During my stay in Portland i was trying to get the best microbreweries, I was instructed that I had to visit a McMenamins, and was quite a quirky treat. These Hotels/breweries are built on old renovated historical properties, like the Kennedy School. 35 guestrooms are situated in classrooms and the like in this 1916 School house. These properties are very neat, and i would highly recommend a stay at one of their properties for a unique vacation, some fresh brews, and some good food. Very Neat.
I am a sucker for wood fired pizza done right, and Lovely’s delivers big time. Cute, quaint little establishment with some serious passion behind the food. You walk in and there are Stacks of Oak waiting to be thrown in the brick over to fire up your new favorite pizza. The Crust had good snap, they had a simple yet satisfying menu, and there were some creative pizza’s on the menu.
I could eat a this place every day to be sure. loved it. I would definitely recommend this highly to get you out of your family style, or new york style pizza bubble, this is how pizza should be made. I, as I always do, ordered a Pizza Margarita to start, and then we ordered a unique pie, Oven Roasted Leeks, with Broccoli Raab and young Pecorino – fabulous.
No trip to Portland to review brew pubs and microbreweries would be anything near complete without a stop at probably the largest microbrewery in Portland (Actually the Bar Tender told me that Widmer had merged with Kona and New Belgium. Not sure about the extent of that, but the man who started it all still rides his bike to the brewery every day.
This place is mostly known for their Heffenweizen, which is nice, however it was great to taste some of their other offerings. This place seemed to me to have the most polished brews, very high end, crisp, clean interpretations of style, where some of the smaller brewers struggle with this…
The sausage with cheese dip was amazing, as were the brews…especially the Russian Raspberry Imperial Stout. You have to try that one!! Very nice place. So far my favorite food as well at at a pub.
On the third day of my culinary quest to bring to my readers a first hand exposure to the famed Portlandian Micro-Breweries, arguable one of the best regions for micro-brew in the word, I had to give Hopworks Urban Brewery a shot.
This particular pub stood out because not only were the beers very good, albeit Hoppy (too much so for my tast – like much of Portland - they are organic. They won best bathroom in Portland for the Head rest, which is a recycled banana seat from an old bicycle – Pic below. The have a ton of bicycle themed art, and re-use going on. The food was also very good. I had the southwestern style Quinoa Dish, which was very good….I would return, the food was definitely better the Rogue, but the beer was not…
Sooo, on my up to Portland (Roadtrip) I was the very fortunate recipient of a blow out flat tire in around Mendocino County. I rode my nearly full size spare all the way to Portland because Nobody carries my tire size apparently!
That said, once in Portland I was able to get my tire replaced, while I did so I had about an hour to kill so I walked around looking for something unique to review for my avid readers and I stumbled across a little parking lot that was filled with food trucks (or trailers to be more precise). More then this, there was an adjacent bar called Quimby’s that allowed you to bring in your food to their facility watch TV and eat your food truck food. Very nice of them, so I actually ordered 2 meals and tasted them both. I had a fantastic Torta from El Diablito, and i had some Brisket from Brisket’s in Slab Town. Both Items were very high quality and very tasty. I would like to go back and try some more variations of the Torta’s!!!
So, I have seen several food network and and travel shows that talk about this unique little doughnut shop, now serving several location in Oregon. So I stopped in for a visit, after having a solid experience with the Bacon Maple Ale at Rogue Brewery, I was eager to try the doughnut that inspired it!
I stopped by one of their Portland locations and tried the staple Voodoo Doughnut with the Voodoo Doll and a Pretzel stabbed through his heart. delicious, filled with raspberry filling. All of these treats were fantastic, definitely a recommended Portland staple…
So, I have been a big fan of Dead Guy Ale for quite some time, I never did, however, connected the Suds Sipping Portlandian culture with this brew (brew ignorance), all I can say is that this place rocks some tasty brews.
I sat down and ordered an Amber Ale, and some WINGS, as I always do at a brew put, it is my first judging point on the quality of the food. This Place served me the wings RAW still, that is right I bit into a raw chicken wing, only cooked on the outside. Gross.
Then I ordered up a bacon cheese Kobe burger, which was good, not great, and I tried a beer sampler. All in all this place was in downtown Portland, had great brew, but so far I was disappointing in the culinary culture that these ale houses endorse…Come on Portland, I need some good grub.
They have great unique brews, including the Bacon Maple Voodoo Donut Ale!!!! Check out the photos below!
