Bend Watering Holes

While visiting with Tanya, at Bend Brewing, I asked her where she would recommend I go to grab a good pint of beer.  She said The Blacksmith Restaurant.  That it had a decent tap list and even a better bottle list, and that is was located in the building right behind Deschutes Public House.  So I headed there right after Deschutes, only to find out that it was not open yet.

I was told that they open in another hour or so, so it was off to brewery #3… Then I remembered a conversation I had with one of the patrons of Deschutes Public House.  The patron had overheard me speaking with my server of my love of IPAs and stronger beers, and he recommended I visit a bar called the Summit Saloon and get a pint of Terminal Gravity IPA.  In his words it is the best IPA he has every had, not too heavy, not too light..just right.  With time to kill I headed to Summit Saloon, located on NW Oregon Ave. between Bond and Wall.

I walked in and asked the man behind the counter for a Terminal Gravity IPA.  The man walked to the taps and yanked the stick tap, a varnished stick.

That’s it snuggled between the Widmer and the Spaten…it’s a stick.  Kind of like the first tap handle I ever saw from Stone…it was a stone, or more a flat oval  smooth beach rock.  But no name, just the rock…kinda cool.

And best yet, it was a great recommended IPA.  It had a floral and citrus nose, great hop character with a good balance of malt…yummy..I had two along with my half-price happy hour burger and fries.

The Blacksmith was still not open yet, so it was time to head to brewery #3.