I’d miss the flight, stuck in the Westward whiskey tasting room and lounge in Portland Airport, but I’d be happy to… to toast Oregon and its Gallery of rogues.
Our pals at Travel Oregon put on a Happy Hour for us yesterday as they looked forward to opening up their doors again.
Map it out: Oregon
And British Airways are looking at direct flights from London Heathrow to Portland in 2022.
And, of course, provided us with the tools to join in… a hamper with Westward whiskey and Rogue Hazelnut Beer.
Now Oregon being The Great Outdoors the locals holster up and throw their Pendleton rugs over their shoulders.
Love is a rug
So when in Portland do like the Portlanders and lay your rug out on an open field and picnic with that other household we’re now allowed to meet.
A word or two about Westward Whiskey… they’re only multi-award winners at last year’s San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
Founded in 2004, Christian Krogstad came to whiskey from beet and wine.
And when he rocked up there were only three dozen craft distilleries in the US… now Westward are among more than 2,000.
Let ‘Er Buck
As they say (and remember I’m holstered up here albeit with a rug) ‘Let ‘Er Buck’
So that’s your whiskey chaser, or the American Whiskey Elevated cocktail, the recipe which they sent ahead), let’s talk beer.
Rogue nation
We have Rogue founder Jack Joyce (and I’m detecting an Irish flavour in his name here) he rented his Ashland premises from Mohava Niemu.
Jack had dropped in out of a snowstorm to Mo’s Chowder in 1989.
You old Rogue PtII
By the time he’d left he had rented out her garage and large vacant space to set up Rogue Ales Brew Pub with two stipulations…
To feed the fishermen because they sustain us.
And to put a picture of her naked in a bathtub above their bars as she always wanted to be above a bar.
I’m now off with my Rogue Hazelnut Beer to the tub for a wash and a selfie.
I’ll place my rubber duckies sensitively around me!
LET ‘ER BUCK