Skip to main content
113 West 9th St., Vancouver, Wash., 360-696-5521, mttaborbrewing.com. 4-8 pm Thursday, 4 pm-close Friday.
Mt. Tabor, for years a strange misnomer in the wilds of Vancouver after a move across the river, will finally bring it all back home to Portland by this summer—not quite to Tabor, but to a 15-barrel brewery in Buckman, near Base Camp Brewing, with just-hired brewer Ben Dobler from Widmer. It's also vacating its current downtown Vancouver space and putting in a pizza pub and taproom farther north. So consider Tabor's makeshift downtown Vancouver digs a placeholder for grander ambitions. But in the meantime, it's worth wandering in for a lovely 25 IBU P5 Pale Ale—a beer often boring but here clean and lovely with an almost oatlike sweetness. The seasonals and experiments didn't reward tastings on a recent visit, but the porter was heartily roasty, and the Bridgelifter IPA an old-school pine forest that's nicely balanced at 85 IBU. But it does only seem fair that when Mt. Tabor moves back across the river, owner Eric Surface should rename it Esther Park.
Drink This: Good old, dependable P5 Pale Ale.
Willamette Week