I have found perfection. Lots of character, excellent beer, good selection of beer, good food, cool staff, great environment - and it is all in the middle of nowhere. I wish it were closer but the drive is nice (take highway 9 instead of I-5 - it is a little longer but the scenery is great and the rural two lane road that skirts the foothills is the perfect precursor to finding this place). It can get crowded on weekends when skiers leave Mt. Baker. This can make it a fun and lively place but also harder to find a seat. Go there, have a pint, and be happy.

reviewed on: 2009-11-16 23:01:39

I love this place.. One of those "Didnt ever think about stopping there" type places. I've been here a hand full of time's. Most while comming off of Mt. Baker missing a bunch of calories and looking to get them replaced.

The beer is wonderfull. The IPA is good. But the barley wine is on my top 5 list.

The food is wonderfull. The grinders are sooo good. And the pizza's are great. They had one called the garden.. Covered in roasted vegies, no cheese and a balsamic reduction drizzled on top. Unfortunitly it was took off the menu. But will remain in my mind for ever.

The atmosphere is great. Brewery, wedding chaple, beer shrine? Sounds like a road side atraction in the midwest I know. You'll find (depending on season) tired boarders and skiers huddled up around a pint, dirty tired looking hikers and climbers looking for somthing other then minimalist type food and the occasional traveler that never knew this place existed.

reviewed on: 2009-08-16 14:46:56

This was a nice place to stumble upon while coming home from Snowshoeing. The beer selection was nice. It seemed to have covered all your general flavors. I’m an IPA guy and I wasn’t disappointed with theirs. The food was decent too. My only complaint is it can be pretty busy much of the time. It’s a solo brewery between a couple of high attraction locations. So in the winter, it’ll be packed with skiers and snowboarders, and in the summer it’ll have hikers and campers. Though it’s still a good place, I try to stop buy there whenever I’m passing buy.

reviewed on: 2009-08-04 19:45:40

Most of what I'd like to say about this place has been covered by the prior reviewers, so I'll just summarize. The selection of beers here was wide, even with only 6 taps up. My wife and I had the hefeweizen, pale ale, IPA, ESB, Porter and barley-wine.
The pale was very drinkable, light and tasty. Anyone can do a pale ale, but making it tasty and crisp takes some doing. I also liked the porter and barley wine on the heavier end. Again, a (dangerously) drinkable barley wine made for a diverse palette for sampling. We had stopped at Chuckanut brewing the day before and had only pilsners and lagers to pick from.
The pizza was likewise delicious. It's very thin, so those with an appetite should get breadsticks or something to go with it. It's also a very limited menu with mostly pizza fare to choose from.
The whole place had a close and homey feel. It's small and cozy with the entertainment of beer collectibles to peruse while you wait for your food.
The only downside we had was that our waitress served us and left us for quite a while. We were on our way to the mountains and had to wait almost a half hour before we asked another server to have her bring the check over. Maybe coming from Chicago I expect the service to be snappier, but we felt kind of abandoned down in the side room. But hey, it was Father's day afternoon, so it's probably me setting unreal standards.
So, it's a trip to drive out to Deming, but the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is worth the effort

reviewed on: 2009-06-21 21:56:55

This brewery is my personal favorite. I have traveled the state trying every brewery along the way (or even out of the way).
BEER: The English style ale’s are a treat and welcome break from the myriad of unimaginative IPA's and Pales being foisted upon us in some other breweries.
FOOD: The food is great, especially the pizza and chili!
PEOPLE: The owners and brewers are very welcoming and I enjoyed the impromptu tour they took me on and talking with them.
PROBLEM: North Fork Brewing is 138miles from my home in Enumclaw! I have a hard time coming up with reasons to get up there as often as I’d like!

reviewed on: 2008-05-06 10:15:59

"Hey! It's about time you got here."
Wife Persimmon and I looked around. Was she talking to us? The bartender motioned to a pair of stools as she placed two coasters on the bar and said, "How are you? Where you been? And what'll you have?" Four other beer lovers looked up, at us, smiled, nodded and returned to their brews and pizzas. We knew no one, had never been to Deming or the North Fork Brewerery, Pizzeria, Beer Shrine and Wedding Chapel but before we ordered our sampler that we'd be back...for here was the epitome of community; what we had been searching for, wondered if it in fact even existed in this 21st Century of profit proliferation, obscene salaries, anonymous Internet identity thieves and the rest.
Deming is 20 miles from Bellingham, Washington and sits in the foothills of Cascades with Mount Baker looming above, its snow-ladened peaks and crags a constant siren call for winter skiers and summer hikers. In fact, brewmeister Eric Jorgenson says he lives here so "he can go skiing anytime I want, 7 days a week, as long I get my work done."
And that he does. Taking over the daily brewing chores from Owner Sandy Savage (one-time head brewer for Anchor Steam), Eric puts out a wide variety of beers including a Hefe, ESB, Dry Stout, Red Eye, IPA and our favorite the BarlyWine(2 different kinds and always available.) We had the Spotted Owl, a whiskey-colored, cognac-tasting, full-bodied ambrosia.
Sandy and wife Vicki opened the pub 10 years ago and brought with them, not only their expertist (Sandy has a degree in brewing science) but 90 years of brewing memoriabilia. Bottles, cans, signs are everywhere. Even the very first mash tun used by Pyramid Brewing from 1982. Ask Eric - you might get a tour. Their first batch was a lager brewed with a strain of Fuller's ESB yeast "borrowed" from legendary brewmeister Terry Fahrendorf in San Francisco. Since then, they've switched because Sandy wanted to "keep the English tradition" of making proper ales alive. Now Eric produces about 400 gallons a week. He started making bread when he was 17, "fell in love with yeast" and came into North Fork as customer. Deciding then that he was "going to come to work here" from home town Chugiak, Alaska, seven years later he has recruited 5 other friends to immigrate. In fact, he says, Chugiak has become North Fork's "minor league." "Where are you from? Portland? Get out!"
Once you find the place, you won't want to leave, no matter where you're from. With Brenna the bartender, local business owners Greg and Jean (who brought in a hand-knitted blanket for sick Vicki Savage), Canadians Greg and April who come in once a week for pizza ("the best ever") and homemade root beer, and Bamboo John occupying his stool at bar's end and drinking whatever beer "reflects my mood", you'll discover that "everybody here is my friend." That's why they come. That's what will bring you back. A sense of belonging -- community -- "family" Brenna calls it and she couldn't be more right.
It's what all businesses want and few ever achieve.
It's the reason why we go somewhere to have a beer. To be welcomed. To feel that sense of belonging. To be with friends.
At North Fork, you will be...you are.
It is the perfect brewpub!

reviewed on: 2007-12-17 16:08:38