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By Root 1227 0

and a healthy spring. After opening in 2007 to steady crowds, the duo arranged to buy the whole block with help from a city loan. Today, there’s an open-air, multilevel deck, and space for artisan craftsmen (a glassblower, a metal smith), and other community-centered draws. The twelve-tap brewpub is classic Northwest, with heavy exposed beams and big windows looking out to the streets. Order up a fresh beer and some house-made sausages or perfectly ungreasy fish-and-chips, and you’ll taste the wisdom of their plans.

PHILOSOPHY

Classic local brewpub, with big ambitions (hence a new canning line added in 2011). And they love their stouts: February is always “stout month” featuring their own stouts on tap and a bunch of guest handles, concluding with a stout-and-oyster pairing dinner.

KEY BEER

Vortex IPA (7.7% ABV), served right out of a mason jar, honors the original brewhouse, which was transported through a tornado en route to Oregon from the Midwest. Now available in sixteen-ounce cans, it’s a juicy twister of lemon, grassy hops, and sweet, fruity graininess.

DETOUR

THE GOOD

BEER COAST:

THE BEST BEER AND SEAFOOD ON THE NORTHERN OREGON COAST

No trip to the Oregon coast would be complete without a serious seafood and beer fest, and there’s no more classically Oregonian place to do it than Jetty Fishery, a ramshackle seafood shack and campground on Nehalem Bay just north of Rockaway Beach on Highway 101 (800-821-7697; crab from $9 a pound). If you’ve got the time, rent a boat and go out with some crabbing pots to get your own haul ($75 for two hours, up to five people), then have the guys at the pier clean and cook it on the spot while you swig post-expedition brews. Short on time? There’s plenty pre-caught grub, too. Grab a sixer of Anchor Steam or Kona Longboard Lager, some hot sauce, and paper napkins from inside the little store, then sidle up to the old yellow picnic tables outside by the water’s edge and a fire pit while you wait for fresh-as-fresh-gets grilled oysters, steamed clams, and mussels, or Dungeness crab boiled in Nehalem Bay seawater. Word to the wise: try to go on a midweek afternoon. Weekends get crowded and crazy, especially when the owners fire up their 10,000-watt karaoke system for locals, RVers, and assorted campground yahoos.

After Jetty Fishery, head up to Manzanita, nine miles north on Highway 101, a 564-person town that used to be just a blip on the map. Perhaps because of this anonymity, Manzanita has started to draw in creative types, just as Big Sur, California, did back in its heyday, and its got a peaceful, progressive vibe. Down on the main drag of Laneda Avenue, pop into the relaxed San Dune Pub (503-368-5080; sandunepub.com) and sip a juicy, intense Inversion IPA from Deschutes with an oyster po’ boy and warm up by the fireplace.

North of Manzanita, 101 unwinds like a wire, bending around headlands and plunging into cathedrals of Sitka spruce and Douglas fir. Empty beaches emerge unexpectedly, the most striking of which is at Oswald West State Park (503-368-3575). The sandy stretch has become famous for its protected break, and you’re likely to see some surfers braving the frigid waters. The short wooded path down to the beach is worth the trouble, without question.

After a day of crabbing, surf scoping and beach walking, you’ll be ready for some sea-borne comfort food again before long. And if Manzanita is Oregon’s Big Sur, then Cannon Beach, ten miles north, is its Carmel, a stretch of Cape Cod–style homes with not a chain store in sight. It’s also home to Bill’s Tavern & Brewhouse (503-436-2202), a sunny and cheerful spot with bright murals on the walls and a good, pet-friendly patio. Wind up your afternoon with some fresh, flaky beer-battered halibut fish-and-chips and a pint of fresh-brewed beach beer, like the Duck Dive Pale Ale (4.8% ABV). Mission complete.

Bend

DESCHUTES BREWERY

1044 NW Bond St. • Bend, OR 97701 • (541) 382-9242 deschutesbrewery.com • Established: 1988

SCENE & STORY

Making their debut in 1988 at Gary Fish’s little Bond Street brewpub