Monday 1st of June 2009 12:18:47 AM

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Funky converted house in the hip NW 23rd area of Portland. Great place to stop by after having your significant other drag you around to boutique stores - even better if you have kids! There were quite a few families with kiddos here and the upstairs dining area even had a nice little corner with toys to occupy the squirts while I was occupied with malt beverages!

Food was good. We ordered the hummus platter (nothing outstanding but good) and split a southwest steak wrap. This was really good but a little light on the steak portions. :( Kids menus can be a la carte if your kid doesn't eat much you don't have to spend much! Beer battered fries were good and they have garlic fries that we couldn't order since the place was out of garlic (who runs out of garlic anyway?)!

On to the beer...
Motherlode Golden Ale
Free Range Red
Treehugger Porter
Boss IPA
Space Stout
Workhorse IPA
Hooligan (british style)
Some seasonal that I didn't catch the name of..

Anyway everything was good. No standouts but the Golden Ale was REALLY good after a day of biking in the sun. Space Stout is something that I'd definitely come back to as well. The Hooligan was really good - a great balance of sweet malts and light hops and definitely a departure from normal northwest beer fare. The IPAs were nothing special, the Porter was OK, and the Red was pretty damn good.

Definitely a great place to go if you have kids!

Friday 15th of August 2008 01:16:09 PM

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This is a very interesting place converted from an historic house that’s in a style typical of this area of Northwest Portland (from the 1920’s?). The main floor has wooden tables and chairs and a small bar area with approximately six tall wooden chairs. The floors are lovely old wood, there’s an old coal burning fireplace (of course, not being used in this way now), and two gorgeous 1920’s etched class light fixtures in the entry hallway. Vertical wood paneling covers the bottom half of the walls. In front of the main entrance is an extended multi-level deck with metal mesh tables and outdoor heaters and it looks ideal for a warm evening.

When we visited there were seven beers and a seasonal, all Laurelwood brews, on tap. The regular beers were Mother Lode Golden Ale, Piston Pale Ale, Hooligan, an organic free range red, Boss I.P.A., organic Tree Hugger Porter, and Space Stout. The beers are not brewed here but at one of Laurelwood’s other Portland locations. The happy hour (7 days a week, 3-6pm and 9pm-close) pricing is hard to beat anywhere - $2.95 per pint, but even the regular price is quite good ($3.95).

The atmosphere was friendly and neighborly.

Sunday 29th of July 2007 11:32:37 AM

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Laurelwood seems to be in a fairly trendy neighborhood with what appears to offer some interesting shopping options. The restaurant/ale house is actually in an old house, with the bar in what was probably either the old living room, or possibly a dining room. This actually gave the location a bit of charm that made it seem to be a transplant from the southeastern US.

The bar was of the shorter variety with about 8 or 9 stools. They had some interesting beers available (all brewed at the brewery across town). And the food that I saw looked pretty good.

There are lots of outdoor seating areas on the decks out front, so this would be a great place to head if the weather was nice. This is a pretty cool place that is fairly close to New Old Lompoc, so it is definitely worth a visit if you're headed over there.