$3 (or less) Pints Any Day of the Week

It’s no surprise that we’re surrounded by great beer out here in Portland. And due to their less restrictive laws (compared to Minnesota), if you want a particular beer, we’ll go with Laurelwood Free Range Red as an example, you have more options than just going to one of the Laurelwood locations. Not only can you find bottles of it at many stores, but you can find it on tap at many other local establishments.

Beyond good beer, there are some darn good prices to be found as well. First of all, since there’s no sales tax here, the price listed is the price. Not only easier on the wallet, but super easy when figuring the tab. Secondly, if you look around you can find some rock bottom prices on really good beer. If you’re coming out this way and are looking for some cheap drinking, or just want to torture yourself if you’re not, check this out.

Monday-Friday 3-6pm:

$2.50 taps at Bread & Ink Café

$3 pints at Alameda

Monday:

$2.50 pints of Lompoc beers all day at Oaks Bottom

$2 pints & $6 pitchers at Fire on the Mountain (6-10pm)

Tuesday:

$2 pints at The Eastburn (4pm-close)

$2.50 pints of Lompoc beers all day at Hedge House

Thursday:

$3 pints at Coalition (one beer selected each week)

Saturday:

$6 pitchers in Rock Bottom’s Pool Room (11am-4pm)

Sunday:

$10 pitchers at Coalition all day with an OLCC card

$3 pints of local beers at Hawthorne Hophouse all day

This is only a partial listing; I’m sure there are many more great deals around town that I’ve yet to discover. And although it doesn’t make up for missing out on the free hour of beers every Saturday at Town Hall or the four hours of $1 beers at Great Waters every Sunday, it certainly helps soothe the sting.

More Than Meets The Eye

Last night we went to the recently opened (two weeks as of Friday) Hawthorne Hophouse and thinking back about it this morning I didn’t think there was really anything to talk about. Overall, my thought was “meh” but when Mag and I were talking about it I realized our visit deserved more thought than just a quick morning-after thumbs up/thumbs down review.

Being newly opened there hasn’t been a ton of reviews but one of the comments I had heard repeatedly was that some people weren’t pleased about the beer pricing. Basically, the thought is that their beer is pricier than it should be. Having this in mind I made sure to take a look at the beer menu closely and I can’t disagree. That being said, the first two pints I had were less than $4 each (one from Natian, one from Alameda). In my mind the biggest point of contention is that there were some beers served in 10 oz that other places serve in pints and although I didn’t whip out the calculator to verify, it did seem that the pricing was a bit steep.

Looking past price and on to the 20 or so beers on the menu I remember my first thought was that nothing really caught my eye, whereas generally I see something that I just can’t wait to try. However, they had a solid line up with the majority being local beers. More importantly I realized (this morning) that if we had gone to another establishment and they had the same beers, plus some that jumped off the menu at me I probably would not have ordered what I did last night. And that would have been an unfortunate thing indeed because the stout, porter, and IPA (from Laurelwood) were all excellent beers.

Finally, as is becoming fairly commonplace in our experience, the service was subpar. It appears that we may have caught the staff on a shift change but that’s really not much of an excuse, especially considering that they were not that busy. In the future I would probably seek a seat at the bar in hopes of more attentive service.

My verdict: I wouldn’t have reservations about going back but unless someone else suggested it, it might be a while before I do so. They have some interesting looking food items on the menu that I’d like to try and it is relatively close to our house however poor service memories are long lasting and with the small size of the Hophouse I could see it being difficult to find a seat on a more popular night. Any guesses on how long it'll take me to make it back?