Wednesday 26th of October 2011 04:34:00 PM

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The Raccoon Lodge looks like a large gray house off the highway, but it turns out to be a large, spacious, clean, open restaurant upstairs and an over-21 “den” below.

Upstairs, the space is divided into two parts by a large wooden frame forming two rows of booths. There are plenty of good-sized windows on this level, so the spaces are fairly bright. On the right are wooden tables and chairs, more booths and a large stone fireplace in the back topped by a stuffed deer head. More lighting is provided by large glass hemispheres hanging from the very high midnight blue ceilings. On the left are more of the same tables and chairs and a fairly small U-shaped wooden bar with tall wooden chairs. Additional lighting on this side comes from simulated kerosene lanterns hanging from the ceiling. The padded seats and backs in the booths are covered in a Pendleton-style, Indian blanket motif fabric. The walls are painted a dark sea-foam green and the floor is covered with brown tiles.

In the back behind the building is a covered outdoor patio with picnic tables, a lawn with trees and more tables, and a huge outdoor smoker/barbecue. There is also a row of seating on a deck on the upper level outside the restaurant area in the front and along one side.

There were nine beers on our visit, covering an unusual range, including 2 IPAs, a Gose (traditional German spiced summer wheat beer), and a light farmhouse ale. The Summer Solstice IPA was great and the Razberry Wheat has wonderful fruit flavor. A fine choice of aged fruit beers (bottled) is also available.

The food is traditional pub fare - fried appetizers, burgers, and sandwiches.

The “den” downstairs has very much a basement feeling (office-like ceiling tiles and fluorescent lights), but it has the same deep sea foam green walls and full windows along one side overlooking the brewery, the serving tanks, and the aging barrels.

There is plenty of parking in a lot on the side.

Wednesday 3rd of September 2008 11:11:33 AM

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This was a great place to have a meeting and we had a great time afterwards. The service was awesome and they knew of there brews. The food was great and just pub style food served so nothing fancy. Liked the selcetion of brews and will go back for some more samples. Art Lawerence the owner stopped by and he was very nice and treated us to some great brewing gossip.

Sunday 9th of December 2007 04:25:47 PM

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I visited this brewpub with my Beaverton-based brother (himself a brewmaster).

The Raccoon Lodge is a newer, mid-scale location that I found comfortable and relaxed. Most people were enjoying a meal with the beer just a part. We didn't eat, though the menu looked quite good.

I grabbed the Hyper Hop, a profoundly (and deliciously!) bitter beer with a dry-as-the-desert finish. Loved it! Quaffed a Way Bad Billy double blonde and just a taster of the Baltic Porter. Both of these are over 8%ABV, so a bit goes a long way.

Seek out the Raccoon Lodge, if only for the beer, but also for a comfortable, relaxed atmosphere.

Annoyances: Two of the brews were just too high alcohol