[ryang]

My wife will be in Portland for a conference at the convention center through Saturday.  She is staying just a couple blocks north on Multnomah.  She does not have a rental car.

She flew Southwest, purely for the fact that she can check a bag for free and bring me back some beer since I unfortunately could not make the trip with her to drink beer.

Are there any good liquor stores to get a good selection of Portland beers that I can't get in Colorado near the convention center?  I'd love to get some Cascade, Hair of the Dog, etc.  Any other recommendations welcome!

Also, any solid, local eateries close by would be a big help.  She will be rather busy during the event, so free time is limited, and she is about 7 weeks pregnant, so she can't do too much drinking.

Thanks guys(and girls!)

[johnf]

My wife will be in Portland for a conference at the convention center through Saturday.  She is staying just a couple blocks north on Multnomah.  She does not have a rental car.

She flew Southwest, purely for the fact that she can check a bag for free and bring me back some beer since I unfortunately could not make the trip with her to drink beer.

Are there any good liquor stores to get a good selection of Portland beers that I can't get in Colorado near the convention center?  I'd love to get some Cascade, Hair of the Dog, etc.  Any other recommendations welcome!

Also, any solid, local eateries close by would be a big help.  She will be rather busy during the event, so free time is limited, and she is about 7 weeks pregnant, so she can't do too much drinking.

Thanks guys(and girls!)

Unfortunately the area immediately around the convention center is not the best for the things you are asking for. If the weather is nice and she likes to walk or if she is okay with some short bus rides, that opens it up a lot.

For beer she will probably want to take the bus down to Beer Mongerers. One bus and a short walk. Belmont Station is the other Eastside bottle shop but a little further away. Hair of the Dog and Cascade bottles can be bought at the tasting rooms and both are on the way to Beer Mongerers. She should be able to hit all three locations and be back in 2 hours. A taxi would be faster, naturally.

As for restaurants, Toro Bravo is about a mile from the convention center (should be closer to her hotel) and people rave about it. I usually recommend Pok Pok but that is a little further.

[ryang]

Well, she really enjoyed her trip!  The fall colors were amazing from her pictures. 

She went to Belmont Station to pick up some beers for me and came home with Hair of the Dog Adam and Blue Dot, Cascade Apricot, Caldera RauchBock, and Ninkasi Believer Red.

She liked the food trucks downtown the most with The Whole Bowl being the story of the trip.  She really enjoyed Nong's Khao Man Gai.

Thanks for the tips.

[Pinski]

Glad she enjoyed her visit to Portland, Belmont station was a good choice, although Tricerahops or MaidenTheShade would likely have been more impressive Ninkasi offerings IMHO it's hard to go wrong with Ninkasi.

[Jimmy K]

Lesson: Next time go to Portland with her - even if you have to sell a kidney.

[ryang]

Yeah, I know...

Work is letting me take 3 weeks off to go to Thailand after Christmas though, so I let them have this battle...


Plus, my wife already said we're going back on a real vacation, not when she's got a conference or something. 

[Jimmy K]

Thailand sounds like a great opportunity. I wouldn't pass that up. Portland is by far my favorite beer city - so many options its unbelievable.

[jeffy]

My wife used to attend a conference in a different city in March every year.  Almost every year I'd take off three or four days, go with her and while she'd be working I'd spend the time going to breweries and in general being a good tourist.  We did this in Portland, Milwaukee and Austin.  I regret missing Chicago last year, but I just couldn't afford it.
Portland is one of my favorite beer destinations.

[johnf]

Well, she really enjoyed her trip!  The fall colors were amazing from her pictures. 

She went to Belmont Station to pick up some beers for me and came home with Hair of the Dog Adam and Blue Dot, Cascade Apricot, Caldera RauchBock, and Ninkasi Believer Red.

She liked the food trucks downtown the most with The Whole Bowl being the story of the trip.  She really enjoyed Nong's Khao Man Gai.

Thanks for the tips.

Those are probably 2 of the 5 most famous PDX food carts. I'm hoping she didn't eat enough foot cart meals to just luck upon them

Those are all great beers. Surprised you don't get Caldera in Colorado though, we get it in lowly Missouri.

[ryang]

Yeah, she looked those food carts up.   

About not getting Caldera... distribution laws man... they're dumb.