Beervana Stories 2 & 3
There's a movie theater downtown that doubles as a restaurant, and the theaters themselves are cozy, slightly upscale, and now no more expensive than the abominations down the street run by Regal Cinemas. You can take food from the restaurant into the theaters or, if you didn't order beforehand, they'll bring it in for you. Of course, this is Portland, so they have beer.
Used to be it was just four taps, but they recently doubled that. They're well-selected and wholly local. Nevertheless, this is still a movie theater--there's a separate line for where you buy food if you're going to watch a movie, and they sell popcorn and candy. So tonight, while waiting to order up a couple cold ones, the woman in line in front of us asked about the IPAs. She was about fifty years old and dressed stylishly and expensively.
The cashier, paraphrasing: "The Amnesia is sweeter and more caramelly, and the Ninkasi is hoppier and zesty." It was one of the best parsings of beers I've heard anywhere, and it was in the line at a movie theater.
The middle-aged woman: "Oh, I'll have the hoppy one."
Cashier, also a woman: "Yeah, I like the hoppy ones best, too."
Inside the theater, a quite elderly couple spied our light-colored beers and asked about them. (The gorgeous, warm day called for pilsners in our view.) We struck up a nice conversation and turned them onto Bayern, which has carved out quite a niche in Portland.
Used to be it was just four taps, but they recently doubled that. They're well-selected and wholly local. Nevertheless, this is still a movie theater--there's a separate line for where you buy food if you're going to watch a movie, and they sell popcorn and candy. So tonight, while waiting to order up a couple cold ones, the woman in line in front of us asked about the IPAs. She was about fifty years old and dressed stylishly and expensively.
The cashier, paraphrasing: "The Amnesia is sweeter and more caramelly, and the Ninkasi is hoppier and zesty." It was one of the best parsings of beers I've heard anywhere, and it was in the line at a movie theater.
The middle-aged woman: "Oh, I'll have the hoppy one."
Cashier, also a woman: "Yeah, I like the hoppy ones best, too."
Inside the theater, a quite elderly couple spied our light-colored beers and asked about them. (The gorgeous, warm day called for pilsners in our view.) We struck up a nice conversation and turned them onto Bayern, which has carved out quite a niche in Portland.