Pub Crawl

Don’t you love it when a plan comes together? It’s a notorious line from the 1980’s TV show A-Team. By the way, the movie is currently in post production and scheduled to release in 2009. I was downtown at a meeting a couple of weeks ago and saw an interesting pub that I had never been to. Before you ask, no, it wasn’t an AA meeting. I get into routines and always find myself going back to the same places, so my plan for Saturday was to meet my buddy Hank; go on a pub crawl in downtown Portland and only visit establishments that we have never stepped foot in. As I sit here on Monday Evening I must say… “Mission Accomplished!”

Final Stats: 7 bars 7 hours 2.8 miles

1          Buffalo Wild Wings         (Widmer Brothers IPA)

This was the only stop that I had previously visited, but it was chosen as a meeting spot as Hank was traveling on bike from the Hawthorn District and we needed a place to watch the second half of the Kansas vs Oklahoma football game. By the way, why would you continue to play a USC vs WSU match on 40 of your 50 televisions when USC is currently winning 62-0? I know we have a lot of Southern California transplants in this town but if I wanted to watch an unnecessary beating I would have preferred watching Cops.

2.         Kelly’s Olympian            (PBR Draft)

Kelly’s is an older establishment that was clearly a biker bar back in the day. My guess is that it has had some cosmetic work done in the last 5 years because someone obviously wanted to push the biker theme. The best part about Kelly’s was the photos on the wall. Many of them were older photographs of Portland. The head shifting part about Kelly’s though was the two 45 inch plasma televisions simultaneously broadcasting a black and white movie about Nazi occupied Europe. Humm…

3.         Tugboat Brewing Co.  (Hop Red)

I have wanted to visit this quaint brewery for a while. It is the second smallest brewery in Portland. I believe the bartender said they have a 4 keg brewing system, so I’m sure their taps change routinely. If you enjoy stouts, porters and the bitterest of hops this is a place you must visit. I sampled the bitterest beer I have ever tasted… maybe the PBR at Kelly’s set me up for that though. The bartender was friendly, however, he did subject us to a nature video in which he removed the soundtrack and replaced it with his own. I’m sure Van Halen didn’t intend on their 1984 hit “Jump” being played to the image of feeding lizards, but who knows. (I’m not joking)

4.         Bailey’s Tap Room (Firestone Pale)

Bailey’s is located across the street from Tugboat. This once Thai restaurant is now serving up a variety of Northwest Beers. I will revisit this establishment, the beer selection was awe-inspiring and since many of the taps were currently occupied with seasonal Fresh Hop brews, my guess is that they are changed often. The best part of Bailey’s was the availability of the classic strategic game Connect Four. There’s nothing like two guys attempting to make premeditated moves when they can’t even remember where they’ve been. 

5.         JAX (Full Sail Pale Ale)

JAX was selected due to the necessity of a bathroom after the long walk. The other reason was to catch up on all of the sports scores since none of the 3 prior establishments were offering sports programming.

6.         Yamhill Street Pub (Tall Boy Busch Can)

This Pub is located right off the Max line, so I have seen it several times. Not much I can say here. I think the photo and the fact that I paid $2.50 for two cans of Busch pretty much sums it up.

7.         Momo Bar Maximo (Don’t remember what I drank)

Stay away from 3 word titles when selecting your next dive to enter. If two words can’t adequately explain how much your establishment sucks, thee wont do much either. Maybe Maximo is of Greek origin and means don’t bother…  We ordered our drinks and hid in an over-sized red booth that I’m fairly sure was purchased at fixture auction from a bankrupt Chucky-cheese. Needless-to-say I was glad this was the last stop of the night. The only redeeming attribute was that Momo was located within 10 yards of the closest Max stop.

Tags: Bailey's Tap Room, Bar, Bufalo Wld Wings, Firestone Pale, Full Sail Pale, Jax, Kelly's Olympian, PBR, Pub, Tugboat Brewing Co., Widmer Brothers IPA, Yamhill Street Pup

This entry was posted on Monday, October 20th, 2008 at 9:51 pm and is filed under Canon, Photography, Portland, oregon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.