These places are your average Portland pub or brewpub, which means they are all pretty good and are all places I would go back to if I were the Southwest Portland neighborhood. For me they just don’t have the little bit extra that puts them on my top list. There are a few of these places that are more so-so but because of location or because of repeat events I have been to several times made this list.

• Yard House

  888 SW 5th Ave., Downtown Portland, Or – Yardhouse.com – Visited 12/23/2014

  I mostly keep up with new pubs opening in Portland but this one slipped by me. Fortunately the Yard House did a promotional mailing of a $35 gift card that Jeanette received and she invited me to try this place with her. Lucky me! The Yard House is a corporate chain operation. The interior design has clean contemporary design that fits with its downtown location. It also has to be one of the largest pubs in Portland. The corporate formula often can spell disaster but here they stick with some basic pub rules that make the place nice. What they did right:

  1. A great selection of local and regional beers. Since they are nation wide they could have just use larger national and regional brewers but they found some of the best breweries in our area and offer some of the their best beer. They also go the extra step of making sure each keg of beer is pressurize to the brewers specifications. And they have over a 100 beers on tap broken into major style categories plus a few seasonal specials.
  2. Even though it is a large place they made the seating intimate. They had lots of booths, a large bar seating, and tables spaced and angled so you don’t feel you are on top of your neighbor. They have large screen TVs everywhere but with the sound off so if someone wants to watch the game they can but it does not interfere with conversation. Plus they did a good job with sound deading the place.
  3. They had a good range of bar and restaurant style food with their own unique twist on them. We tried three different happy hour items that were excellent and way plenty off food. Happy Hour pricing was half off. The regular price was just a bit over or at what most pubs are charging which is not bad for a heart of the city downtown location. Beer was also just a little higher then average but in line with downtown.
  4. Our servers were great. Very helpful and friendly in explaining items on the beer list and menu and checked back on us at the right intervals. So they hired good staff and have them trained right.

  So the place meets my requirements of good beer, good food and good place to enjoy them with friends. The only problem for me is the location being in the heart of downtown Portland with expensive parking, traffic hassles and crowds. For the downtowners I am sure this will be a popular place.

• Sasquatch Brewery

  6440 SW Capitol Hwy. – Sasquatchbrewry.com – Visited on 11/16/2012

  We visited on a Friday night at 6 pm, so the place was packed with a 15 minute wait and by 8 pm when we left there was still a line (We met some friends later who arrived later and did not stay as the wait was going to be an hour). So this place would be best to visit in the off hours whenever that might be. This place is neighborhood brewpub offering food that is a bit more up scale and at a price that is a bit more up scale but not out of reach. They give their own twist to pub staples like a burger, chicken strips or Mac and cheese, which does put them a cut above most pubs. We did a sampler of the seven beers they brew and they were OK with some better then others but none of them I would want a growler of. They do have a good location for the neighborhood and that seem to be their clients with many young families in attendance. The place has all tables that are placed close together. With the noise crowd not the best for conversation and I did learn all about the lady next to use who was on a first date.

• Lucky Lab

  Multiple Locations

  www.luckylab.com

  Multnomah Village – 7675 SW Capitol Hwy.

  The lab is the lab, So-So food and beer but lot of room for get together. The one on Quimby is the regular place we go after the Rambles. Different Meetup groups have meetings here. It is really all about having space to hold a group. Also being to just go up to the bar to get your beer and not having to be waited.

• All McMenamins

  www.mcmenamins.com

  This is the big boy in town. They have many locations, all different but all the same. On average I would say they are OK for food and beer with some being better then others. They have there standard selection of beers that they try to stay consistent on but they give there various breweries a chance to try special seasonals.

• Old Market Pub and Brewery

  6959 SW Multnomah Blvd – drinkbeerhere.com

  It had fairly good pizza and beer.