Best Pub in Portland

This shall be a controversial post seeing that Portland is the brewpub capital of the universe, but this is my humble (or not so humble opinion) after tasting the delights of the city of Portland for the last year and a half.

The best brew pub in Portland is the Laurelwood Pub for these reasons:

1. Every beer they have is exceptional and stands out from the crowd. Their seasonals are especially fantastic (Kelli and I tried the Espresso Stout last night and loved it). Seriously though, try the sampler and tell me there are not three or four beers you would have a hard time deciding between when ordering a pint. You can't.

2. The service is excellent. The employees treat you well and are personable (unlike many bars in town who's servers (I believe) are trained to treat you like crap or are just generally mopey) and they really make an effort to seat you in good time. You can tell that the service matters to Laurelwood. I've never had a bad experience there.

3. Their food is fantastic. Everything we have had their has been great. Last night, we went for 50 cent wing night on account of Kelli's birthday and I was skeptical that their wings would be good, but I think their the best wings I've had in town so far. Have you tried the Spinach Artichoke Dip? Let's not forget their two happy hours every day.

4. The bar is welcoming. There is no pretense here folks. They have beautiful buildings (Sandy and NW) with some baseball on tv and a warm environment.

There are many other great pubs in town. Widmer brews great beer but seem to be slowly going the way of Sam Adams, but they do have a great tour and good seasonals available only at their pub. The New Old Lompoc has a nice small set up with some great stuff (most notably the C-Note and their seasonals). And the Lucky Lab pub wins the prize for variety and originality. Seriously, these guys have something new to try every week!

Most Overrated Pub goes to McMenamins who honestly has the most mediocre beer in the city and greasy, overpriced food. For once, the Willamette Week has gotten it exactly right with this pub chain in their "things we have about the city we love" segment. I can only think of one beer that has ever grabbed my attention which is the Nut Brown that they have about four months out of the year. The Hammerhead is ok, other than that, their red tastes like dish water, their IPA is middle of the road, their stout is bland. They don't really have any beers that make them stand out. The atmosphere they create in their pubs is very creative and I love what they've done with the schools, etc, but I honestly think they do way too much to do anything really well.

This is all obviously just my opinion, what is your favorite pub???