13 Virtues Brewing Co

This review is based solely on the quality of the cheesesteak… I haven’t tried the beer, and other things like the service cleanliness is just fine.
I’m just a little underwhelmed by the sandwiches. The bread is that lowest of quality hoagie roll — the kind that gets kind of «chewy-​soggy.» With so many potential bread sources in this town, it’s a shame any sandwich rides on bread that bad. Especially when you’re shelling out $ 12 for a pepper cheesesteak.
The meat is standard, perhaps a bit dry. Not that I expect succulent steak on a Philly but it’s magnified by the fact that they seem really stingy with the cheese sauce so the whole thing comes off really dry.
And yea, just that price again. I think of a Philly cheesesteak as sort of lowbrow fare, so I guess I’m just expecting more if the price tag is $ 12. This is clearly an $ 8 sandwich.

Their Cheese Steak is the best around, at least here in Portland. Small menu to choose from, which is better, not too overwhelming.

Came here just for just the beer and it rates a meh.
Had 10 of their 23 taps between a flight, tastes, and glasses/​pints.
Sours are mild on tartness, but the Oberlinerweisse isn’t bad. Just don’t expect much wheat in the flavor. Port of Tart was decent.
Many of the beers just don’t stand out. The barrel aged barleywine was just boozy, not very oaky or malty. The barrel aged Max Stout wasn’t very dark, and wasn’t roasty, or bourbon/​oaky. The Jean Claude Van Damme also has no real «Belgian» aspect to the flavor.
That said, good service and $ 2 pints/​glass specials and $ 6 flights of 6x3oz beers is a good deal.

Can’t put my finger on it but…
There’s just no need to go back here unfortunately. So much going for it, it’s just a shame. We met for a guys night out here recently and it was apparent right away something was off. I mean, how many brew pubs on a Friday night at 7pm are completely empty? We had any table we wanted.
First off, I am keeping this at 2 stars because service was good, very nice people working there who gladly offer samples of the many brews on tap. Also it was super clean and they do have a very nice deal for Happy Hour. Mondays cheese steaks are half price and the last hour of the evening we were there beers were $ 2, pretty amazing. Plus I want to stress that I fully understand the amount of time, energy, and especially money that goes into a brew pub, and as a marketing/​promotions guy it kills me to see something so great fall flat.
Food is really mediocre. I ordered the cheese hoagie. It was like a homemade sandwich. Cheap balloon white bread with a spread of onions and pickles and lettuce with the provolone and American cheese dropped on top. At least grill the bread, come on. The oil and vinegar makes it all soggy quickly when you don’t toast bread. For $ 7.95 it just wasn’t much of a value, and came with no sides or even chips. They grill everything behind the bar all together so if you’re vegetarian like me, be careful. If you get a grilled veggie sandwich it will be cooked where the meat is.
Beers were decent. Some good seasonal selections, porters and IPA’s were good. Most of the regular beers came across to me rather watery and lacked some real flavor punches.
Basically it comes down to this. It’s spacious and well set up for table service… except there isn’t any. You order everything at the bar. For five of us to keep getting up and paying each time was really inconvenient. The food menu is a diverse selection of hot and cold subs… except there isn’t even a menu to look at when you’re at the table. There’s a beer menu, but you have to go back down and stand in front of the bar and look at the chalkboard and order at the bar. They had a hummus plate and house made chips and salsa on the web menu and their chalkboard menu that I was going to order… except they no longer make either and haven’t bothered to take them off the menu. How difficult is it to get a step ladder and wipe them off the board?
Just too bad really. Classic case of owner (s)/manager (s) thinking they know better than the rest of the food and beverage industry in Portland. Congratulations! You see those other pubs with people in the chairs ordering food and drinks, Unilocaling about how great it was, and putting money in their cash registers? That could be you!
It’s Portland. You’re in Sellwood. You have excellent driving/​walking traffic. You have a brew pub. You have great employees. You have a beautiful building and great atmosphere. Everything in the palm of your hands and you’ve lost me as a customer.

Went for a snack in the mid-​afternoon last weekend. While the sandwiches looked good, and my friends enjoyed splitting one, there was a paucity of smaller food choices. Specifically, chips and salsa, or hummus. However, the cook said hummus was not on the menu (except that it was). So I finally ordered chips and salsa. Except they didn’t have salsa.
At least could have a beer, which was ok.

Just one visit so far. Good, unique beer and funny names for the beer. Cozy atmosphere, good service. I did not eat, just tried a few beers. My visit was not life changing, but I would come back. Their philly cheese steaks looked legit. Oh, and it was only 4 dollars for a pint.

Subway sandwiches are better — and I hate Subway!
Their hoagies are filled with dried out, tasteless cold cuts (ice cold too) and mostly iceberg lettuce. The sandwich is so stuffed with crap you cannot get your mouth around it… but when you then go get to eat it, you’ll wish you hadn’t.
My friend ate a meatball sandwich — after hours on the toilet with what seems like food poisoning we’ve decided to never return.
To top it all, waaaay over priced too.

I don’t make it down to Sellwood often, but when I do, I try to drop in to 13 Virtues. They serving a wide variety of great beer on 24 taps, and you can sample it in 3 oz portions for only a buck a pour. Heck yeah!
I didn’t realize it, but I haven’t run in to many cheesesteak sandwiches in the PDX area. Maybe not a lot of competition, but I LOVED the sandwich here. I’d come back just for that.

Philly’s /​13 Virtues is my favorite Sellwood restaurant; I’ve been a regular customer here for 20+ years. Consistently tasty food, friendly service, a comfortable atmosphere, lively but not noisy, big windows on the Sellwood world, a changing selection of beer, including some Porter /​Stout /​dark options. Outdoor seating in summer. I highly recommend the «Low Carb», a cheesesteak on salad instead of bread. Great on Mondays for cheese steak at Half Price; just fine on the other six days of the week, when it’s not cheap, but still delicious and satisfying and a nice place to be.

Very wide variety of beers here, 17 I think, and trying 4 I feel a bit of similarity, particularly in the weight and smoothness. lots of window, a smallish space but nice dark wood. This place was one of the first in portland featuring Philly cheese steaks. they’ve been surpassed in the sandwich market – way better than subway or such but not that close to shut up and eat or bunk, e\sxpecially in quality of roll, though they have a good selection (like with beer – wide choice but not high quality.) Very friendly man who helped me there. Great deal on samples here, up to 6 3 oz samples for $ 1 each. even the strong ones.

I’ve had their beer a few times at other places around the city and always liked it, so we decided to check it out while we were a the antique stores down the street. The sign says «brewery,» but it seemed like we were the only ones there for the beer. It might as well have still said «Philadelphia’s,» as it still feels like the sandwich shop it has always been. They have a lot of beers, there is a bar with a bunch of taps, but you can’t order beer there, you have to stand in the sandwich line to order. The cashier seemed confused that we were just getting pints. Since he was also the bartender, all the folks behind us who were there to place their sandwich orders had to wait while he stepped away from the counter to the bar and poured our group four pints and a taster tray, which takes a considerable amount of time.
There is a nice taproom in the back, well lit and more modern feeling than the front restaurant half, but it seemed to be reserved for an event the day we were there.
The beer is good, I will certainly order a pint of their IPA when I see it on tap somewhere else, but the ordering setup was awkward and weird, and the atmosphere was a bit like a cross between the dining room at a nursing home and a Buffalo Wild Wings.

On my quest to try all the Cheesesteaks in Portland, before the heart attack, I found myself at this place with it’s big Cheese-​steak sign in the window.
It was good chopped & minced meat and onions but the experience was lost when I picked it up and realized they use the worst balloon bread rolls you can imagine. Not wanting to provoke my ulcer I skipped the hot peppers but asked for the sweet and that was a mistake.
Their sweet peppers are not cherry and very sickly sweet and even looked like they have artificial coloring making them a kind of day-​glow green. They were ‘dumped’ on top of everything still ice box cold. And not the ‘real’ cherry peppers Philadelphians are used to.
I belatedly asked for some marinara sauce and it tasted the way stuff tastes when it’s kept (in the fridge), in the original can, that it came in, with a kind of bitter metallic taste. UGH!
Again: not near me (PDX Airport) so I won’t go out of my way but may try something else on the menu if I’m in the neighborhood.

I wanted to give 2.5 stars but we all know that’s not an option so I’m being generous and rounding up.
The staff is polite and attentive. It appears to be the only eatery open past 9pm in the Sellwood area.
The food is overpriced and made with low quality ingredients that do not taste fresh at all. I don’t care for these sandwiches. It’s not the worst food I’ve ever had but it’s definitely not even close to being good. My guy had the Philly cheese steak and I had the meatball sandwich.

So, this is still Philadelpia’s cheesesteak except with micro brew, which I didn’t like prefer. I went with someome from Philadelphia, he says the cheese steak are authentic including the «porous» bread which they sell by the 6 pack.
So, I had a salad with the worst chicken slicked on the fryer. The gal was new at the counter, but she literally came outside to ask me for a $ 1 as she said she forgot to charge me for the chicken by her manager. Really? I cow-​towed around my purse told her to take it out of $ 1 tip jar, in which I through a buck in as I forked over my credit card and warned her of the processing fees on a buck.
I have no clue on the beer.
PS Half price cheese steak Mondays,

This place was great! Perfect for a mid-​afternoon drink while antiquing in Selllwood/​Westmoreland. Good service, reasonable priced pints, nice blues music.
The Morroco Mole was unique, light, drinkable and delicious.
The very kind bartender Benji was basically psychic and helped me choose the perfect beer for someone who isn’t really a beer person: Oberlinerweisse with house-​made raspberry syrup! Delicious and sweet!
Traverse Cherry Wit and Double Red Ale also well received.

Pay to taste… unfortunate. So sorry to hear the owners can’t spare an ounce of beer here and there to entice new customers to enjoy their product. Must be from California.
Tried their version of a rauchbier. It wasn’t impressive.
Hey, I have an idea, let me try small tastes of your beer for free and I’ll end up drinking a pint I enjoy. Then I’ll write a favorable review!
On the plus side, they poured an honest pint.
Go to Laurelwood, just down the road. Free tastes and pint glasses that ensure a 16 ounce pint.

I go here on Mondays with some friends that are craving cheap cheesesteak sandwiches for half off their original price. Making the cheesesteaks like 6 dollars. The bread is ehh. the meat is ehh. not enough cheese and the toppings are ehh… So if you’re in the mood for some okay beer and cheapo cheesesteaks come on mondays after 530. Otherwise you’ll pay for 11 dollar cheesesteaks that your tummy and wallet will soon regret.
The layout of the bar is also awkward. You pay and order first which I llike, then there’s 2 levels you can sit at and there are hideaway spots you can sit if you keep moving to the back in an L formation…
Bonus: There are other cheapo days like for Happy Hour but that doesn’t start until 9, but it does include 2 dollar beers yall!

I’ve been coming here for years… Since they opened. I’ve always enjoyed it and the price has always been a bit high, but they make it affordable on Mondays. They have good beer and a nice atmosphere to meet at other times. They don’t seem to have a problem getting customers with their delicious food!
I thought it was strange when they chAnged their name, but the new brew house is rather cool to sit above.
I give this a 5 star 4sure

Let’s just get right to this…
Clean, friendly service, tv’s can be seen from any seat in the house.
It was a bit spendy for the food. $ 25 for 2 sandwiches and a soda. If for any reason we decide to go back, it will be on a Monday night when the cheese steaks are ½ price.
Now for the food review part… Let’s work our way around the sandwiches we ordered.
I got the mushroom cheese steak. He got the peppers and cheese.
The bread… room temp, right out of the bag (not toasted).It was nothing special. Kind of like the hoagie rolls you get at Franz bakery outlet.
The meat… The meat was good. There just was not much of it. (for a full meat sandwich, go to Shut up and Eat).
The cheese… was a watery mess.
The mushrooms… were not canned.
The peppers… there about 5 pepper slices on the sandwich.
For what they are charging, the least they could have done was included fries or a bag of chips.
We will probably not be return customers.

As a beer purveyor, great! I really enjoyed the beer. If I lived in the neighborhood, I’d consider the $ 2 pint happy hours to be an awesome deal, as it’s a nice enough place to meet up with friends.
But we primarily stopped in because we were in dire need of Philly steak sandwiches, and this is where the mere 2 «meh, I’ve had better» stars are earned.
First, they turned out to be Philly Ground Hamburger Meat sandwiches, which was disappointing.
And for $ 10.50 a pop, I thought there’d be some fries involved. But nope, just a big-​ass sandwich, filled with spiced hamburger meat. I guess I should have read the menu more closely? I guess I could have gone home and spiced my own hamburger meat?
I mean, it was fine. Tasty enough, good bread. A generous portion of sandwich, so we left with full bellies.
As my husband put it, «If I’d had that sandwich at McMennamin’s, I’d be more forgiving, because they are not known for their Philly steak sandwiches. But I thought this was a steak sandwich joint???»
Maybe they are in transition — we headed in because we saw the sign for Philadelphia’s. But it’s actually a brewery now?
Anyway. Good beer.