Tag Archives: seattle

More cool stuff in Portland

We went to Portland a couple of weeks ago to drink beer, eat food, and have good times. The trip was a rousing success. I’d never been to Portland, but I really liked it. It’s a really laid back place with great beer and food all over the place. One goal of our trip was to eat at as many Diners Drive-ins and Dives joints as possible. If you haven’t seen that show, you should probably start watching it.

On the way down to Portland we stopped in Seattle for dinner at Bizarro Italian cafe, a triple-d spot. We had to wait for about half an hour to get a table, but it was well worth it. Bizarro was started by a few ex-circus performers who built their circus flair right into their restaurant. On top of that, all of the food was better than good and the Elk Bolognese was awesome. I’d definitely head back there.

Once we arrived in Portland, we checked into our hotel and began wandering the streets for a place to have a beer. We stumbled upon the Life of Riley Tavern, a simple pub with over 20 taps of excellent quality Western American beer. There is only one place I can think of in Vancouver that has 20 taps of the good stuff and that’s the Alibi Room. We didn’t even have to try to find a similarly stocked pub in Portland, which is no knock on the Alibi Room and a tremendous compliment to the Portland beer scene.

The next morning we set out for a triple-d breakfast at Byways cafe. Again we had to wait, and this time I’d say the wait wasn’t quite worth it. Breakfast was good, but not spectacular. I do believe Byways is better known for their burgers, so it’s a shame we didn’t head their later in the day. I couldn’t resist ordering their biscuits and gravy, a dish I’d only ever seen on TV before. Sadly, I couldn’t finish half of the southern classic. This has never happened to me, I swear! Turns out baked fat with extra fat poured on top resulted in gastrointestinal impotence. Maybe the south shouldn’t be opposing health care so vehemently? I think I’d have had a heart attack if I’d tried to finish my gravy covered biscuits.

Biscuits and Gravy from Byways Cafe

Later on in the day we tried to visit another triple-d join, one we were all eagerly anticipating, called Pok Pok, It serves Vietnamese, Thai, and other Asian style dishes, but sadly we didn’t get to taste any because it opened hours later than our visit. Shoot, maybe next time.

In the early afternoon we visited the Deschutes Brewpub, which served the full compliment of Deschutes beers. I do believe we managed to try each beer collectively and they were all good to wonderful. I was amazed at the sheer size of the brewpub, which was twice as big as any brewpub in Vancouver and quite busy too. The atmosphere was great their too. We didn’t try the food, but the food we saw others tables receiving looked very tasty. Sadly, we decided to eat at the Rogue bar in town later on. The food and the atmosphere their were nothing to write home about. They did serve the full compliment of Rogue beers, but the place was disappointing in that it was a bit run down. We also visited the Rock Bottom pub in town and we found it to be rather generic and unexciting, definitely nothing to write home about.

Us Guys at Deschutes in Portland

Our last brewery visit of the weekend was to Tugboat Brewing, Portland’s oldest Brewpub. The place was a bit of a dive, but we really enjoyed their Chernobyl Imperial Stout. It was a bit of a handful at 13% ABV, but also a trip to flavor town. A glass of Chernobyl cost all of $3 and a pitcher cost $13, steep! I seem to recall us ordering some tasty nachos, again for not very much money, but it was late in the day and I may not be recalling correctly. Also, we really liked the live jazz music at Tugboat and the opportunity to play Jenga.

Erik Playing Jenga at Tugboat Brewing

The next day we used Yelp to find two good places to eat. We had breakfast at the Utopia Cafe in Portland, which again required a long wait, but was tasty. I don’t think I’d wait so long again though. We had dinner at Flying Squirrel Pizza in Seattle and it was amazing. It was the best pizza place I’d ever been too. The crust was excellent and the toppings were exotic and well combined. I still dream of flying squirrel pizza the odd night, go there.

Flying Squirrel Pizza in Seattle

Cheers,

Chris

Seattle Beer Culture

I was in Seattle this past weekend for yet another stag. I am always impressed by the beer selection that almost everywhere in Seattle seems to have. We did actively seek out some fine purveyors of beer, but we also visited a few places we were surprised to find had an excellent selection of craft beer. And yet even some among our group of Canadians held onto the notion that Canadian beer is superior to American, a notion I’ve refuted as a myth on this blog. I hope that Vancouver can one day match the availability, not to mention affordability, of excellent craft beer that we came across in Seattle.

On Friday we began our weekend with a few pints in the Pyramid Brewing beer garden across from Safeco Field. The beer garden was packed full of the Mariners pregame crowd and provided a very festive atmosphere. Pyramid had five beers for sale in the beer garden, including an amber, a blonde, an IPA, a hefeweizen, and their famous apricot ale. I thoroughly enjoyed the beer garden at Pyramid, an experience enhanced by my soon to be married friend dressed in a beaver suit. If only the Mariners game could have measured up to the pregame. This was my first live baseball game and I found it even more boring than baseball on TV. I may have loudly expressed my opinion to anyone nearby, and for that I apologize. The few too many pints at Pyramid beforehand may have contributed to my rudeness. The best part of the Mariners game was the members of the crowd who stopped by to gawk at my poor friend the bachelor. Seriously though, if you’ve ever seen hockey, how can you like baseball? Anyway, I was very impressed by the beer selection at Safeco, which is funny because this Washington beer blogger doesn’t share my opinion. He’d be sorely disappointed with the beer on offer at GM Place.

After the game, or maybe before the game ended, we went to a bar called Cowgirls, which is a wonderful place to a take a bachelor. Think Coyote Ugly with better looking staff. After Cowgirls, we bypassed the next morning and headed straight out for lunch a little worse for wear. We found a pub called the Fox Sports Grill right beside our hotel. By the way, we stayed at the Sheraton in downtown Seattle for a mere $94 a night thanks to Hotwire.com. The Fox had twenty odd craft beers on tap and also afforded me my first crack at an undercooked burger. In Canada, burgers must be cooked well done, whereas I was able to enjoy my burger cooked medium. It is official, burgers cooked less than well done are delicious. We are too paranoid up here.

After lunch, we headed to West Seattle Golf Course for a round. Being a public facility, the course was very affordable, but also very crowded. How do you spice up a six hour round? You try to run over your buddies golf balls with your cart, accidentally flipping it with yourself still inside. That hurt. And no, I was not inebriated from consuming some of the excellent beers for sale at the course. I am just stupid. Even public golf courses in Seattle have solid beer selections. I’m starting to get bitter here.

For dinner we headed to the Taphouse and Grill, also very near to our hotel. The Taphouse has 160 taps of interesting beer with samplers of four available for $9.50. This place was heaven for me and I wish I could have spent a lot of time at the bar, but maybe another time. I didn’t even know how you could fit 160 taps into an establishment, but they had them all in there, wall to wall and staggered at two levels. I tried to take a picture, but my crappy iPhone camera failed me in the dim light. When you consider that our top beer bar, the Alibi Room, has only 19 taps, it puts 160 taps into perspective. Wow. That evening took us too a few more bars and pubs, none of particular interest to beer enthusiasts. The last day, we headed straight for lunch again, this time stopping at the Pike Brewing Brewpub, another fine establishment.

It was another succesful stag, one where we enjoyed far too much excellent beer. Seattle really is a great beer destination. I can only hope to say the same about Vancouver in a few years.

Cheers,

Chris

Pyramid and Bottleworks

On day two of our Seattle beer excursion, we all woke up a little worse for wear. The highlight of the morning involved Erik realizing he did not bring enough clothes and running to the store to buy new pants. After a rejuvenating greasy breakfast, we headed for Safeco field to buy some Mariners tickets for a future trip. There we found Pyramid Alehouse and what choice did we have but to stop in? I can’t say I felt like drinking more beer and I don’t think anyone else did either. That didn’t stop us from ordering their tasting rack of five sample size glasses. I found their beer enjoyable (a feat that morning), but not overly interesting. I think their wheat beers would make great summer sippers.

We next visited Bottleworks, a beer store of which there is no comparison in Vancouver. Brewery Creek is great and I love it, but they have to deal with our pesky socialist liquor system. Bottleworks has many great beers that I just can’t get here. When I first walked in from the sunshine, I found the store so contrastingly dim that I couldn’t see. While walking into shelves, I realized that Bottleworks was protecting their beers from harmful light. Good on them. I wish I could have stayed there for hours, but the wives were getting anxious for the Seattle Premium Outlets (worst place on earth). I ended up leaving with:

I can’t wait to drink them. Pictures of our excursion below:

The bar and my stupid face at Pyramid

The recovered Wolfes at Pyramid

The Chandler Family, downright chipper

The tasters all lined up

A fridge at Bottleworks

Holly shopping at Bottleworks, way better than the stupid outlets

Making our selections

Most of Bottleworks

Cheers,

Chris

Feierabend is good German times

Erik and I, as well as Peter and our wives, went down to Seattle this past weekend for the Washington Cask Beer Festival (another post to follow). For obvious reasons, we thought it a good idea to get something to eat before the festival. After scouring the internet for the most appropriate place we stumbled onto Feierabend, a German restaurant with an excellent German beer selection. Google Translate informs me that Feierabend means “closing time” or “end of work”, but we were just getting started.

We were put off by the sketchy website and the disconnected phone line, but decided to try our luck anyway. My anxiety was not assuaged after it appeared we were heading for the middle of nowhere, but were pleased to find an open Feierabend tucked away in a Yaletown like alley. We were not the least bit disappointed with our restaurant selection after we walked in. It was a well put together pub and they did indeed have many lovely taps of rare (at least for us Canadians) German beer. I was delighted with both the Spaten Helles Bock and Hacker-Pschorr Alt Munich beers I chose. Everyone else was happy with their beer also (except for Darci, who dutifully abstained). The food was merely good, attempting German authenticity. I had a bratwust sandwich with sauerkraut and spaetzle, which wasn’t overly impressive, but we couldn’t complain at such reasonable prices. I would definitely go back.

It was also at Feierabend that my wife let me know how embarrassing the photos I put on this blog are. Apparently my iPhone doesn’t cut it, not that I really minded. It is true, neither Erik nor I are much into photography, assuming we remember to take pictures in the first place. The solution? Get the wife to take the pictures, her handiwork is below.

In retrospect, consuming copious amounts of German beer before the festival may have been a mistake and surely contributed to the fiasco that followed. Stay tuned.

Erik and Chris looking foolish at Feierabend

The wives

Beer and pretzels

Beer eye view

Me and my Spaten Helles Bock

Peter with a Dunkelweizen

Not the best spaetzle I've had

Cheers,

Chris

Seattle and Beer

I went to Seattle last weekend. It was my friend’s stag – he likes beer – we drank beer, and then some whiskey.

We left Vancouver in the late morning and arrived in Mount Vernon for lunch at the Skagit River Brewery. I fell in love with Skagit River Brewing from the minute I stepped out of my friend’s truck – the entire area surrounding the brewery smells like BBQ – not that fake propane BBQ smell, it was real smokey barbecue goodness. I love BBQ and therefore love Skagit River Brewing. I discovered this brewery a few months ago while on my way home from a weekend in Leavenworth – it smelled like BBQ then as well. The beer was terrific, the pulled pork was beyond description and all was right in the world. But good things cannot last forever and we were forced to move on in pursuit of more beer.

The Elysian Brewing Company in Seattle’s Capitol Hill region was our next stop . My job was to navigate – I did not do a good job – Google Maps let me down – my friends laughed at me – we still found it. Elysian Brewing is incredible; their beer is flavorful, creative and fun to drink. Elysian Brewing is innovative while remaining true to beer’s four key ingredients: water, barley, hops and yeast. I have no problem with adjuncts – they use them all the time in Belgium and I’m sure they use them at Elysian from time to time. However, it is always impressive to see a brewer create a diverse selection of unique tasting beer without relying heavily on novelty ingredients such as coffee or pumpkin. If you ever happen to find yourself in Seattle, please stop at Elysian Brewing - their round of tasters is a very welcoming discovery.

Gordon Biersch was our dinner stop and I cannot say any of us were impressed. The beer was okay, the food was not great, the service was mediocre and the atmosphere was somewhat “stuffy”. This brewery did not capture the creative spirit that the other two brewpubs had. When I visit a brewpub I expect to find unique tasting beer imparted by the brewmasters personal style and simple yet tasty food. Their beer was not bad and they had a good selection of German lagers, but this is not a place I would recommend to a true beer lover. But It was not all bad, we at least were able to have fun with the word Biersch – it is a fun name to say, especially after a few drinks.

I had planned to visit the Pike Brewing Company to give their barley wine a try, but the evening had other plans for us. After parading my friend around Seattle in a tight fitting A.C. Slater style wrestling suit we ended up at a cowboy saloon and spent the rest of the night drinking bourbon whiskey until our throats became too hoarse carry on.

Beer is such a great way to send a good friend off into the world a marriage.

Cheers,

Erik

Love Good Beer

We love good beer

Tag Archives: seattle

More cool stuff in Portland

Seattle Beer Culture

Pyramid and Bottleworks

Feierabend is good German times

Seattle and Beer