The U District has everything you’d expect from a neighborhood located too close to a university. Counter service restaurants, morning after frat house energy and furtive groups of youngsters scampering about. But it also boasts, or at least has, two breweries. The diminutive Big Time Brewery and Public House, which is south of the station on University Ave and Ladd and Lass Brewing, which is north and then west on NE 45th St,
Big Time Brewery has more of a Pub vibe, with beer, wine and ‘crafted food’. It has a Chess Night, so either ‘Nerd Alert’ or someone dresses up camp and sings One Night in Bangkok. (“I can feel the devil walking next to me”) – hopefully the latter.
Ladd & Lass is your more traditional tap room with an array of beers, the more than occasional food truck and, apparently, a lass. It has some great beers. Big shout out to their Russian Imperial. If you’re a fan of beers that are so dark and evil that they could form their own government, then this is the beer for you. Rush quick before the authoritarianism kicks in.