Portland Oregon is all about the Brew

Saturday morning dawned like a rainy Vancouver day. We were planning a brew day, starting with coffee and moving quickly into beer.  Our first mission was to find the closest Stumptown Coffee.  They brew seriously good coffee and we could have spent the morning sipping coffee and reading newspapers if the Bijou Cafe next door hadn't started to fill up.  Bijou makes an addictive Oyster Hash; cornmeal crusted fresh oysters with caramelized onions and potatoes. I had a hard timing sharing.   David had Roasted Cauliflower and Black Kale with sheep feta, olives and eggs and gave it a thumbs up.  Both in the 100 block of SW 3rd, good locations to combine with the Portland Saturday Market.


Portland has an excellent collection of public art and we spent the morning on an art crawl until we stumbled on the Hair of the Dog Brewing Company on SE Water Street.  I'd recommend sitting at the bar and trying a flight of beer, or try some of the 3 oz tastes.  They hand make sausages most days so lunch might be a good choice.  We learned a lot about barrel aged and vintage beer and a got a tip to try our next stop, the Upright Brewery in the basement of 240 N Broadway.  Buy a flight or two and sit between the giant steel tanks to enjoy the French and Belgian inspired brews. They have limited hours so check the website.  I was the abstaining driver and truly just tasting so David had to finish everything and by this point he was heading for tipsy.



Pok Pok was our destination for dinner and since they don't take reservations we'd skipped lunch and arrived just after 4.  It was filling up fast.  They offer a limited happy hour menu until 5.  I'd recommend arriving by 4:30 and have a cocktail or 2 from the great drinks selection.  They have over 25 Bourbons and many Whiskeys from around the world.  David tried a Whiskey flight and we were able to hang around until the full menu was available.  We tried the Papaya Pok Pok with salted black crab, Cha Ca Catfish and a Noodle soup special of the day.  All of them were bright and fresh but complex.  Great Thai food.  I wish I ate chicken because every table seemed to be eating the Chicken Wings with Fish Sauce.