all of this; it's really helpful! To your point about time, we will most likely make Allagash, Foundation, and Battery Steele an afternoon; Old Port and the surrounding spots another day; Urban Farm/Oxbow/etc. and tourist stuff a third day; and devote the fourth day to either Maine Beer Co. (driving) or Bissell Brothers and more tourist attractions. Hoping to hit Old Port Spirits for a beer haul on our way out of town Thursday. That would make for a pretty sweet trip, and your advice has helped us start to plan our days. Much appreciated!

 

Good to know! Thanks for the info. I hear you about driving to MBC; we will probably have a couple beers there and just grab a bunch of beer to go. If we can get a tour in that would be awesome. Great Lost Bear is a long shot as I haven't noticed much else around it, and we need to be concise with our time. Looking increasingly likely that we will focus on the clusters of good beers spots and nearby tourist attractions Sunday-Wednesday.

Still haven't figured out Saturday night yet, and wondering about bar/dining options that are open late. Also trying to figure out a worthwhile breakfast spot for Thursday morning. Any suggestions would be highly appreciated!

 

Great Lost Bear is very close to Bier Cellar and is in between Old Port and the breweries on Industrial Way, so you could make it either a stop out of Old Port or back in. I haven’t been to Great Lost Bear in years but I remember the tap list being great.

 

I think it'll be a pretty sweet trip however you do it, and I'm glad my infodump helped!

 

A few other details that I forgot to mention:

We are staying in Munjoy Hill, steps away from Oxbow, Rising Tide, Urban Farm, etc.

For tourist attractions, we are doing "The Real Portland" city and lighthouse tour, the Tall Ship Cruise on Casco Bay, and the Old Port Culinary Walking Tour (all on Tripadvisor if you're curious).

Besides Sunday, which is a free day that will probably be devoted to the Allagash/Foundation/Battery Steele tour and some food spots downtown, we need to figure which clusters of beer destinations are closest to the attractions we're visiting. The Old Port one is kind of self explanatory and has already been covered by mvogt, but I'm still working on the other two days.

Also trying to figure out a good beer spot for Saturday night, as we probably won't be in town until 6-7pm. I've noticed that lots of places seem to close early, and I'm wondering if any of the destination bars stay open until 12am-ish.

 

If you are planning on a beach day at all such as Old Orchard Beach, then I would highly recommend Barreled Souls in Saco while in that coastal area south of Portland. Someone above also mentioned Banded Brewing, which is in Biddeford village around 8 minutes or so from BS.