Walking Man Brewing

This restaurant is amazing! I ate here last summer and had pizza with salmon, pears, and hazelnut.  At first I was skeptical, but willing to try something different - glad I did, it was worth it - the pizza was delicious!  A great place to eat in a beautiful area!

Pleasantly surprised by the bar and dining area.  Ordered a flight expecting big things from the makers of "Santas little black homo".  Cool thing is you can get a 40oz flight consisting of one of each beer they brew.   Bad thing is, we didn't fall in love with any of them.  My two favs would be Homo Erectus and knuckledragger.  The black lager was tasty but not exceptional.  Food was okay.  Garlic fries need more garlic. Couldn't order the Cuban without mustard.  Service is just okay, they were nice enough but didn't come around often at all.  

Last thing I'd say about this place is that if you have never been here before, you'll see a house looking building from the street with a sign that says brew pub down stairs.  There were NO cars on the street, so we weren't sure how busy they were.  Choose to drive around the block and down the gravel alley street and saw all kinds of cars parked back there.  This is the main entrance.  So don't be discouraged!  Stay the course.

Hiking and drinking beer after hiking, premised on the idea that you've somehow 'earned' a few hoppy carb bombs, is a way of life here in the Pacific Northwest. And you'd be hard pressed to find a finer place to do it than in the magnificent Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area. Trouble is, while there are plenty of good watering holes in Portland, and plenty of good watering holes in Hood River, in between these locations the pickin's is a bit slim.

If you find yourself crossing the Bridge of the Gods perchance, however, say to climb the perennially popular Dog Mountain, or Table Mountain, or to rock climb at Beacon Rock, you'll find yourself in striking distance of the town of Stevenson, Washington. And if you find yourself in stricking distance of Stevenson, Washington, you simply must go to Walking Man Brewing's local brew pub.

The beers are good--especially the homoerectus Imperial IPA. They have good stouts and reds and porters and such as well if that's to your liking. They once brewed a dark malty hybrid version of their imperial IPA and called it "Big Black Homo" (-erectus, not -sexual; don't be a bigot!). I bet they did so just for the titillating joke name. You should go there just because of that--because that happened, and it was goddamn funny, and the beer was good too.

This is one of my favorite places to stop for post-hike beer and late lunch. I say late lunch because an unfortunate downside of this pub (and my only real gripe) is that it doesn't open until 3 PM on weekends and 4PM on weekdays, so if you go on your hike too early, you'll finish that hike too early, and dang it, Walking Man won't be open yet. And there you'll stand, slack-jawed, incredulous, with a mighty beer thirst, wondering where the hell else you can go. You'll be sad. I know I have been on several occasions.

This isn't a typical "pub grub" joint with burgers and such. The menu is rather limited to a few sandwiches, fries and tots, and pizza. The pizzas are really good though. And on nice days there is a patio. You can sit in the sun, sippin' suds, which is pretty glorious.

I should also note that they are enlightened enough here not to have their restrooms all gender-divided into menfolk and womenfolk like some places. Oh no. At Walking Man Brewery pissers are divided into Readers and Dreamers. And depending on the day I count myself in both categories, although I tend to prefer the Readers restroom because of the awesome Frank Zappa quote painted on the wall. Go there. You'll see what I mean.

Oh yeah, they have growlers (Grrrrrrr!). Why not take some homo homo?