The Portland Taproom

Although it's a wee bit out of the way, this is one of the original PDX breweries, and still one of my favorites. People are somewhat polarized on the beers - personally I love Mactarnahans, but I'm not a fan of Mac and Jack's. I do like that you can get most of the Pyramid beers here (not quite sure if Pyramid still owns them or they split back up). I personally like the food here. Even the basics have a twist - the garlic rosemary fries are excellent. But the big draw for me is the chicken sandwich. They brine their chicken in pickle juice, and when you get it Buffalo style, it's the best in town. Its also HUGE. Sure the location is a bit out of town, but if you've been in Forest Park playing, they don't bat an eyelid and welcome you inside (in the winter there's a log fire going). All that, and not a hipster in sight.

Happy hour is great. I love their ribs on thr happy hour menu. Just a heads up since it it is part of the haapy hour menu there are 3 ribs so if you plan to share order some other plates. Occasionally the place around it smells like brewing beer, so depending on if you like that smell it can be a plus or a minus. But its a really nice place in the middle of an industrial area.

Along the lines of other fancy pubs. You won't find beers without categories like IPA here (so that's a no on the Bud), there are also house beers (and root beer). They do serve harder alcohol here as well. You also have the all important pub burger and pub mac and cheese (don't know why, but fancy pubs are all about the mac). They have rosemary fries which are slightly rosemary and all garlic, delicious but the name empasises the wrong flavor here. The sides you can choose from are many, with cowboy caviar and waffle fries on one end of the spectrum, and soups and salads on the other. You also have your choice of appetizers. The flavors are varying in terms of originality, but it's all above average, with certain items being near as perfect as you can get them. Nothing I got to try was bad, I mean the house root beer was boring, but not bad.

My husband and I are massive beer fans and the only option for our wedding reception was a brewery Nestled away in the industrial district, Portland Brewing was the perfect choice. Lynette was an absolute treat to work with. She knew exactly how much food we would need, she handled our desire for an ice cream bar so exceptionally. The staff was perfect. We are so thankful that they were able to set up our butcher paper and crayons as the table decorations. Everything was absolutely perfect.