Today after class, I had a serious craving for the a full on hamburger and a beer. Luckily, I live in probably the best city in the world for those two particular things. So the hard part wasn’t finding a place to get them. The hard part is picking one of the many options. I opted to go with the closest one since I was walking home that day. This being Portland State University, I decided on the one that was right in my main class building.
The Karl Miller Center is a brand new building on campus specifically for the business program. It opened a few months ago and it’s great. It’s a huge modern building with lots of glass, cool architecture and natural light. It also has commercial retail spots along the sidewalk that link into the inner part of the building. On of them is Best Baguette, a bahn mi sandwich shop that I’ve come to love and will write about at some point. The other Is Growlers USA, which is what I decided to try.
I was not disappointed. While it’s a typical bar, in Portland that means it also has a full service kitchen. It’s required by law here that all places serving beer and alcohol have to have a full service kitchen, doesn’t matter if you’re a bar, restaurant or strip club. While that sounds great it ends up being kind of hit and miss. Some places can skirt the rules by serving canned chili and microwaved chicken wings. Growlers USA doesn’t do this I’m happy to say.
I ordered the burger. The menu was refreshingly short which is something I’ve come to appreciate. I’d rather have a few things made with care and effort than a long menu. Standard pub food like chicken wings and mac and cheese is all present. But I can usually judge a spot on the quality of it’s burger.
The burger was great, cooked to exactly medium rare like I ordered. Nice and substantial sized and with good french fries on the side. It perfectly complimented the Barrel 10 Pilsner I ordered to go along with it. I’ll definitely be going back to this spot if I get really hungry.
