I've been a long time fan of Deschutes and this last year was my first bad experiences at their Bond St brewpub (in Bend, OR) and the Portland experience was very much the same.

Overall the place is good; well above average.

But the beers have suffered. Where these brewing locations used to be an excuse to brew the most exotic and esoteric beer imaginable, now they have become bastions of brewing countless iterations of less-than-interesting beers with the one stipulation that nothing should be high gravity. Where once you could find casked, crazy belgian styles pushing 20% ABV or three different kinds of stouts at any given time, now you find five versions of light-bodied black "IPAs", several pale ales and a handfull of organic and lighter ales. In two words: decent but boring.

The food has suffered greatly over the past year. What used to be top-notch, monsterous portions for very little $$ has become, better-than average, small portions at double the price of what they were in early 2008.

The service has been decent and competent, but these places are becoming so busy that there is no personal touch to dining there anymore. Service is simply a means to get people in and out of the doorWhat used to be a pleasant pub atmosphere is now a loud, hectic, crowded experience.

I'm happy Deschutes is enjoying hard-earned success. But they are very quickly transitioning into a commercial brewery that simply dabbles in the restaurant and pub experience. The pubs are seemingly more a place to market their brand name than a place to experience the brewpub roots that staged the company to become what it is today.

Let us be thankful for those small, quiet places that brew beer simply for the love of beer while we still have them!

reviewed on: 2009-11-04 01:28:27

Dorandbob provided an excellent description of the brewery. I visited on September 9, 2009. They've been open just over a year and everything still looks immaculate. When I visited they had 18 beers on tap plus two cask ales. I tried a sampler in which they give you a sample tray sheet and you pick the six you want to sample. I chose the Inversion IPA, Black Tie IPA, Hop Henge IPA (95 IBUs!), Mirror Pond Pale Ale, Bachelor Bitter, and Great Lakes Organic Ale. The Black Tie IPA is a wonderful dark IPA that had a nice hint of coffee. All were excellent but I thought the Inversion IPA was the best. I also tried the King Cone (a dark pale ale) and St Abe Belgian. We didn’t have lunch there but the dishes heading out of the kitchen all looked great. The service was great and they brewed a root beer for the non-drinkers. We got to the brewery from the free streetcars that run through the Fareless Square. Definitely will go back the next time I'm in Portland.

reviewed on: 2009-09-15 21:24:50

Very impressive building, great atmosphere for a drink. Nice bar and huge dining area. Tried a number of beers, as expected at a Portland brewery, nice amount of hops. Inversion IPA, Black Butte Porter and Obsedian Stout all were as good as expected. Also had a good selection of cask ales for a number of the regular beers.

Also had the most impressive growler I have ever seen. Very nice craftsmanship- appeared to be a carved steel or pewter handle. It is huge, I would have loved to purchase one, but had no way to get it home. Definitely want to go back here some day.

reviewed on: 2008-09-24 21:47:48

They just opened a few weeks ago this place was huge. They brought Bend OR to Portland. The atmosphere, brewery everything about the place was BIG. They had a huge bar with 5 bartenders going like crazy to keep the beers and booze flowing. They had an hour wait at times and wow it looked like more when we left. The beers where awesome and the food was the best. Great times to be had here. They will calm down after the first rush but this is going to be a place to go back to often. WOW it was big did I mention they yet?

reviewed on: 2008-09-16 15:01:09

The beer is Deschutes regular beer lineup (a good range of ales) as well as several beers brewed at this location. When we visited there was a wood-aged barley wine, a Belgian dubbel style, and a special pils. The brewery (with lovely copper kettles) is visible through several windows behind the bar area.

This is a very large place with tall ceilings that was restored/enhanced from an old brick building that is typical of this former warehouse/light industrial district. The walls are brick and there are many tall windows (with small panes) on the south and west sides, meaning there’s quite good lighting. Also on the south side is a large glass garage door that opens in good weather and leads to a number of tables on the sidewalk. The ceiling is wooden planks and there are a number of old wooden beams. The dining area is outlined by a non-functional frame of wooden beams that defines the space and is reminiscent of the working building this used to be. Carved wooden arches with northwest motifs created by local artists form the ends of the frame. There are tableaus of blue heron, beavers, streams with otter and fish, etc. The bar area is also quite large and has lots of stools and tall tables. On one end of this section is a stone fireplace that exhausts to the ceiling via a copper pipe. The bar area is separated from the dining area by a huge wooden beam used as an additional bar table. Green tartan carpet covers the floor of the dining area but the rest of the floor is simply concrete. The two walls without windows are decorated with beer-related posters, etc. and with historical pictures of this building as well as the local area.

If you are wondering where the restrooms are, just follow the neon sign that says “Over here”.

The food menu looks to be high level pub fare, but we found that the execution didn’t match the descriptions. Not bad food, but not as good as advertised. (However, they haven’t been open for business very long).

reviewed on: 2008-08-15 14:08:01

Great beer in a great beer town! I had the Armory XPA and Inversion IPA - WOW. Both had wonderful Northwest hop aromas and flavors. Both were well balanced and very drinkable. My friend had a Belgian Strong Ale. It was fantastic but when a second snifter was asked for, it was gone! She settled for a nitro stout which was also great. The server claimed the XPA and the IPA were brewed on site while the Strong ale and stout came from their Bend brewery. I believe this brewpub has been only open for a couple of weeks, what a great job with the beers!

reviewed on: 2008-06-07 10:52:50