Portland, Oregon has more breweries than any other city on earth. A visit to Portland without drinking beer is like going to Pisa and not seeing the Leaning Tower. For our annual anniversary getaway weekend, we escaped to the Rose City for a couple days of beer touring. It is a trip we highly recommend. Beer is everywhere, so you don’t need much help finding it, but here’s what our anniversary escape looked like.
Photo by Kim Sharpe Jones
First off, you need a place to sleep. We stayed in a lovely hotel in the heart of downtown Portland: the Heathman Hotel. Elegant, luxurious and exceedingly comfortable, they made us feel like well-heeled rockstars. Along with amazing food, the hotel’s restaurant offers an entertaining selection of draft beers. (We like it when a good restaurant also serves good beer.) The Heathman is within easy walking distance of some of downtown Portland’s best beer destinations. We walked to/from Higgins, Bailey’s Taproom and the Deschutes Public House.
Kim with Kurt. Photo by Kendall Jones
But before we arrived at the hotel… As we rolled into town on Friday afternoon, we stopped at The 5th Quadrant, one of Lompoc Brewing’s pubs. It is located in the north part of town, near the Mississippi neighborhood. Next, we were fortunate enough to meet Kurt Widmer who escorted us on a tour of his beautiful brewery and then sampled some uncommon beers at the Widmer Gasthaus Pub – beers that do not typically make it to Seattle, like the Marionberry Hibiscus Gose.
Great food at Higgins. Photo by Kim Sharpe Jones
That evening we went to Higgins (amazing upscale food and lots of great beer) and then to Bailey’s Taproom (home of the coolest, most informative and entertaining tap list EVER).
Photo by Kim Sharpe Jones
Saturday was about breweries. But first we needed to take care of a couple things. First, we needed some fresh air to help clear the fog out of our brains. A lovely walk through the rose gardens at Washington Park did the trick. Very romantic, by the way. Next, a visit to Belmont Station to load the Washington Beer Cruiser with beers that do not make it north of the border.
Belmont Station. Photo by Kim Sharpe Jones
First brewery, the Cascade Barrel House, of course. Then across the street to the Green Dragon – a great beer bar that doubles as home of Buckman Brewery. Next up, we headed to Hair of the Dog Brewing where we had a lovely lunch accompanied by unique and often awe-inspiring beers. A stone’s throw away we found the Commons Brewery tasting room, one of Portland’s newer beer destinations.
Cascade Barrel House. Photo by Kim Sharpe Jones
Back to the hotel to clean up for dinner and grab a cab. Off to Wildwood for our romantic, candlelit anniversary dinner. The food was amazing. Ridiculous, actually. While they only have four beers on tap, they are thoughtfully selected to go with good food and the bottle list is quite massive. Sadly, Wildwood has since closed, but we understand the owners will be popping up somewhere else before too long. An amazing dinner was followed by a cab ride to the Deschutes Public House, where we found a great selection of Deschutes beers served in a loud and bustling atmosphere. To end the night, a nice .7 mile walk back to the hotel.
Hair of the Dog. Photo by Kim Sharpe Jones
After a long walk along the river, and a visit to the Sunday version of the Saturday market, we headed to the Sunshine Tavern for brunch — I had a red beer. Basically, a Shandy made with house Bloody Mary mix and Pilsner (Kulmbacher Brauerai AG EKU Pilsner). I paired my drink with an amazing pork belly and crispy oyster frittata. Yep. That’s right. Sunday afternoon we went to Gigantic Brewing and watched the Sounders game with a bunch of Timbers fans and a horse. No kidding. On our way back north to Seattle, we finished the trip off with a stop for dinner at the Fishbowl Pub in Olympia.
Photo by Kim Sharpe Jones
A beer-themed, luxurious trip to Portland proved a rather dreamy way to spend our anniversary. Yes, gentlemen, I am blessed.
