Ecliptic Brewery‘s is one of my top recommendations for where to have great beer and food in Portland along with my other top picks like La Moule, Higgins (which I’ve highlighted before in a blog post), Saraveza (which I’ve written about before), and Ex Novo. When founding Ecliptic, experienced brewer John Harris specifically wanted to make sure that the food he served wasn’t just around because it’s the law to have food available – he wanted to make sure it matched well with the beer to provide good complimentary and contrasting flavors. The menu of beer and food proves that with its variety of beer available and food available. Everything I’ve had at Ecliptic has always been good, which makes me confident in recommending Ecliptic Brewery’s Food and Beer as among my top 5 in Portland. In particular, they have the best selection of food options if you are vegetarian.
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Ecliptic Brewery’s Food
Travel Tuesday: Visiting the Portland Japanese Garden
The Portland Japanese Garden finished a more then $30 million dollar expansion that now includes a Cultural Crossing Village, “castle” wall, and the new Umami cafe offering Japanese tea and snacks. Located in the West Hills of Portland, you can easily combine a visit to the Japanese Garden ($14.95 admission) with a visit to the free International Rose Test Garden as well. Parking is extremely limited and the best bet is to take public transit via the Red or Blue line MAX train to the Washington Park stop (aka, the Zoo) and then take a free Explore Washington Park shuttle to both gardens.
Here’s a little Travel Tuesday Portland Japanese Garden photo trip to give you a glimpse of what a visit could include.
Bite of Oregon 2017
This year, the Bite of Oregon 2017 food festival, which usually tastes place at Tom McCall Waterfront Park in August, has shifted to this weekend – Labor Day weekend September 1, 2, 3, and 4 – so it can be 4 days and has moved away from the dusty grounds of the park to the Rose Quarter. The festival is still outside so you are still dining al fresco, but now boasts lots of shade, more tables, and it still benefits the worthy cause of the Special Olympics Oregon. Bite of Oregon is a huge fundraiser for the Special Olympics Oregon which can help sustain the activities they offer of Special Olympics Athletes all year round.
As every year, expect to be able to progressively eat through various vendors who offer sample sizes ($4ish) and whole sizes of food you can purchase at Bite of Oregon 2017. With the more compact Rose Quarter location there is now a central area where you can imbibe at the Oregon Wine Pavilion with 7 wineries, 4 distilleries, or 28 beers from 14 different featured local breweries the Craft Beer Garden to enjoy along with your food.
Nodoguro Twin Peaks Dinner 2
I still go to Nodoguro every couple months, but I don’t always post recaps anymore since I know it is difficult to get into some of the dinners if you don’t follow Nodoguro’s mailing list and social media so you know the exact night tickets for the next month get released (most ticket/reservations sell out within 24 hours). One tip is if you are lucky and are able to be flexible, look for Cancellation Tickets from those who purchased that month by checking their website daily – they will put them back up for sale. I’ve written about Nodoguro so many times it almost felt a little unfair to other dining establishments, but I decided to make an exception for this recent theme for July up to August 4 – which is a return to Twin Peaks!
This Twin Peaks dinner is a revisit to the cult favorite show that made TV Guide’s 50 Greatest Shows of All Time list. Nodoguro previously did a Twin Peaks theme in 2015 which I also recapped. Don’t worry if you haven’t seen the new third season on Showtime yet: neither have I (I don’t have Showtime) and this dinner still seemed more based on the initial two seasons.