No Dishes to Wash

Two places in one night, wow!  My brother in law and his wife invited us downtown to Descutes Brewery and Public House right after we had returned from dinner, and since beer is always a good thing…. we went!  Deschutes Brewery is well known in the Portland area, and the main brewery is located in Bend.  The building in the Pearl used to be Jim Stevens Auto Body… I still marvel that they got the smell of paint fumes out of the air! We sat outside, but the inside seating looked cool too.  And then, instead of ordering beer, we ended up having wine. (Go figure.)  We shared a bottle of 2004 Kitara Syrah from the Willamette Valley. It had a heavy butterscotch taste, and I was thrilled, because it was the first time that I had really identified a “taste” in a wine before.  I was so excited, I had to tweet Garyvee right then and there!  The wine was great, and I loved the ahi tuna I ordered, it came with tapico caviar (yum!) and sesame-ginger marinated cucumber (also yum!)  But sadly, the rest of the team wasn’t so impressed.  My sister in law Charlotte’s veggie burger was too spicy, and Caleb’s ribs were stringy, no fall off the bone meat here.  Jacob (my brother in law) had mac and cheese with salmon (which I thought was a strange combination, but to each his own, right?) and he said it was just “OK.”  The Brewery was busy, no more than any Saturday night, I’m sure, but our waiter Daniel was great.  He was attentive, and went out of his way to answer my pesky questions.  He was funny and friendly, too. (Something that was missing from Pambiche earlier, I forgot to add in my last post.)  It was a half hour from when we ordered to when we got our food, but it didn’t seem like a long wait, we were well kept with drinks in the time. If you are a fan of Deshutes Brewery, be sure to check out their specials on tap.  Located at 210 NW 11th Ave in the Pearl, open daily 11 am to midnight.