J was staying in the Mission and he had gotten a lamb burger the night before and wanted to go back for more. The Monk’s Kettle is a fairly new gastropub with a ginormous beer selection. They even have an $80 beer. Eek. See all the taps? They have a bunch on draft, and tons more in bottles. Yes, it was in the middle of the day, but when you’re in a beer place, sometimes you just have to give in. He’d heard about this beer the night before, so on a Friday afternoon, he ordered the Siamese Twin Ale, flavored with lemon grass and cilantro. It was a bit much for me so early, but it did go well with the food. We got an order of the fries. Oh my goodness. They were like mcdonalds fries. And you know how I feel about mcdonalds fries. You know how everyone feels about them. They were served with 3 dipping sauces which were all fantastic. I really liked the slightly spicy ketchupy one. J got the salmon sandwich. The roll it was served on was way too toasted and crunchy, which made it very difficult to eat. He eventually gave up and ended up eating it with knife and fork. And the side salad was doused with vinegar, as if they forgot the “ette” part. It was edible but bordering on ridiculous. He wish he’d gotten the lamb burger again! I wasn’t that hungry, so I decided to go light and got the baby spinach salad. It came with carmelized onions, almonds, and craisins in a light tahini dressing. It was just what the doctor ordered. Service was good, especially when we were first being served by the owner. He was super friendly and helpful. After the surly hipster girl took over, she wasn’t nearly as attentive. It got to be a bit difficult to get her attention, and there weren’t too many people around either. Also, the food took quite awhile to come out. Surprisingly long. This is why we devoured those delicious fries so quickly. But it’s a really cool place, small though, and it’s easy to see why it gets packed. For food fans and beer lovers, this seems to be a great place.

After going on an extremely long hike around Portland, we were pooped. How about a quick bite and some drinks? We decided on the Deschutes in the Pearl District. Deschutes is an Oregon brewery, home in Bend Oregon. In fact, when I visited Bend a few years back, we visited the brewery itself.
It was late, and they have a special limited late night menu. We got a couple of these thin crust pizzas. There’s some stinky cheese, some nuts, and pancetta, along with those leafy greens.
I’m not into stinky cheese, so for me, I had this giant soft pretzel. It came with a cheese sauce and mustard. On this nice but fairly brisk night, it was nice to eat something hearty and warm. We sat outside, and we had dogs with us. When outside, Portland is very dog friendly.
I also had this delicious beer. You can get little glasses, and that’s all I wanted, but of course, I picked out this Wit beer, and it only came in this giant anniversary bottle. Two people can easily drink this. But it was delicious. And the best part? $5.
So the actual restaurant itself is ginormous on the inside. It’s all woodsy and cabin like. Huge timber beams and posts everywhere. But despite the lodge like feel, the bathrooms are all modern and sleek. These sinks were awesome.

We caught the last day of the Oktoberfest in the Fremont neighborhood. There’s lots of water in Seattle, I don’t know what they are or what they’re named. But you have to cross a bridge to get to Fremont. It’s a cute little neighborhood, practically too cute. There’s tons of cute neighborhoods in Seattle.
Admission gets you a bunch of tokens and each token gets you a little sample. And you get this adorable little commemorative mug.
The pacific northwest certainly doesn’t have a shortage of microbrews. Below is the adorable Deschutes barrel. I’m a wheat beer girl, so I enjoyed several good hefeweizens, along with a pear cider, which was like juice, I could have drank it by the pitcherfull.This was a 3 day festival, so they’d gone through their share of beers.
The only bummer was that once you were inside, the food choices were next to none. There was only this one Ziegler’s place. I wasn’t feeling any of it, but they did sell giant things of fries. And the best part was that the fries were cut with a drill. And when they serve the fries, it’s the size of the fryer basket. And that is no exaggeration. It is the largest serving of french fries I’ve ever seen in my entire life. It was quite the life, drinking outside in the middle of the day.