Roots Brewing Company

Roots closing was a serious disappointment to me.
They had yummy beer. I wasn’t crazy about the food but it was good enough. I always found the atmosphere to be pleasant.
$ 2.50 pint special… I think maybe Tuesdays (?) was awesome! Hard to find a better deal than that!
The staff was friendly.
The truth is that I really didn’t go there that often. The location was not the most convenient. I liked Roots — but didn’t go out of my way to go there. And now they are closed. Sadface.
I will cherish the memories of frosty beers and hot food on snowy afternoons.
Roots — you will be missed by me at least.

Although the place is now closed… I still have to write my review when I visited there over the 4^th of July weekend.
I was impressed at this little brewery in what felt like an industrial part of Portland… It felt like a cool divy bar… and the bartender chick was very knowledgeable about the brews.
My buddy and I tried a sampler of 8 brews… I enjoyed the Organic Pale, Island Red and Woody IPA. The Burghead Heather Ale was ineresting in that it was a 3000 year old recipe brewed with no hops. The Kolsch (Gruit) was lavendery and a little fruity (not my taste), the Brune“o” Belgian Brown was flavorful and complex, but good. The Jimmy’s Friend High Growing IPA was not as hoppy as I hopd, but okay.
I am glad to have visited this place, but very shocked and saddened that they closed a week after my first and only visit. I hope the best for the staff.

I have to admit, I am becoming more and more wary of what I eat and drink, not to mention the money I spend on such things. Let’s just say I am a strong believer in the local food movement. We can call it food patriotism. Fortunately for me I have a husband to drag along on expeditions. Fortunately for him, for the Roots Nachos have made it to spot #1 on our list!
We visited on a Sunday. It wasn’t too crowded and the daily special was $ 2 off pitchers so of course we had to have one. We got the Island Red, and it was served up wonderfully cold in a beautiful glass pitcher. The beer was great — unfiltered organic deliciousness. And you can peek across the bar to see where all of the action takes place. There is even a little map and detailed explanation of the brewing process in the drink menu — just in case you don’t care to get up from your seat. As far as ambiance goes, it is no-​frills, but in my opinion that doesn’t take anything away from the beer or food. One pitcher of local organic beer and enough delicious nachos to leave us full for only $ 21. What a deal. Plus stars for the vegetarian fare that we will eat in the future — thank you.

I don’t ask a whole lot of most bars, and I like to think that I’m a patron who’s easily satisfied if a few key requirements are met. Roots holds up admirably when faced with the list:
Good beer: check.
Tasty food with vegan options: double check (tempeh is available for the bowls and their dessert special was a vegan cobbler when I was there!)
Unassuming atmosphere: absolutely.
Cute bartenders: Um, yes.
A note on the waitstaff — in addition to being pretty damn good-​looking, they’re incredibly nice! My (very large) group received super attentive service and they even split the bill up by table and were perfectly willing to take multiple payments per table. Always a huge check mark in my book.
I also have a strange affinity for the juxtaposition of the heavily tattooed bartenders and the awesome selection of bumper stickers on the wall (hailing from all over the country and representing, among other things, heavy metal, dive bars, reggae, and car dealerships).
I dig it!

Pretty solid across the board (beer, food, atmosphere, music, service, location, happy hour & specials, etc). Have only had a handful of their seemingly consistently updated tap list, and they have all been good. They brew a number of standards, as well as some relatively unconventional brews.
My favorite thus far was a chocolate habanero stout. I’ve had a few «hot pepper» beers, and frankly they usually suck, often overpowered with heat. Thus, I was quite skeptical before trying. I was honestly very surprised how good it tasted (got to love the backhanded compliment). The balance of sweet from the chocolate and heat from the habanero was ideal. It drank smooth and easy, with an appropriate (not overpowering nor too sweet) amount of chocolate coming first, followed by a little kick that didn’t linger too long.
I usually stick to the never disappointing $ 3 tempeh tacos (they also have meat/​shrimp ones), which are served with some corn tortillas, fresh salsa, and avocado. Better yet, they’re only $ 1.50 on Thursdays, where all Apps are ½ off. Happy hour is pretty solid (M-​Sat), w/​$ 4 nachos, and I think there’s ½ off bottles of wine on Wednesdays (which already only range up to $ 20-​something bucks).
The atmosphere is relaxed, with rotating artwork, a nice wooden bar, plenty of seating, live music, and a beer-​loving low-​key crowd. The service is typically spot-​on, the exception being a persistently moody gal.
Good location, with easy street parking, and close to some other breweries.

«The great thing about Portland is that you get to drink amazing beer in the same building it was made.» That’s the quote I give most of my non-​Portland friends when they question my move from sunny California.
Which is why I had high hopes for Roots, where you literally drink the beer about 2 inches away from the big steel cylinders. The beer was decent enough, the service friendly enough, but the food was a failure. I ordered some soft tacos, but they were very dry and didn’t have any flavor at all. Also, I really didn’t get the island theme the bar is going for – you just can’t get a bamboo curtain and serve food on colorful plates and call it a day.
On a high note though, they had a pretty sweet band playing in the corner.

I love the beer here. Roots Woody IPA is my favorite IPAs. I also enjoy the Festive in the winter and some of their specialty beers. They have recently updated their menu and it includes more vegan items than before, mostly by allowing the substitution of tempeh for meat. I tried the Mayan bowl but it is way too sweet for my taste, next time I will try something else instead. Also if you are vegan, they do brew some of their beers with Honey. I think the Heather falls into this category.
I wish the TV was turned off more as the location and size is overwhelming to the atmosphere. Other than that it is a fun place to hang out.

I haven’t been here in a while, but I will mention a few things:
1. The beer is better than average, but not nearly as good as Deschutes, Bridgeport, Rogue, or Hopworks.
2. The food is pretty much the same thing you’d get on a Southwest Airlines flight.
3. The island theme can be grating.
4. The bartenders are all better than average.
This is probably the most middle-​of-​the road brewpubs in Portland. If I’m in the area, I have no problem with stopping in for a pint, but I am not in love with the place.

I really, truly, want to bump this up to a four star rating. I like this brewery! The beer is great, the staff is wonderful.
Every time I’m there, the staff goes out of their way to make sure I’m happy! The food, hmm, the food has consistency issues. Somedays it’s so stinking good, I can’t believe that bar isn’t jam packed at happy hour. Other days, you order the $ 8 happy hour nachos and you’re greeted with a giant plate of chips, three of those chips have melted cheese, a scant handful of raw onion, a toss of dry chicken and the smallest cup of salsa imaginable. That said, I’ve had those nachos where three people split them and we all raved about them as the best we’d had in the city. Literally fighting over the last chip.
The atmosphere is a little hippy-​dippy for me and the bar is oddly high making you feel like you’re a child in a high chair. The tap handles are the nicest tap handles I’ve ever seen… wow!
So, Roots Brewery, sort out the cooks. Get them all up to the same great standard, keep up the good work with the FOH and beer production and I’ll jump up the stars to 4.5. You get the other half for a different choice of music, but then again, I think 90% of your clientele loves the music! I’m just being selfish on that point.

Awesome live music, carefully crafted drinks and a unpretentious atmosphere. We went to Roots Brewing Company to listen to Big Electric play live. The place was packed and they had the organic beer flowing. The stout was smooth and reminded me of Guinness, but only better. We’ll be back for their weekly specials.

Came here about three years ago and hated all the beers but the heather. Since then it was just never on the map to hit up again… why would I want to go back to place where I hated all the beer. Finally it was time to give Roots a second try. Ordered three beers at the bar; the IPA, the Heather and the Red and then headed outside to one of the picnic tables. The IPA and heather are decent beers, I like the idea that the Heather is an ancient recipe. The Red was terrible, it had a flat aroma and the taste left the mouth feeling extremely dry. I needed something to wash the taste out as quickly as I could. I left almost a full glass sitting on the table when I left. I’m not sure what Roots is doing wrong. Its not that all Organic beer sucks since Hop Works is Organic and they are making some really good and tasty beers. Skip Roots and go to Lucky Lab down the street.

Great little, slightly-​off-​the-​beaten-​path, brewery. Their beers are very tasty (IPA) and unique (heather ale, brewed with heather tips and zero hops, is a must try).
Bartenders are very attentive, unsurly, and unprententious as is the crowd. Not what you would stereotype an «organic» place as being, and that’s a good thing :) I had a hearty argument with a vegan bartender regarding some vegan jerky he shared with me (it was quite good, but had double the saturated fat of beef jerky, which was perplexing)
While you’re here, be sure to hit up Lucky Lab Brewing which is just a couple blocks awaay!

After a long day of networking at the PDX/​SEM conference at the Zoo, I was invited to hob knob (why does that term always make me think of Middle Earth oral sex, my precious?) with some of the brightest and most innovative minds in the Search Engine Marketing industry. As with any group of young, forward thinking professionals, the goal was not to simply rehash the plethora of information presented throughout the day’s seminars, but to get our drink on.
Beer? At Roots? Count me in as those in the know, are well aware that I am never one to turn down the opportunity for a cold pint. Plus, as a self professed hop head beer snob I felt an obligation to be Portland’s beer ambassador to the naïve and uninitiated.
It had been awhile since I had been to Roots, one of the first organic breweries. I quickly caught up with Jim behind the bar and threw back a couple fantastic Woody IPA’s. I’ll admit that I still snicker when moseying up to the bar and asking the cute bartender if I, «Can get a Woody?». Yeah, dick, fart and Uranus jokes just never seem to get old to this boy wonder.
Their menu has definitely improved, and the patrons continue to be solid, as they thankfully lack participants from the Portencious and Hipster crowds. With the recent purchase of the Green Dragon located right up the street and its subsequent drop in quality and appeal, Roots has once again found a place in my brew pub rotation. Plus Tuesday is $ 2.50 pint night. Hard to go wrong with that. Prost!

I really like the beer at this place. I like the beer more than I like the actual bar because I have found that it is often busy and there is not much for seating, and the atmosphere is nothing to write home about.
BUT…about the beer: it’s good stuff. They have a beer made from heather, which is not only pretty cool, but also very good and not floraly like you might think. It’s nice and smooth and a little different (I have talked to quite a few big manly beer drinkers who enjoy it a lot too.) They also had a toasted coconut one awhile back that was also quite tasty… but again not weird, just dark and toasty with a slight, ever so slight, hint of coconut.
To sum it up: brilliant beer.

Excellent beers most of the time. If something sounds suspect, like habanero or jalapeño in the title of the brew, ask for a taste before throwing down money for a pint. I learned that one the hard way. I’ll let it go since I appreciate their willingness to try new things.
Service has always been friendly and quick.
Definitely go around Christmas time and enjoy the unbelievably delicious holiday beers.
Definitely go during the summer and enjoy a Pale Ale or a Woody IPA outside.
Like another reviewer mentioned, the «roots» theme feels forced, coming from a couple of white Northwest guys. Even if it wasn’t forced, I don’t know if a tropical vibe would ever go over well with the beer lovers in gray, rainy Portland. Who can listen to reggae in the dead of winter?
The beer is good enough to make up for any thematic faux pas. Any self-​respecting beer drinker can not overlook it. I expect Roots to only improve with time. Go experience it for yourself.

who built that bar GOLIATH? I feel like im 9 years old again and ordering my dad’s fifth gin gimlet for the night when i belly up to that thing… jesus christ. maybe in holland thats like regulation height or some shit.
they put chili peppers and chocolate in their beer and tried to sell it. what the hell is that?
cool place though.

Portland, I love you & your beer «scene.» That’s my kind of town! Roots serves $ 10 pitchers on Sundays. Of course, you have to deal with the TV screen that shows football while you’re there, but no one seems to pay much attention to that.
Ten dollar pitchers of organic beer, people! Isn’t life grand?

I had made a list of restaurants to check out on my recent visit to Portland and Roots wasn’t on it. But I was driving by and saw the sign and couldn’t resist. Beer freak that I am, a microbrewery with a pub in the middle of an industrial area hits every one of my Buttons.
I had their Red Ale first, which was good but not fabulous and then tried tasters of Calypso, Toasted Coconut Porter, Younger’s Nightmare, and Bughead, all of which were fresh, delicious and wildly creative. I finally settled on a pint of the Calypso, something I initially regarded as a silly trick, with all the Scotch Bonnet and Habanero peppers AND apricots in it, but which proved, after a few sips, that — HORRORS! — I Don’t Know Everything.
I had their Jamaican pork sandwich for lunch and was stunned to find that it was actually almost perfectly cooked and the sauce was real Jamaican-​sytle sweet BBQ sauce and not the ubiquitous Jerk Sauce that everybody falls back on when they attach the word «Jamaican» to a menu item. The bun it was on wasn’t great — too much bread for the sandwich — but was edible.
All in all, a good time was had by me… but I do have to go with Carl S. here: what’s with the faux-​Jamaican vibe? I bow to no man in my love for Bob Marley, Sly and Robbie, Jimmy Cliff, et al, but I don’t get me — a Russian-​Irish kid from North Carolina/​Seattle — confused with those guys. I didn’t detect a Jamaican dialect lilting through the place at any time during my visit. As a friend of mine said about a guy on the Bainbridge ferry one day, «Y’know, I just don’t think a Greek Fisherman’s hat should ever be worn by anyone who’s neither A) Greek, nor B) a fisherman.»

I had a sampling of their Calypso ale at the Oregon Brewer’s Festival and it had a pretty strange taste. So while I’m all about supporting organic beer, I was a little wary about making the trip out to the brewpub if that’s what they thought beer should taste like. My sweetie actually liked the Calypso so we decided to check out the pub today. We got a sampler tray of everything they had on tap (Calypso wasn’t available today) and some were odd (and not in a good way), others quite tasty.
Aside from their standard beers, they have some seasonal and one-​time batches of stuff. Today they had the Gruit Kolsch, a summer seasonal with chamomile and lavender, made without hops. We took home a growler of it, it was damn good. They wouldn’t let us take a growler of Youngers Nightmare, a Russian imperial stout aged for 10 weeks in bourbon barrels. I wish we could, it was amazing stuff.
The menu is quite brief (two salads, a few main dishes, and several appetizers for happy hour revelers) so I wouldn’t recommend going there looking for some amazing food or huge variety. However, they recently added lunch hours with some additional menu items for lunch so perhaps it would be a better place to eat lunch than dinner. And like their beer, most of the ingredients used in their food are organic.
I found the atmosphere to be quite laid back, there was a mix of people there, all happy and easygoing, not snooty at all. They do have a big screen TV but it’s pretty high on the wall and easy to ignore if you’re not interested in watching. The outside tables are small but make for a good conversation spot with a friend.

This is not a place you’re likely to find by accident (unless you ride the #4 bus every day), but it’s worth the trouble.
I was in town for the OBF and we didn’t have a car, so we made the effort of taking the bus out to SE Hawthorne to visit this spot (and Lucky Lab, around the corner), and we’re glad we did.
This brewpub makes bold, unusual, and big beers, and doesn’t have the typical shiny-​brass-​and-​plasma-​screens vibe that alot of brewpubs do… this spot is funky and small and has a reggae/​island theme going on.
The bartender was a bit feisty and mean to dumbasses, but this made for great entertainment, and besides, it turns out he went to the same college I did, so he can’t be all bad.
[And w00t, first to review!]