After all of the phone calls, drop ins and questions like, “Is it in today?” Deschutes Brewery’s the dissident release finally arrived! Immediately when the doors opened to the Portland pub this Wednesday at 11 am, people started rushing in to get their bounty of dissident brew. The first person who showed up purchased eight bottles, the next six, and on from there – lets just say, our stash is dwindling. The day was crazy! We were given an allotment of 30 cases from Bend and we already went through 18 cases in one day. People kept coming up to the front desk saying, “I’d like a t-shirt, a pint glass, and umm a case (twelve 22oz bottles) of dissident.”

Earlier on in the day, employees gathered around a back table to open and discuss the remarkable beer. One of the most frequent comments I received from customers was, “I didn’t know you could do this with beer.” Well everyone, you can make a sour brown beer, Bend decided to do it, and it is delicious. It has a very fruity and sharp taste to it that drinks so well and only gets better. It’s true, when you first taste it the immediate reaction is “whoa, beer?” But once your taste buds settle the next inclination is, “whoa, beer!”

The feedback and excitement surrounding this beer release has been overwhelming. We are expected to run out of the cases we received from Bend within the next day or so, and might possibly finish off the kegs by the end of the weekend. Everyone and their grandmother is buying this reserve series. You could tell how far the excitement spread when the general manager announced that Portland pub would be receiving Dissident t-shirts in-stock and all the employees lit up and let out a squished face, hissing “yesssss.”

I have never witnessed something quite like this – everyone who comes in is in tune with the uniqueness and quality of this beer. They are so excited about getting their hands on as much as they can. A dissident spell perhaps? The entire pub from servers, bartenders, hosts, clientele, and customers are all grinning and basking in the release. It has been a whole lot of fun and judging by the excitement and the sales thus far, I don’t know how much longer the fun will last, so be sure to come in this weekend and get the last few drops of Dissident.

–Andrew (from the Portland Pub)

Portland Monthly included National PARK(ing) Day in the Mudroom section of their September issue!

National Park(ing) Day in Portland Monthly!

National PARK(ing) Day is being spearheaded in Portland by Kimpton owned properties, the Hotel Monaco Portland, Hotel Vintage Plaza, Red Star and Pazzo Ristorante, along with The Trust for Public Land.

On September 19th, 2008 Portlanders will have yet another reason to park their cars as they will reclaim the streets for National PARK(ing) Day, a one-day celebration where artists, citizens and businesses collaborate to temporarily transform parking spots into parks, returning the urban landscape to its natural form.

Downtown’s SW 5th Avenue will be closed for the day to decorate more than a dozen parking spaces on the street between Washington and Alder. The day will culminate at this site with a “Party in the Park” featuring a bluegrass band, pork roast and a Beer Garden sponsored by the Oregon Brewers Guild, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Play hopscotch, take a ride down the slide and most importantly, come celebrate keeping Portland green while raising money for The Trust for Public Land.