Now, unless you’ve been living under a rock (or not in Portland, I guess), you know that Deschutes opened their highly anticipated brewery and pub in the Pearl last week. Not wanting to go right on opening weekend, the boyfriend and I headed over on Tuesday evening after some shopping downtown and were greeted with a thriving crowd. We enjoyed some (now even more) locally brewed libations while waiting for our Olive Garden-esque pager to go off, signaling a vacated table, just for us. The place is HUGE, and by HUGE I mean really, really, really big. The indoor décor feels very Scottish with tartan carpets and lots of wood, and though the area is very open and tall, it doesn’t overwhelm due to the placement of separators (wainscoting, really) cordoning off sections of the floor. We were signaled after 25 of our expected 45-minute wait and were ushered to a table near the middle of the restaurant. We made sure the beer kept coming (enjoying new Portland-only brews as well as some old favorites) and ordered some food.

This is where the story gets interesting, kids - I had been reading all these reviews that there is some really good food at Deschutes - if so, I didn’t get much of it. I wanted to try the Elk Burger (being a game and a burger fan - not much there to go wrong), but instead went with the Cuban sandwich with a salad. The boyfriend ordered the fish and chips. The food was out incredibly quickly (though brought out by a different server, a pet peeve of mine, and without our requested sides), but when I bit into my Cuban, I was left wanting. It was okay, but it wasn’t really that good - the different meat tastes got lost in the saltiness of the corned beef, and the pepper tasted, well, from a tin. The bottom bread was soaked through with the moisture from the pepper, whereas the top slice was nicely browned and crispy. The salad was okay - just standard spring mix with a side of bleu cheese dressing (large hunks of actual bleu cheese were appreciated).

As we often do, the boyfriend and I stopped at our halfway points and swapped plates. Biting into the fish was a lovely crispy experience, but it seemed like the coating wasn’t “traditional” fish and chip coating and something more like Japanese panko. While it does provide a good crust, it just isn’t “fish and chips” to me without a proper wet coat before frying. It also seemed like maybe both the fries and the fish were fried at a slightly lower than standard tempurature, as the fries had taken on a lot of oil, and the fish was slightly flatish on one side and greasy on the bottom. The tartar sauce served was tasty, but there was no vinegar brought out (and we forgot to ask). The fries were the one saving grace - even though they were on the greasy side, they must fry them in something other than the standard cheapo soybean oil, because the flavor was fantastic. We eat our fries with mayonnaise, and these went perfectly together. They tasted like real potatoes (not re-formed starch), and we ate every single one of them.

All in all, go to Deschutes for the beer, and continue testing the food. It could have been an off night, but I checked with 3 others who visited the new pub within the last week who had the same experience. I’ll go back, of course, and try the elk burger (especially if the fries are that good consistently), and beer beer beer, the fantastic beer. Lovely glorious beer.

Stats!

Atmosphere: 7/10
Service: 7/10
Food: 5/10 (the fries upped the average a good 1.5 points)
Did I mention the beer?: 10/10

Deschutes Portland Pub and Brewery

210 NW 11th Avenue
Portland
(503) 296-4906

Bull Run water in a bottle? If it is for a good cause, why not? An interesting blog item from the Portland Water Bureau caught my eye today. It talked about how HotLips Pizza is bottling our Bull Run water in glass which is recyclable and “made right here in Portland from a very high percent of recycled glass to begin with.”

Proceeds from sales of the HotLips Pizza Bull Run Water are being donated to “drinking water advocacy.” The move is part of National Drinking Water Week, currently going on, and is targeted towards getting us away from water bottled in plastic in far away lands.

How does Bull Run Water taste, you might ask? You can swing by HotLips to find out, or just open your tap at home in most cases. It is also interesting to note there are other places around town where you can enjoy the local water in glass bottles.

Come one - come all - it’s time again for the monthly Metblogs Meetup!

We’re hoping the weather will hold so that we can sit out on their spacious patio, but if not we’ll be inside at Rontoms - located on the corner of E 6th & Burnside.

Writers, commenter’s and silent readers are all invited to come and chat about Portland, Metblogs, or what you’re going to do on your summer vacation.

Don’t be shy - come on over and say hello - we’ll even spring for the fondue!

Wed. May 21
5:00pm - ??
Rontoms
600 E Burnside St.
Portland, OR 97214
503.236.4536

It is indeed that time of year when Ben and Jerry’s celebrate their birthday with a free cone to you.  All participating Ben and Jerry’s will give you a free cone and ice cream today.  Granted, most everyone in the known universe is aware of this promotion, so you may have to wait in a line and converse with a stranger.  Yet, that cone will taste good when you get it.

Ben and Jerry’s Scoop Shops in the Oregon

It you are ever without power for an entire evening - I highly recommend a game of Spongebob Squarepants Monopoly. And margaritas. On the rocks of course - your blender doesn’t work, remember.

No - really.

So because we live in this neighborhood - a silly bird took down our power for more than 10 hours yesterday. It was off when I got home from work - my husband had just checked with PGE and they estimated 7pm for restoration so we decided to head out for dinner. Mexican food and margaritas sounded good, so we headed over to one of our favorite Mexican joints - El Dorado on NE Glisan just west of 82nd. It’s not a fancy place and I’m sure their food is to basic or Americanized for many Portlanders ‘authentic’ taste-buds - but their seafood dishes are stuffed full of fresh ingredients, simply spectacular and their margaritas are to-die-for! Gigantic, tasty, strong and cheap. And the staff is always super friendly. A perfect place to spend a powerless evening.

Once we got home, we discovered we still didn’t have power - so we figured we’d better look for flashlights and candles where there was still enough daylight to do so. Normally after dinner out like that we probably would have ended up watching TV or a movie, or on our computers… but instead we pulled a game out of the credenza… and set up a table full of candles, plastic pineapples and headed into Bikini Bottoms.

Our power didn’t come back on until after we’d gone to bed (well after the second estimate of 9pm) so not only was this a good test for us to be sure that we did have a supply of candles, flashlights with working batteries and a radio with batteries, but I believe I read somewhere that this is “turn off your TV week” - which is something I’m really bad at doing - so it was kind of nice actually that the dumb bird forced us to do so.

I highly recommend it.

Okay, so maybe not now, but it will be soon! In order to plan properly for the soon-future, here are some incredibly important events coming up this week that all you dear Portlanders should be planning on attending -

The Portland Timbers open the season by hosting the Puerto Rico appropriately-named Islanders this Thursday at PGE Park. Last season was the Timbers’ best yet, with record draw, especially on the previously called “Thirsty Thursdays.” The Park is now partially sponsored by Miller Lite, so the “Thirsty” part of Thursday has been changed to reflect that sponsorship (what happened to the Widmer sponsorship?). This is not only the first match of the proper season, but this will be the last time we’ll be entertained (publicly) by our Timber Jim, beloved Timbers mascot since the great reformation of 2001 (and before). Get there early, and you get a free magnet and a “Timber Jim Farewell” t-shirt. You can get tickets on TicketMaster, or skip the fees (which add up to more than 50% of the ticket face price, if you’re in GA) and pick one up at the PGE Park box office on SW 20th and Morrison.

This Wednesday will hopefully be our last springtime indoor meetup at the Green Dragon. I don’t actually have that much to say about this one, as I’ve never actually been to a Portland Metblogs meetup, nor to the Green Dragon, but you should come! We (including me, yes) will be there around 5.30, and I plan on drinking beer. Maybe a lot of beer. We know you like beer, and free food. So there’s really no reason not to come. Stop making excuses.

Something you may not need to prepare for is my mom. That’s right, she’s coming to town this weekend, and I need to find the most expensive restaurant I can safely take her so she can buy me and the bf dinner. You tell me - what’s the best place one can take a loudmouth redhead to? It’s not that she’s uncouth, but she’s my mom, so it’s very likely she’ll do something embarrassing. She will also likely not bring any dressy clothes, so ix-snay on the established fancy places. Any ideas will be picked apart and pored over - only one will be chosen (unless I can talk her into dinner out twice!). Preference given to places with websites that actually contain information besides hours (sorry, Green Dragon).

Greetings Portlanders and wish-you-were Portlanders (I know you’re out there, I was once one of you.)

My name is Derrick and I’m new here. I’m an east coast transplant on year 3 in PDX. That’s out of the way now, good.

I like beer, wine, food and the occasional spirit and will probably write about those things a good deal. I also dig sports and faux sports (I’m looking at you, ultimate fribsee). I have some interest in civics and development and I’m intrigued by the sweeping impact of the sustainability/green trend. I profess expertise in none of these things.

So that this post has some use to you, let me pass along a few events I’m geeked about.

First, if you like beer and aren’t a complete and utter hermit, you probably know that Deschutes Brewery, the impeccable central Oregon brewery that’s a master of classic NW style ales, is opening a new public house in the Pearl (NW Davis and 11th). But what you may not know is that there’s an opportunity to get in the door before the masses. Oregon Trout and Deschutes are hosting a pre-opening extravaganza on April 26 from 7-10 p.m. $50 gets you in the door, two brews, food and entertainment. For more info, visit www.oregontrout.org/db/. Not having to drive to Bend to get public-house-only-small-batch-brews from one of the best breweries in the nation? … count me in.

Deschutes will have some competition in the Pearl on the weekend of May 2, as the annual Portland Independent Wine Festival will be running May 2-4 from 3 - 6 p.m., each day. This is a great chance to meet the winemakers at over 30 small craft wineries throughout Oregon and drink their splendid wine. There will also be classes and tastings. Check www.indiewinefestival.com for more info.

Speaking of independent wine makers, I’ve got one more event for you. Anne Amie Vineyards in Carleton will be hosting a tasting of estate pinot noirs from the Yahmill Carleton AVA on April 26. Sixteen wineries, many without there own tasting rooms, will be participating. I was at Anne Amie Saturday … bright, clean whites and some damn tasty pinots, to go with top notch service. $10 gets you in the door. check www.anneamie.com/news.

So, there’s a little about me and a few events to get you started. Now I want to know, what do YOU want to know about? Why do you come here? What do you want to read about? Events? Openings? Tech happenings? Music? Hit up the comments and give the new guy some initiative to go forth and gather.

So as part of a launch for it’s new drip coffee - Pike’s Place Roast - you can get a free small cup for the next 30 minutes (until 9:30 am.)

I actually stopped by one on my way into work this morning for my weekly large sugar free vanilla non-fat latte - I had a gift card, but their machine wasn’t processing it, so they just gave it to me for free.

So go - GO NOW!

(Oh..and they also have new cups with the old logo.)

Hey bloggers and blog readers, mark your calendars and come out to the Green Dragon Wednesday April 16 for some beer, some good conversation and some free appetizers.  With the weather still iffy, we’re not ready to move to our outdoor locale.  I hope I am not making a bad decision and on April 16, the sun ends up shining in the sky.

We have a good time chatting and drinking beer and meeting each other.  I have met so many new people in the past few months I’m overwhelmed keeping track.  And remember, Portland Metblogs will buy you some munchies.

Metblogs Meetup
Wednesday, April 16, 5:30ish
Green Dragon Brew Pub
9th and SE Yamhill, one block south of Belmont

Awhile ago, at Ignite, I send a quick email to ISITE and won a sushi dinner for two. I think it was because the wifi signal at the Baghdad had failed and I was emailing via the Blackberry. Nevertheless, I won and on Sunday, we had an amazing sushi dinner at Yuki’s in NE Portland.

We had spicy tuna, spider rolls, veggie rolls, veggie tempura rolls, edamame and some great saki and beer. All in all, a great dinner. And trust me when I tell you the plate to the right was cleared by evening’s end.

I want to thank ISITE Design for the gift certificate. Thank you Thank you Thank you.

Yuki’s sushi

Originally uploaded by dieselboi