Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Bridgeport Ale House

So this past Sunday, I had the day off, so decided to wander down Hawthorne Boulevard in Portland, the road that I live a block off of, and check out the Bridgeport Ale House (warning: their website is very annoying) for their happy hour. Bridgeport is one of the large microbreweries in Portland, so far as I can tell, based on the ubiquity of their IPA in pubs all over town. I don't particularly care for their IPA, but thankfully, the brewpub had cask-conditioned ales so I settled down with an imperial pint of their ESB, which was actually quite good. I had been hankering for a good cask ale too, so it really hit the spot. (For more about cask-conditioned beer, see here).

Anyway, it was dinner time too, so I went ahead and splurged on their white bean patty sandwich, which was served with a mushroom and barley soup, both items vegan. That is definitely a plus for this brewpub - the food was very good, tasted very fresh, and having vegan options, while requisite in Portland, is still nice to see nonetheless. The bean patty was like a massive, sloppy felafel, and the roasted-tomato spread on it was very good.

I went ahead and tried their IPA on cask as well, and while better than it is from the regular draft line, it still lets me down. And to finish off the evening, I tried a half-pint of their Barleywine, which was pretty good - but was served to cold and over-carbonated which made it tough to get a good handle of what the beer had to offer. And it didn't just seem to cold and over-carbonated because I was coming off drinking beer that was served at cellar temp. and naturally carbonated either, it really was too cold and too fizzy.

Anyway, overall, the place was nice as a restaurant, but definitely not a place to go and drink a few pints of Real Ale, so my quest for that location in Portland continues.

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